19/01/04 Ferrari boss Jean Todt has dropped a tantalising hint that the team's new charger could have a radical front wing. Speaking at a press conference, the Frenchman would not be drawn on what fans could expect when the covers come off the new Ferrari on January 26th...except to say it will have "a front wing that could surprise everyone." After hearing this ....I REALLY can't wait until january 26!!!
I hope it is even more radical than the Williams, even if it means they do not win this year ... but they will be learning new things ready to win again with new found technology when they get it sorted! Pete
Me too.Radical doesn't always look good.A fast car is great but I hope it's not as ugly as the williams.
Speaking of the Williams front end I have finally finished up some CFD (computational fluid dynamics) modeling of the F2003 nose and FW26 nose and found some interesting Items. First of all a little bit of a disclamer before i show the slides. The simulations were run on a 2 dimensional CFD package that runs on a PC. If the outlines dont look perfect dont sweat it since the more detail i use the slower the modeling of the air flow around the nose and wing. Most of the formula 1 teams use CFD to model air flow around the car. The programs that they use can simulate a car in 3 dimensions. This also uses a lot of computing power on the order of 50-75 million simultanious equations per second. Most are done on super computers or Intel Itanium 2 64 bit processors running under unix in 16-32 processor parrallel processing systems. currently CFD can be with in 3% of windtunnel results and teams can try various different designs before commiting them to a wind tunnel model. What i did was create a model simulating the centerline of the race car and then ran the CFD package to look at air flow and pressure being developed over the surfaces of each type of car. each simulation took nearly 30 hours to compute each one and this is only covering airflow for 1/10 of a second. Are you ready for the results? Rob
First lets take a look art air flow speed on both cars this first slide is of the F2003 GA. If you note the dark blue area between the nose and wing element. This is a reduction in air speed thru this section. This is Aerodynamic drag.
Now looking at the FW26 we can see that air flow is actually accelerated between the nose and wing upper element. This is what i figured was happening here. by keeping airspeed up we can get the SAME downforce with less drag.
Now lets look at pressure. This is what makes a plane fly and creates down force on a race car the difference in air speed over 2 surfaces creates different pressure low pressure on the high speed side and high on the low speed side. With the F2003-GA it shows that we have normal air pressure on the top of the wing and nose and lower pressure under the wing and behind it. the larger % difference from Atmospheric pressure is down force.
with the FW26 there is an increase in the air pressure over the wing and nose. The final numbers show that the aero dynanic down force versus drag between the 2 cars is just about the same. The main thing to remember here is that it is the total details in the design. I could have done a model of the entire car centerline and see more meaningful results but by the time the simulations were done the season would be over and done with. Comming up soon a look at McLaren's nose section.
Not a problem Andreas; I am more and more interested in the trends in the sport. I cannot wait till the copy of "Ferrari Formula 1: under the skin of the champinship winning F1-2000" book by Peter Wright hits my mailbox at the end of this week or next week. Mayby the book will be able to shed even more light on CFD and aerodynamic development Rob
Just remembered, that one of Ferrari's top aerodynamic engineers went to Williams. Remember that lady? Maybe Ferrari had a walrus nose in store all along.
I will have to say that the Mclaren nose job has had myself wondering a bit; after modeling it it i would have to say that it is not a down force producing design as much as the Williams and Ferrari designs. In fact i see a lot of drag being produced since it is so close to the front wing. The curve of it will produce some down force but not a whole lot due to the fact that it is narrow. I may also be missing a few things with the design as i have yet to find a truly detailed up close picture of it just yet. But i can see they are running a 3 element wing versus a 2 element. The down force nubers are small and the drag numbers are quite high. my guess is that the narrow nose is to create a little down force while letting more wing surface hang out into the breeze. It also helps channel airflow to the side pods and barge boards. It is by far the hardest nose setup to figure out just yet. Rob
Andreas; You are correct but lets hope that we dont end up with a FUGLY nose like the Williams. Jean Todt announced today that the 04 car will be designated the 655. Rob
655 is an internal Ferrari number,not necessarely the 2004 designation. Only a few times they used the internal number (641 642), but usually some other method. Wait and see on monday (26 january).
Ok, preferences, a gorgeous loser, or a hideous winner? Ill take a winner if it looks like it drives backwards, I dont care!
This is what wass posted on ITV-F1.com about the new Ferrari "Jean Todt has revealed that Ferraris 2004 challenger to be launched on Monday - will be called the 655. The decision brings to an end Ferrari's previous labeling of cars which began in 2000 with the F1-2000. The Ferrari team boss also disclosed that the 655's front nose could surprise everyone. Todt said: With the 655 we hope to continue our formidable run of success."