Red Bull RB8 Renault

[PlatinumZealot]

Under the shadow of hundred of thousands of dollars spent on exhaust development, fear that they choose the wrong development path going into European leg of the calendar.

[rayden]

Under the shadow of hundred of thousands of dollars spent on exhaust development, fear that they choose the wrong development path going into European leg of the calendar.

But they are already quicker than Mclaren, which the Sauber is copying.

[raymondu999]

But they are already quicker than Mclaren, which the Sauber is copying.

Both McLarens have outqualified both Red Bulls in the first three races. It was only in Bahrain that a Red Bull managed to start ahead of a McLaren, and even then each Red Bull outqualified each McLaren by less than a tenth. I don't think you can definitively say that either of them are quicker. If you had to make a choice it would lean closer to McLaren being quicker, if anything

[Chuckjr]

I hear ya but at the end of the day, it's race pace that counts and it seems Macca are going the wrong way there...just sayin

[raymondu999]

Macca's race pace was fine in China and in Australia, and there's not much to be read out of Malaysia anyways. Bahrain's the only place where I think we can say they had race pace issues.

[bhall]

Having not seen these before, do the new slot gap separators (highlighted on the right) suggest that the front wing is now so flexible that the gaps might close without the additional support?


(Click to enlarge)

[gandharva]

Looks like the new frontwing is designed to improve top speed. It seems all the upper elements of the wing are designed to bend backwards at high speed. This should reduce drag and therefore improve topspeed.

/edit
OK, seems to be the same wing they already used at china.

China:



Mugello:

[SiLo]

I think the point people are trying to make is that a lot of teams are testing the Macca style exhaust exit. A lot of teams doing the same thing generally mean that is the best route to go down (generally).

I think the temperatures in Europe should make it easier for the teams to understand the tyres as they are more stable and large temperature changes are less common.

[Mazdaboy]

[Chuckjr]

What on earth is that contraption on the side of the RB???

[astracrazy]

macca have used it a lot in previous seasons...maybe this season too. It measures airflow and as i understand moves up and down. might be wrong but thats how i understand it.

[horse]

Yeah, it's measuring the flow about the front wheel, so effectively examining the performance of the front wing outer sections.

I've never seen a video of one in action, but given the amount of gubbins that comes with it, it looks like it might be stabilised also, which will make interpreting the results easier.

[Mazdaboy]

Flow vis on the rear wing:

[Mazdaboy]

Day 3:

[marcush.]

to me a possibility is something that might be:
happening -so you don´t investigate -40°C ambient
or 120°C track surface as the blacktop will peel of like a slice of bread...

but I´m not so sure if you can allow yourself to narrow your view to just those iterations you feel personally from experience are worth the effort.

I´d think DaveW could tell you some stories of teams having a clear view of what works and what not and still the answers to their setup issues lay miles away from what they had thought was useful....