Red Bull RB8 Renault

[bhall]

That actual hole in the letterbox doesn't appear to be that big. I recall it is limited to the same area as the nose inlet, or the ducted inlet Schumacher use last year.

I agree the surrounding ramp does seem to be shaped like a dam which would infer that you can have a relatively large disruption at that point without too much penalty.

I see the "letterbox" as more of a funnel of sorts that has to be larger in order to draw in the same amount of air for the inlet as the inlet would draw in alone if it was on the tip of the nose. Might as well do something useful with that regulation-mandated source of drag, no matter how insignificant that drag may be, you know?

(Well, the "letterbox" is either that or the aperture for a hologram projector that causes cars in front to guard the wrong line when under attack. I still really like this idea.)

[RB7ate9]

The general consensus thus far has been that the stepped noses do not inflict much of a drag penalty, because of the way air flows over the top of the nose. This is borne out when you make a comparison between RB7's nose inlet and RB8's "letterbox." The "letterbox" is much, much larger, because the airflow into it is nowhere near as direct or abundant.

(Sorry for the terse rejection of your idea earlier.)

I see. I guess I was trying to use the CFD in my mind earlier and the interaction between these noses and the airflow is almost counter-intuitive to think that the steps do not hamper the aero drastically.

And no worries about your response, I asked for your thoughts and you provided them clearly. True forum decorum.

[alogoc]

how much will FIA new ECU regs.efect Redbull's performance?

[Owen.C93]

how much will FIA new ECU regs.efect Redbull's performance?

Either a lot or not a lot.

[bhall]

If you believe the reports, it won't affect them at all, since no team was said to be employing any "trick" engine map settings when the clarification was made.

[alogoc]

If you believe the reports, it won't affect them at all, since no team was said to be employing any "trick" engine map settings when the clarification was made.

Can you show a link or something of those reports,because listening to videos from BCN they are useing something?

[bhall]

Ask, and ye shall receive.

[/url]The FIA does not suspect that any team was making use of this loophole at the present time, although such an action could not have been ruled out if outfits had found out about it later in the campaign.

[Fredy4]

Look at pretty much any video of the test sessions and its very clear RB were running some sort of blowing. It was not as pronounced as last year, but in the slower speed corners it was 100% running something. Lotus was a little bit, but RB the most.

It was the Mercedes teams who brought this to the FIAs attention so this will not effect them, but I beleive RB will be gutted about it.

All Newey has been crying about in every single interview is the loss of EBD and this was obviosuly his last attempt at a variation of it.

I doubt it will make them all of a sudden slow, they will still be the fastest, but just not by as much.

[Hail22]

Look at pretty much any video of the test sessions and its very clear RB were running some sort of blowing. It was not as pronounced as last year, but in the slower speed corners it was 100% running something. Lotus was a little bit, but RB the most.

It was the Mercedes teams who brought this to the FIAs attention so this will not effect them, but I beleive RB will be gutted about it.

All Newey has been crying about in every single interview is the loss of EBD and this was obviosuly his last attempt at a variation of it.

I doubt it will make them all of a sudden slow, they will still be the fastest, but just not by as much.

Remember the ECU running in all engines are 2012 launch spec, with the software update Red Bull like you said will effect them maybe not as much however i think they will chew through tyres this time due to the loss of rear grip/downforce.

If that is the case this years championship will run right til the end.

[raymondu999]

Will they really? I don't remember there being outstanding problems in terms of wear/graining through the year. Degradation yes; but I don't remember seeing any races where we were talking of excessive graining and wear. Having less downforce would probably help that - with less heat; as well as less lateral loadings through the tyre

[Fredy4]

I'd expect a tyre thats sliding to wear more than one thats not (but with a bit more load).

[raymondu999]

Yes; but my point was - we never saw excessive wear last year - not like we saw in Canada 2010 with the Bridgestones. What we saw was more in line with heat deg.

[CHT]

The "letterbox" is much, much larger, because the airflow into it is nowhere near as direct or abundant.

That actual hole in the letterbox doesn't appear to be that big. I recall it is limited to the same area as the nose inlet, or the ducted inlet Schumacher use last year.

I agree the surrounding ramp does seem to be shaped like a dam which would infer that you can have a relatively large disruption at that point without too much penalty.

F1.com website indicated that the letterbox could serve multiple purpose such as aero, cooling of driver and also cooling of front suspension damper.

[Hail22]

We must all remember that the FIA observe during testing, they investigate between Testing and Australia to sign off on all components, exhausts, aero etc.

Let us remember Sauber at Melbourne, they ran an illegal wing and were subsequently penalised.

So the FIA has no stewards or members of staff reading or diagnosing engine mapping data as the update software is currently being worked to be ready before/at Melbourne.

There is a clear and very noticeable blown effect in corners, so perhaps this sound will die at Melbourne when the update is programmed into every teams database.

[raymondu999]

Or not. To be fair, although it sounds like an off-throttle throttle map, we don't know for sure if it is. I remember that Renault Sport at one point said that even in 2008/2009 they did some partial throttle open stuff to help with reliability.