A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
As said above CFD & wind tunnel work was banned so none of what your suggesting was against any rules, not that in the real world it would make a blind bit of difference of course
I don't follow. If Barnard can design his Chaparral 2K at home from the mind, fleshed out on drawing paper, and it can be built from those drawings and become a race winner, why should a modern day racing car designer(s) require terabytes of computer simulation and/or automated optimisation algorithms to get somewhere!?
One worries of modern day engineers being overly reliant on computer-aided design and three-dimensional models, when instead a series of orthogonal drawings on paper should be more than sufficient to flesh out the layout of radiators, pipework and intercoolers neatly within the bodywork, and subsequently prepare the drawings for these individual components.
For instance, Duckworth's Cosworth V6 twin-turbo engine went straight from his drawing board to the pattern shop to have the wooden casting dies made by hand direct from these drawings, without the need for any FEA simulations on the block, without the need for any computerised milling machines to make patterns, et cetera. [Same for the DFV for that matter, except Duckworth probably used a slide rule rather than a calculator to design that one, given the integrated circuit was not yet mainstream in the late 60's!]
I sincerely hope you're being satirical as I think you are....!!
Favourite driver: Lando Norris
Favourite team: McLaren
Turned down the chance to meet Vettel at Silverstone in 2007. He was a test driver at the time and I didn't think it was worth queuing!! 🤦🏻♂️
I sincerely hope you're being satirical as I think you are....!!
Not at all, if Mr. Newey can use his drawing board to loft the section profiles of his RB1# racer, why not the same for Mr. de Beer & Mr. Fry to loft the section profiles of the A1##?
Why the reliance on computers at the design stage? Sure you may want to use CNC to make the mould for the bodywork, but you can always design on paper -- with little RRC scrutiny, and transfer to bezier curves in a computer at a later stage, for optimisations, tweaks and finally milling of the bodywork mould etc.
Not just the bodywork, but the gearbox casing, suspension and all these parts can be designed on paper from first principles and a simple calculator, without the need of a fully fledged programmable computer.
In this manner, it would be straightforward for Alpine Formula One to produce the full design of the 2022 Alpine on paper (with creative dating) during 2020 when it was notionally prohibited, without the prying eyes of a digital RRC trail.
In Duckworth's case, the engine block drawings went straight from the drawing board, to the pattern shop to have the wooden casting dies made by hand like I said. No FEA, no CNC, as below:
V6 twin-turbo drawing process:
V6 twin-turbo pattern making process:
So why would Alpine or any other F1 team need to rely overly on programmable computers to design a car, engine or anything else?
Speaking of engines, they have now fired up the A521 engine. Is it me, or is this a new engine compared to last year? If we compare the fireups from last year, this year's engine sounds more clinical (bearing in mind the terrible quality of the sound from last year audio...)
A521 engine:
RS 20 engine:
Last edited by stan_french on 11 Feb 2021, 20:28, edited 1 time in total.
I just carefully select my sources. I personally do not know those persons though.
This particular rumour was from a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. But it is said that the Alpine will be a surprise.
Okay, thanks Saul Goodman
Abiteboul said to the french Autohebdo late in december that "they concentrated the use of the tokens around the suspensions in order to unlock aerodynamic performance on the rear axle"
I got my info much earlier than this from different sourcd but essentially the same message. What was speculated is the amount of improvement to be seen too.
I heard that the car would have big gains right after Ricciardo announced he was leaving for Mclaren.
I got my info much earlier than this from different sourcd but essentially the same message. What was speculated is the amount of improvement to be seen too.
I heard that the car would have big gains right after Ricciardo announced he was leaving for Mclaren.
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Very much so, it was around that time things started leaking out. It was also mentioned by Kieth Collantine of Race fans that he is placing his bets on the car to really come good in 2021 based on information he has received. It's really that the team has new people, and they are using their tools better. We have to remember that big facilities upgrade program.
After a more careful reading of the rules, the cooling system developpement seems to be mainly token free, only water-to-oil or water-water coolers, AKA 'inline water-oil coolers" are homologated, but who uses them? I never saw them in F1. And regarding the suspensions, only the internals/inboard elements cost two toekns...
