Ferrari F2012 (pre-launch speculation)

[beelsebob]

Next year's ferrari is meant to be significantly visually different to this years... U-pods, any other major visual differences it might be?

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formula1 ... rgets.aspx

[astracrazy]

it must have something for them to say Stefano Domenicali said wow when he saw it.

The thing is them saying its more aggressive then last (this) years conservative car could go either way. They have either got a new idea e.g U-Pods or they are being much tighter with there packaging.

[timbo]

Next year's ferrari is meant to be significantly visually different to this years...

Well, it has to -- we're running lower noses next year after all and completely different exhaust solution.
I don't think there would be much "radical" things on the car next year, not a Ferrari tradition. In their best years they capitalized in refining a sound concept and pushing every little detain to the max. I think that's what they try to do again.
We can expect cooling config a la RBR (the engine exhausts should be in that area as well AFAIK), and possibly gearbox a la Williams.

[Richard]

In their best years they capitalized in refining a sound concept and pushing every little detain to the max. I think that's what they try to do again.

That's not a Ferrari trait, its true for all WCC/WDC winning teams (Brawn was an exception). Look at RB, 2 titles in a row with a car that looked just like the previous year's car.

The key is to lay the foundations with a race winning design and then hone it into championship winning design. People rarely jump straight the championship level in any sport (or business).

I agree that Ferrari have been particularly conservative in recent years, compared to the innovation that some say bordered on cheating in the Schumacher years.

On the other end of the scale, McLaren seem to be in a phase of putting lots of effort into developing gimmicks that have only had a 1 year shelf life (old KERS, F duct, fancy exhaust). To contrast with Ferrari, McLaren need to be a bit more conservative and carry over a good idea from this year to next. Williams (gearbox) and Renualt (FEE) are other examples of radical not bringing rewards.

In reality, optimum lies somewhere between McLaren (radical innovation) & Ferrari (incremental improvement).... ie Red Bull!

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

To be fair to both McLaren and Williams, the innovations have either been banned, or aren't verifiable due to other shortcomings.
Had Red Bulls innovations been banned, we may be talking of Red Bull throwing all its eggs in certain baskets.

Ferrari design the last 2 years have been both conservative but also relatively sound as the car isn't uncompetitive. It just lacks that certain Xfactor, and we know that you cant always get the formula right.
If it is a bold step, Ferrari could have a winner or a flop. Thing is, what do Red Bull do? Evolution or Revolution?

The situation at Ferrari is clear and from the rumbles we are hearing it sounds like they are going for the jugular. Wish them luck in chasing Red Bull, same goes to McLaren and Mercedes, because I dont want to see another dead championship like this year.

[Mr.S]

Well it will be heavily built considering aero requirents. Maybe Costa wokring on the mechanical side focussed more on it.


Tombazis says the car is being with aggressive aero which can be a compromise in certain directions but expects it to give great aerodynamic performance.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Perhaps a dauphin nose for the next Ferrari

[beelsebob]

Perhaps a dauphin nose for the next Ferrari

Actually... I can 100% believe that – do we yet know how the low nose rule is phrased? It could be that this would allow Ferrari their high nose, but provide enough of a droop down to get by the rules.

I assume you mean dolphin by the way.

[raymondu999]

I've just thought this through. The wing they tested in Korea was quite a bit like the Red Bull one, and quite a bit like the Sauber's too.

They promised a very aggressive, creative design, but surely if this is a sign of things to come; copying doesn't seem very original/aggressive

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

This new front wing was very basic, the 2012 FW will be very different for sure.

[MIKEY_!]

Guess the dolphin nose is out. I was thinking along the same lines. Seems the FIA were too.

[aleks_ader]

This pic i borrow from post above!



So i concluded that Ferrari aims to drasticaly imrove or redesign the side pods! Maybe they will create some sort mixture of u pods and Red bull tight design? Possibiltys?

[Holm86]

I guess it has more to do with measuring the wake of the front wing/tires than it has to do with sidepods.

[shelly]

It probably has to do with both things: you want to see if the vortices from wheel and wing and the wake are correctly predicted. Then you cross this information with what you see in cfd and what you see in wt (with piv or with a scaled version of the device).
Then you see if you can rely on your project tools to build a new sidepod that is not badly influenced by these vortices, or better, is able to exploit them to get some downforce.
The interesting part of this device is how big it is, compared to similar examples of the past by other teams.

There is a nice article on the web about how toyota cross relates cfd and piv for detecting front wheel vortices - I posted a link to that some time ago, but I do not remember in which thread - I'll try to find it

[Richard]

So i concluded that Ferrari aims to drasticaly imrove or redesign the side pods! Maybe they will create some sort mixture of u pods and Red bull tight design? Possibiltys?

How did you jump to that conclusion? We've seen teams with those arrays before, McLaren first started it back in 2009. Its a product of limited wind tunnel test, and the limitation on private testing.

They are simply gathering real time aero data on a critical part of the car. That helps them calibrate the wind tunnels and CFD models. That helps with better design of the front wing and side pod.