USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[compo]

[Belatti]

Here the rumours are that Jose Maria Lopez will drive for USF1... if he gets 10 million bucks

[jddh1]

Pretty cool interview with Peter Windsor in the podcast format here for download.

[WhiteBlue]

I agree, this interview got a lot of ground covered. The one thing it missed was probably who is going to pay for the show.

[Jersey Tom]

So goony, how much of that specific, quantitative information about the McLaren manufacturing and test process should you be posting in the public domain?

[compo]

[noname]

their has always been a strange philosophy in composites, we never have enough time to do the job properly but always have enough time to do the job twice

so by saving 10 hrs its cost us 2 weeks

I am not sure if it make you feel better but I saw the same philosophy in all businesses I've been working for - aviation, energy, automotive, petrochemical, civil and few others. they are doing silly savings to be on schedule just to start everything again the next day as rework is needed... they call it development.

I recall working for our biggest oil company. they've designed oil tanks (approx. 30 m diameter), cost of the floor itself was equivalent of few S-class limousines. some genius decided designing should not cost more than some ~1000-1500 $ so they've took smaller one and added material here and there, did some easy hand calcs. and assumed it's done. during filling the first tank with the water base started to crack...

[compo]

[sticky667]

(It looks like McLaren used the 2009 season to actively develop their existing car. It is still astounding that there is such a discrepancy between the reported test schedule at Brawn and McLaren. If McLaren scrapped their molds they may have decided to switch to a different design of the front suspension or the nose concept ext year. Red Bull type of top rails?)

No the problem is that we have a schedule to work too and it cant be broken
so to get the molds in time they cut the cure time by 10 hours
and when they post cured it it sagged and warped

their has always been a strange philosophy in composites, we never have enough time to do the job properly but always have enough time to do the job twice

so by saving 10 hrs its cost us 2 weeks

goony

Isn't this the most critical part of the "safety" of the sport. How are they allowed to cut this phase short? ::emails FIA::....

[compo]

[sticky667]

LOL!!!

[WhiteBlue]

No the problem is that we have a schedule to work too and it cant be broken
so to get the molds in time they cut the cure time by 10 hours
and when they post cured it it sagged and warped

Someone must be nuts to do something like that. I mean we are talking about a chemical crosslinking reaction that is known for ages. People in composites ought to know the critical cure time based on the particular resin and circumstances down to a 10 min tolerance.

This is like a chef cooking for a state dinner using only half the cooking time for steaks and expecting the guests to eat it raw.

[xpensive]

Either that, or we're being "autogyro'd" here!

[WhiteBlue]

Nick Craw confirmed that USF1 have paid their 440.000$ 2010 FIA entry fee. They must be confident that they will be on the grid. The fee is lost if you do not show up.

[xpensive]

Even if 440 kUSD is a lot of money to you and me WB, I doubt if it is very much in the context of setting up an F1 team?