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can someone explain to my -or try to explain - why teams with the same enormous budgets, windtunnels, top-engineers and simulation devices still end up with either : a square sidepod, or a curved one.

if so many people and recources are put into one part of a machine, why don't they all come up with exactly the same result?

Its like anything else - there is more than one way to do something successfully. Some teams have more competence in certain areas.. Williams seems to have the best motor, Ferrari seems to have the best reliability, McLaren/Renault may have the better chassis..

Different design philosophies dictate direction.. I think the new Williams FW26's sidepod design isn't much different from last year because they were plenty fast last year, it was just some setup issues that need attending to. Since teething was difficult for the FW25 its no surprise the FW26 is just a reiteration of that. Likewise, McLaren and Williams have taken totally different approaches to the front-end downforce dilemna.. however, Ferrari insists on stiff-single keep front suspension, thus their nosecone has to be different. I think its pretty easy to see why there are so many variances..

mega-bucks, mega-windtunnels, mega-etc... assuming that the processes in achieving aerodynamic optimisation the same, there should not be any convergence in design because, in my view, the car designers (Newey, Brawn, Fisher et al) have the unquantifiable- creativity, innovation.... and genius.

damn I wish I were an F1 designer/aerodynamicist

Anonymous wrote:damn I wish I were an F1 designer/aerodynamicist

I wrote to RenaultF1 and they pretty much said u need a grip of experience, esp in lower formulas (F3000 or F2 GP, whatever the new name is called, for example). And they were only allowing interns from Oxfordshire. Dunno what the hell that is, w/ me being in the States, but I'm pretty sure that's the Oxford everybody knows... right? They also said I would need to take some automotive-specifc classes and maybe a motorsports apprenticeship as well, which are almost unheard of in the University of California group.

The McLaren website said almost all, or their upper division engineers, came from Cambridge.

The best bet is to attend classes at a motorsport or automotive specific school, which I found that there are many in the UK. And probably be good at a design system, like Unigraphics (which I tried and sucked at).

These are all guesses since I don't know what school is like in Europe.

i wonder if its easier to become a top F1 driver, or a top F1 designer . . . .

For one of them you need plenty of cash,and the other,plenty of braincells...take yer pick!

That counts me out