The F1 thread

Heartfeltdawn

I like it. Very nice. 

Paul_C

TimmyO

I like that they are mostly all breaking up the outline of the barn-door on the back by making it look (at a glance) as though it still has a graceful outline :-) 

I really like the Torro Rosso - and I also like the way the McLaren uses the black as almost negative space to leave a nice striking orange skinnier car.

Be interesting to see how they look on track in real time. 

I just really hope that the McLaren is at least a little bit competitive this year... 

Heartfeltdawn

TimmyO said:

I just really hope that the McLaren is at least a little bit competitive this year... 

Been too long since we've heard 'Fernando is faster than you'... 

Paul_C

TimmyO said:

I like that they are mostly all breaking up the outline of the barn-door on the back by making it look (at a glance) as though it still has a graceful outline :-) 

I really like the Torro Rosso - and I also like the way the McLaren uses the black as almost negative space to leave a nice striking orange skinnier car.

Be interesting to see how they look on track in real time. 

I just really hope that the McLaren is at least a little bit competitive this year... 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128240/mercedes-gains-unfortunate-for-honda

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

I like that they are mostly all breaking up the outline of the barn-door on the back by making it look (at a glance) as though it still has a graceful outline :-) 

I really like the Torro Rosso - and I also like the way the McLaren uses the black as almost negative space to leave a nice striking orange skinnier car.

Be interesting to see how they look on track in real time. 

I just really hope that the McLaren is at least a little bit competitive this year... 

So far it's them, Mercedes and Ferrari looking the most interesting, aero-wise, though Red Bull probably haven't shown their hand yet. McLaren obviously gone for the high-rake thing that Prod knows so well from his RB days, so hopefully that will make them competitive even if the engine is still down a little on power. 

It's likely that Merc and Red Bull have both made steps forward as well, leaving McLaren fighting with Ferrari for third, but even that would be a big step forward on the last few years. 

stickyfiddle

More pictures of the Toro Rosso...  

But srsly, I do think it's a great livery, particuarly in light of the RB Cola can.

hotpot

I liked the look of the Renault but the Haas looks even better to me. very cool.

stickyfiddle

McLaren colours looking much better this morning. And a nice lid for 'Nando.

Heartfeltdawn

stickyfiddle said:

McLaren colours looking much better this morning. And a nice lid for 'Nando.

...and it's broken after one lap with major oil system problems. Meet the new season, same as the old season... 

stickyfiddle

Well of course. You can't expect them to actually win anything. They haven't done that in YEARS!

Fretwired

Vettel fastest .... Honda change engine in a McLaren after one lap ... :-)

holnrew

Is red bull cola still on sale, or coming back? I loved that stuff

fretmeister

What is the odd metal work on Alonso's car?

Not seen that before.

Heartfeltdawn

Do you mean the aero sensors? 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5rBfQHXMAMoLtZ.jpg:large
https://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/headlines/2016/2/in-pictures---pre-season-testing-in-barcelona/_jcr_content/featureContent/manual_gallery_1/image32.img.640.medium.jpg/1456435544275.jpg

From last year.

fretmeister

Yes.

What happened to just using the glowing paint stuff?

Octafish

fretmeister said:

Yes.

What happened to just using the glowing paint stuff?

They still use flow-vis. That shows the movement of air over the body. I guess these sensors (which they have been using for some years) measure turbulence around the car and off the wheels.

fretmeister

Bizarre. I've never missed a season, but I've never seen them before.

Heartfeltdawn

They're called aero rakes. Nicked from Autosport:

"What really grabs the attention in testing are the large aero rakes.

These are made up of an array of Kiel probes which will map airflow across the full surface of the rake.

Commonly these are fitted behind the front tyre to measure the tyre's wake, or towards the rear of the sidepod to map the flow passing towards the rear wing/diffuser. Other positions include around the rear wing or behind the diffuser.

As such a large number of probes are used, the transducer end of the sensor is not mounted to the probe, but connected via a thin plastic tube to a pod elsewhere on the car.

For the very large front tyre wake rakes, the resulting pod can be huge, so it will be mounted well away from the probes so as not to upset the airflow near them.

Another method is to run a simpler rake with a single row of probes, then mount the rake to an articulated arm. While testing, the arm will rise up and down mapping the same area as a large rake."

Been looking about and the earliest date I can find of a picture of a large rake is from testing of the McLaren MP4-25 at Jerez in 2010.

http://www.motorsport-total.com/bilder/2010/100211/z1265886063.jpg

stickyfiddle

I realise it's early days but let's be honest - McLaren are buggered. 

No more token restrictions will help, but they're having fundamental problems with the oil system. This isn't some tricky ERS issue, it's simple engineering stuff (for F1-related versions of the word "simple" at least). They only get 4 engines per driver for the year. At this rate they'll start every race from the back of the grid. I get that "it's better to happen in testing than in the race", but when Mercedes and Ferrari are pounding round doing race sims on day 2 it's looking like an impossible mountain to climb. Honda came in a year late after less dev time, but they should be at least to the level that Merc were in 2015 by now, and it doesn't look like they're even close. 

Sad to say, but there's no evidence they're not doing exactly what Williams did in terms of a constant decline with no end in sight. I hope I'm wrong...

At least it looks like Ferrari might've built Vettel a decent car to take it to Lewis this year.