USF1 -- F1's All-American Challenger

[madtown77]

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[marcush.]

on a 100 second lap the 107% results in 7(!!!!) seconds time difference....so a team
only 3-4 seconds off the pace is not even considered a backmarker ...
If onyone here was able to state he´s performing to 7%of the ultimate capabilities
of his trade day in day out ,I will pull my hat for him..

The missing redbullnose or the aluminium truss will both not be responsible for significant time losses.

Looking at the suppliers they have some serious force there with Jeff ryans shock absorber company ,which has to be couted towards best in business if I´m not completely missing something here .

To me USF1s success is largely a matter of who will engineer the cars and who will drive them. I´m sure with two experienced warriors ,say Heidfeld and Wurz they may
be able to translate a conservative approach into a string of reputable finishes and
start building a respectable outfit.Obviously nobody of the new teams expects to
cut into the top 16 let alone top 10 ,so I don´t really see the need for a overly
cutting edge technology car as reliability and robustness will help a lot more in the rear half of the grid.If you start 20 or 26 does not really make a big difference so maybe we all think in totally wrong terms with the new teams...And Anderson -Windsor save a lot of money to build the car right no and we have no proof yet if this approach will slow tem down significantly,right?

[christopher.mahlon]

I get that you're skeptical about this team, xpensive-- that's been highly evident over the 70-odd pages that this thread has been running. But since this is the only thread about USF1 right now I, at least, would really appreciate it if you would refrain from posting unless you have some substantive analysis of developments coming out of the team. It's frustrating trying to dig through this thread attempting to find real news about the progress of the team when every other post is you popping off about how rubbish they will be and how embarrassing they are.

[Confused_Andy]

Just as a quick note about the name "US F1 Team".

On the F1 website under teams it shows only "US". Could it be that the way the team circumvented The Troll was simply to not use "F1" in their official entry name?

Renault F1 is simply listed as Renault on the f1 site...
Virgin isnt called Virgin Racing, the F1 site is crap

[Fil]

i recently spoke to someone working at one of USF1's suppliers.. needless to say, there are some very very strong doubts about USF1 making it to the grid from them.

Basic feeling they had is of extreme top-down disorganisation, a lack of proper startup & development planning & lack of know-how of what needs to be done in time.

Pretty damning insight from a business that is in partnership with them! i sure hope things have changed dramatically in the 4 weeks since i was told these things.
In my mind, it now makes much more sense why Stefan GP are moving forward with their TF110 plans so eagerly.

[Fil]

ok, now that i've provided an informed response to the USF1 saga, here is my USF1-bashing post!
Seems like the team will be missing 5 races of the season..

USF1 Website 2010 Race Schedule
Proper race schedule

They'll race in Monaco May 20-23rd.. the real race is 13th-16th
They're going to Japan on the 1st-3rd Oct.. the real race is 8th-10th
They'll be the first to race in South Korea on Oct 15-17.. the real race is 22-24th
They'll be in Abu Dhabi on Oct 29-31.. the real races is 12-14th
They've decided to go to Brazil on Nov 12-14th.. the real race is Nov 5-7th.


oh and to be fair I won't be pedantic & mention the incorrect EU flag, or the outdated 1919 Hungarian flag from when the country was still a dual-monarchy with Austria..

[PlatinumZealot]

[xpensive]

There is something in Windsor's "blog", which confuses me, when he declares that the Windshear full-cale, 180 mph,
tunnel has not been used for aerodynamic developments, that they rather rely on CFD, just like Manor.

But he also says that they will make use of said tunnel for in-season developments, when as a "New" team, they can
test "on numerous occations" with the full-scale car. The FIA regulations limits in-season aerodynamic testing to six days with a 60% model or 6 times four hours with a 100% such, and all limited to 50 m/s (112 mph).

Please enlighten me here, are there xceptions for "New" teams to these FIA-regulations?

[WhiteBlue]

Aerodynamic testing regulations apply to straight line testing on airfields and the like.

USF1 refer to aero testing in a 100% rolling road wind tunnel which isn't that much different to aero testing if you neglect the influence of side winds.

[marcush.]

a very good point for not going into the windtunnel early on is the immense cost involved to actually have a scale model + support .
You will have to design it and build it...lots of molds time and effort ,which can go directly into actual car and spares build...
And then ,what do you expect to find as a newbie in going into a windtunnel ..without a database the numbers you get are not relatable to anything apart from better -worse in the context you are testing it...so I´d say cfd does the same without having to physically building it...
To baseline the finished car to the tunnel does make sense to me though as you can really derive some correlations from the tunnel to the straightline testing to the track behaviour....
Interestingly they do not follow the tracks of the established teams at all .

[xpensive]

Excerpts from the FIA regulations for 2010, my highlights, xcuse the chronology;

22) TRACK AND WIND TUNNEL TESTING

iii) eight six one day aerodynamic tests carried out on FIA approved straight line or constant radius sites between 1 January 2010 and the end of the last Event of the Championship. Any of these days may be substituted for four hours of wind-on full scale wind tunnel testing to be carried out in a single twenty four hour period.

h) With the exception of the full scale testing permitted in 22.1(a) above, no wind tunnel testing may be carried out using a scale model which is greater than 60% of full size.

i) No wind tunnel testing may be carried out at a speed exceeding 50 metres/second.

Six days of four hours full-scale wind tunnel testing over one season isn't much, any xceptions for "new" teams?

[marcush.]

I always thought : who could prevent teams from buying results of research from 3rd parties and still comply with the rules? It could be sponsor -Wildwater-could aquire those results and leave them with their new team without charging anything but having that mega sticker on the car or placing Mick Notalent as the new driver ..Theres always a possibility to go around the rules..

[Fil]

..Mick Notalent..

You mean him?

[WhiteBlue]

I always thought : who could prevent teams from buying results of research from 3rd parties and still comply with the rules? It could be sponsor -Wildwater-could aquire those results and leave them with their new team without charging anything but having that mega sticker on the car or placing Mick Notalent as the new driver ..Theres always a possibility to go around the rules..

There is also the chance that someone talks and you find yourself in front of the WMSC for cheating. Have a chat with Briatore how pleasant that is.

Could someone remind me of the model laws and how wind speed correlates to scale. I have a vague recollection that you must keep Reynold's and Euler numbers constant which involves changing fluid viscosity or speed by an exponent.

[xpensive]

If I understand the above regulations right, a team will only have six shots at four hours each to try their full-scale car in a windtunnel over the season, why I suspect that USF1 might reconsider on the 60% model?