Nice Q&A with Timo over on autosport. (Compare to hulkenberg's which stands out as awful.) Timo is saying they will be 2s off the pace! Did he not see the lap chart?? Or is Virgin really REALLY sandbagging? Anyone have segment times?
They are not sandbagging. They are really slow. They will be really slow all season. It's expected for a new team We really don't care as long as Sir Richard is involved. We wish them well.
I think part of the problem is they used that fluid dynamics technology instead of using an actual wind tunnel. Apparenty using the fluid dynamics would help reduce cost by not using the wind tunnel.
hey don't get me wrong, i wish them well also! just wondering how slow they really are in light of Timo's comments. He seems to think there are just 2s off the pace; which would put them maybe at the back of the mid pack. That doesn't seem to agree with the lap charts. if they are really 6+ seconds off the pace (10s by the look of it) that certainly doesn't help Virgin's image ... they should have gone with Brawnda. i won't go so far as to say that pace would be an embarassment (although it would), even for a new team, but geez how can you root for them? Virgin is a mega corp not a super aguri. perhaps part of that is i don't understand the branson idolatry. again though, i really do wish them well. tighter fields, more competition, better racing. i have my fingers crossed that Timo knows something we don't.
Relax. It's too early to tell what their true pace is as the nose fell off the car and they had to abandon testing after very few laps. They will be slow, that is for sure, but they won't be 6 - 10 seconds a lap off the pace.
Just looking at the cars, I think Lotus will mop the track with Virgin. Probably should start taking bets on how many times Branson's cars will get lapped by the front-runners in Bahrain. CFD + windtunnel > windtunnel
CFD is only as good as the assumptions put into the simulations. A wind tunnel is used to make the inputs to the simulations better (e.g. verify the CFD or point to areas where the CFD is fundamentally wrong.) Since these are closely guarded secrets from team to team, it is not surprising at all that Virgin's first crack at it is a little "off".
From the Autosport site: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81473 Mike Gascoyne, Adrian Newey, Bob Bell. Those are some intelligent people who all say you cannot rely on CFD alone, you need wind tunnel testing. I found this part quite interesting: Speaking about the CFD tactic, Gascoyne said: "I think it is an integral part, but it is not a complete part." When asked about his reaction to Newey's comments (see here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81372) , Gascoyne said: "Well, I think he is one of the best aerodynamicists in F1. I used to be an aerodynamicist, and my PhD was in CFD, and I think I would kind of agree with him...."
