http://images.f1racing.net/large/38615.jpg http://images.f1racing.net/large/38653.jpg
Just saw this and would like to get your thoughts on it. I think it looks good and inventive but so did the FW26 tusk monster. I love F1 for its inovation.
Kevin

2005....I can't wait....This should be an exciting season....roughly 30% LESS downforce, the harder compound tire issue,new qualifying format...we're going to see some new vehicular dynamics ! :lol: :banana:
I found this:
"Sauber, for example, evaluates up to 100 variants of a front wing two-dimensionally before roughly half a dozen of them are analyzed in three-dimensional form. The most promising versions are subsequently built for the 60-percent model and tested in the wind tunnel."
Extracted From:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1947939&type=story

BriDrive

It looks like a good idea as the wing area benefit is obvious; I wonder why other teams haven't done that though? I always though the Williams tusks were of questionable benefit. Looks like it can probably be removed for high speed courses too.

BTW according to AtlasF1, Sauber is using their own gearbox this year rather than Ferrari's (which they used last year). A cost cutting measure perhaps? It's hard to imagine Sauber producing a better gearbox than Ferrari.

It looks to be right in line w/ the upper wishbone in the front suspension too..so maybe the drag penalty incurred by the new upper front wing just replaces the drag penalty of the upper wishbone..maybe not completely..but partially..so that for the additional downforce they dont add to the total drag as much

BTW according to AtlasF1, Sauber is using their own gearbox this year rather than Ferrari's (which they used last year). A cost cutting measure perhaps? It's hard to imagine Sauber producing a better gearbox than Ferrari.
Probably not. I think Sauber is splitting its Ferrari ties slowy. Peter Sauber voted for the testing ban even though the Scuderia told him not to. He also switched to Michelin tires so now Ferrari can not double up on their tire development time. With that, Felipe Massa is no longer welcome to test the red cars. Also, the Sauber no longer looks like a blue ferrari. I would not be surprised if they change engine manufactures in the next year or so.
Sauber looks like they want to go big time and they realise that you can't dealing with last years tech even though it is Ferrari's. They just opened that ulra expensive windtunnel. They are still fast but they think they have to innovate rather then follow to get to the next step.
Kevin

It looks like a good idea as the wing area benefit is obvious...


That's the way constructors used to design aero...before wind tunnel....what is visually "apparent" isn't necessarily true anymore....

F1 constructors have been "allowed" to run multi-element front body work by dimension for quite some time...and this has been tested before and you can be sure if it was "better" it would have been incorporated before. I believe the real difficulty the teams now have is managing the airflow over the front wing which is requisite 50 mm higher. Now the front 'wings' are really in the way so to speak, as more air flow is present diverting beneath it. I suspect there will be alot of new bargeboard design and front keel revision by the big hitters........

It is cool, artkevin, to see how different shops address engineering design challenges through innovation. I suspect Australia and Malaysia at the least, to be REAL crap shoots this year....until everyone has seen,compared,copied,revised and interpreted each other.......... :lol:

I think the coolest thing about Sauber is the fact they produce highly "competative" cars in a country that doen't allow auto racing.
Bidirve, I agree. The teams will be scrambling until they can get back to Europe to make major changes to their cars. I think only Ferrari will overnight major deveoplments on fly aways and they will be using the F2004 until San Marino in April so they should have butt loads of data directly related to the 1st few tracks.

Slightly off topic, but uh, is McLaren working on a new car and if so, when is it due? I realize they had a new rev in the middle of 04. Oh, and I remember someone not being able to drive the "newer" McLaren because they were too big to fit into it. I've seen dates for the top 8 teams, except McLaren.

Mclaren will have a launch to show the new paint scheme but they will not race the MP4-20 until mid season. Wurz (tester) could barely fit in the 19 and from everything I have heard the 20 will be smaller. Kimi, JPM and Pedro are all small guys and Wurz is a little over 6ft. Some are saying he might be let go as a tester becuase he can't fit in the car. Who knows, he might still get a race seat at Jordan.

It looks to be right in line w/ the upper wishbone in the front suspension too..so maybe the drag penalty incurred by the new upper front wing just replaces the drag penalty of the upper wishbone..maybe not completely..but partially..so that for the additional downforce they dont add to the total drag as much

Looking at it, I'll take it a step further: the upper wing may result in a net decrease in drag. The upper and lower wings are spaced such that the drag created will be of more harm than the downforce generated UNLESS the air ends up being effectively diverted above the turbulence generating suspension, which could theoretically reduce the overall drag of the car.

according to some article I read..the Sauber gearbox is supposed to be smaller, lighter, more stiff than the Ferrari box they were using..now whether or not it has the reliability is another factor.

I think Sauber wants to be more than an aerodynamics house..they want to do mechanical design too...

I don't know if they want to do other things but their new supercomputer says they want to do more on aero than ever before. 2.3 Teraflops dedicated to Computational Fluid Dynamics.

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/index.html?http://f1.racing-live.com/en/headlines/news/detail/050113185356.shtml

Does anyone else throw that much pure computing power at the aero problem?