2014 Car Launches and Testing Thread

Is the black mast an antenna or a pitot tube to measure airflow?

IMG_5003.jpg

It's literally a mast, so Alonso can hoist his Spanish flag.
 
Red Bull RB10=Red Bull are beaten?

I'm not convinced the name is quite that appropriate just yet. But it's still funny to see Caterham being the only team able to get the Renault engine around the track.
 
Yeah, but at that height away from the bodywork, I'd think the pitot tube is more of an airspeed sensor than an airflow sensor.

Yea, I was wondering why they'd put a pitot tube there. It's possible they are testing air speed/pressure all over the car and this one is the reference. Or maybe they are worried about vortices in that region affecting the wing?
 
the car is littered with flow, pressure and heat sensors
all that sensors signals need to be sent back as well!
wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if it's also an antenna!


i was wondering something else as well: is it forbidden to have a fan on the radiator/intercooler?
--> if you attach a fan to them, you can almost put them horizontal, resulting in huge sidepod-undercat, giving more downforce at the rear...in such a fashion the added weight of some fans is countered by extra downforce, giving a faster car?
 
I don't think cooling fans are allowed. i think they were banned in any form after the 1978 swedish gp. We all know how well that went. :p
 
No we don't, please explain.
The Brabham BT46B had a HUUUGE "cooling" fan that sucked the car onto the ground. It won and "fan cars" then were banned.

There's some backstory about Bernie, then-head of Brabham, being willing to withdraw the fan car voluntarily in exchange for being elected head of FOTA, but the car got banned before such a deal had been reached anyways.
800px-2001_Goodwood_Festival_of_Speed_Brabham_BT46B_Fan_car.jpg
 
Last edited:
Doh.. Beat me to it Dr_Grip!
 
Pitot tube for airflow/speed refference. They also ran a Pitot tube array behind the front tire to see the resulting wake.
1796700_754557317887657_1569089556_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
It's quite apparent that the Renault engine is a bag o' balls. With the engine freeze, I'd say you're pretty effed if the latter part of your team name says 'Renault'. I could see a few new customers for Honda or even Cosworth next year. It's pretty clear that the French have dropped the ball, while having a Merc in the back seems to be like golden elixir so far.

I thought I read that cosworth dropped out of f1
 
no, they're also developping a V6 turbo engine...
 
Problem is... they have a design and CAD pictures have been revealed publicly, but they haven't actually built and run the engine.

As far as I understood, they've got the basic design done, probably shooting to enter endurance racing (WEC, LeMans), who use a very similar engine formula, but stopped short of building a full-fledged F1 engine, because with no customers there's nobody to fund it. If the Renault "engine" is really such an epic fail as the Jerez test suggests, I could see RB throwing their millions at Cosworth in an attempt to actually have an engine next year.
 
As far as I understood, they've got the basic design done, probably shooting to enter endurance racing (WEC, LeMans), who use a very similar engine formula, but stopped short of building a full-fledged F1 engine, because with no customers there's nobody to fund it. If the Renault "engine" is really such an epic fail as the Jerez test suggests, I could see RB throwing their millions at Cosworth in an attempt to actually have an engine next year.

It's not a "very similar" engine formula, it's a free engine formula which just happens to have similar fuel flow restrictions to the F1 regs. If it were "very similar", then you wouldn't be able to have a 3.7 l V6 turbodiesel (Audi), a 2-liter V4 turbo (Porsche) and a 5-liter V8 N/A (which is rumoured to be the Toyota's new engine) in the same class, as well as hypothetical entries with F1-spec engines.
 
Last edited:
It's not a "very similar" engine formula, it's a free engine formula which just happens to have similar fuel flow restrictions to the F1 regs. If it were "very similar", then you wouldn't be able to have a 3.7 l V6 turbodiesel (Audi), a 2-liter V4 turbo (Porsche) and a 5-liter V8 N/A (which is rumoured to be the Toyota's new engine) in the same class, as well as hypothetical entries with F1-spec engines.

Well, considering that LdM started talking about a possible return of Ferrari to LeMans and Renault too said they're thinking about supplying engines for LeMans, I'd say there is a pretty good chance that you could establish a base design from which you can derive both an F1 and a LeMans engine without extra-ordinary problems, which is what I think Cosworth had in mind. Why else would they have designed a V6 turbo? Just for the off chance that someone want's to sign them up for a F1 return? Although admittedly the current Renault engines look like a mighty good argument to switch to Cosworth engines :lol:
 
I'd like to repeat my question from last page. And I am serious about this, not teasing you lot: Can anyone provide a serious source for an in-season engine development ban? I can't find it...
 
Best I can find with a quick search is:

?With a completely new power unit, some sort of development from the first to the second year has to be done,? continued Ferrari?s engine man. ?The amount of modifications you can do will reduce each year, from a fair amount of modifications for the first year and then in the second and third years, the number of modifications will be reduced. By the third and fourth years we will come to a situation which is very similar to what we have right now.? - Luca Marmorini, Ferrari's head of engines

http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/2014-era-f1-engine
 
Top