2020 Australian GP pre race thread

So? Aussies are capable of several hobbies at once.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature/9960/tech-focus-how-teams-prepared-in-testing-for-melbourne

Tech focus: How teams prepared in testing for Melbourne
F1 testing's week two was remarkable for the lack of major upgrades, but the FIA and Ferrari provided plenty to talk about...

• By Jake Boxall-Legge, Giorgio Piola, Tim Wright
• Published on Monday March 9th 2020

Anyone expecting a real smorgasbord of upgrades for the second stint of pre-season Formula 1 testing at Barcelona was probably left a little disappointed, as the cars appeared with only minor changes between the two weeks.

There was no repeat of last year, when Mercedes notably turned up with a W10 completely rehashed from two weeks earlier, while other teams brought numerous items as they grappled with the new-for-2019 aero regulations.

Speculation suggested that a couple of teams would perhaps try that approach this time around, but ultimately the second week lacked the overall technical intrigue that last year's tests provided. Perhaps, with a stable ruleset, teams are finding that the law of diminishing returns is beginning to bite.

Although there were a few new parts peppered throughout the field in the final week, there were no innovations that could command the same column inches that Mercedes' dual-axis steering system could - at least, until the FIA released a statement that it had reached a settlement with Ferrari over the legality of its 2019 powertrain...

Let the controversy begin.

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Wright or Wrong?
Tim Wright's view on the Ferrari fallout
Last year several teams questioned how Ferrari had a straightline speed advantage and whether it could be getting around the 110kg/hour fuel-flow limit with its powertrain.

The FIA supplies the same fuel-flow sensor to all teams, and this year there will be two units, so it should be a fairly bulletproof system. Could it be that Ferrari was using some electronic wizardry to fool the recorded signal?

It seems strange that it has taken the FIA three months to investigate; surely it must be obvious from data if the limit has consistently been breached, or that in the wiring loom there wasn't an extra piece of kit. Surely, if everything was legal, the FIA would have declared that. The timing of the announcement is also strange, released just as the teams will be packing up to fly off to Australia.

It would seem that the FIA was softening the blow, but it also leaves more questions unanswered. What is the deal that Ferrari has agreed to that lets it off the hook? Agreeing to help the FIA "to improve the monitoring of all Formula 1 power units, as well as assisting the FIA in other regulatory duties and in its research activities on carbon emissions and sustainable fuels" sounds to me that something was spotted in its investigations but, not wanting to risk losing Ferrari from the F1 championship, the FIA has come up with a deal.

It is curious that Ferrari has not shown the same speed as last year during this year's two tests, and it's telling that Sebastian Vettel has suggested that the car is too draggy! Trackside viewing has shown that the car suffers greatly from understeer, which might suggest that the team has taken off front downforce to help the straightline speed and instead is protecting the rear with more downforce.

I saw the state of the rear tyres during the first test and it does seem that the team is suffering at both ends trying to fix the problems. With the current engines, the turbo spins at very high speeds. Therefore it is a battle for the designers to ensure that bearings and seals perform correctly at very high temperatures.

Oil is fed to the turbo and compressor at high pressure, so it's inevitable that over the course of a race some of it will leak past the seals. Given that teams are restricted on the number of engines they can use, it becomes critical that each component works at an efficient level, so as the compressor feeds air through the intercooler to the engine inlet it is likely that oil will then end up in the intercooler.

Teams have used oil-burning as a way to boost performance, and so being able to control those leaks and vapourise the oil to bring it into the combustion chamber seems to be another method of boosting overall power. Ferrari finds itself embroiled in another scandal and still needs to close the gap to Mercedes.

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Rear wing changes
Generally speaking, the development of a rear wing is a lot more restricted compared to its front-mounted counterpart, although there is some wiggle room for variation.

They come in different shapes and sizes, of course, and both Williams and Ferrari tacked on spoon-shaped wings at different points of the test last week, perhaps looking to assess parts for some of the more high-speed venues on the F1 calendar.

By keeping the full-camber central section, the most effective part of the wing is retained for downforce, but reducing it on the outboard sides inhibits the amount of drag it produces.

Further rear-wing explorations at Barcelona were pursued, particularly in the way the teams mounted them to the car. In recent years teams have used 'swan-neck' mounts, which connect to the upper (pressure) face of the wing's mainplane, rather than the lower (suction) side - boosting the overall downforce output.

Mercedes did try a single-pillar wing mount, perhaps attempting to reduce drag. It had foregone the full swan-neck design and used some of the DRS housing to strengthen the mounting, but the team ultimately reverted to its usual twin-pillar design, presumably unconvinced by the overall strength of the single variation.

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Red Bull retools cooling
As is traditional in Formula 1, designers are forever pushing the limits of cooling. Red Bull, thanks to the boundaries set out by esteemed design chief Adrian Newey, has always been at the forefront of keeping its packaging as tight as possible.

For some races where the temperatures are lower, cooling rarely becomes a problem, but as the season waltzes towards climates far more befitting of summer, it must be considered a lot more. Perhaps looking forward, Red Bull nestled some extra cooling ducts next to the cockpit sides, giving the car a bit more leeway in hotter temperatures.

This is part of the panel next to the halo mounting, which is frequently adjusted depending on the cooling requirements of the circuit. It's interesting to see such an obvious inlet design mounted here, however.

Either Red Bull is simply exploring options for hotter races - giving the team options for scenarios such as occurred at the Austrian GP last year, where the temperatures were unexpectedly high - or the RB16's cooling is a little bit borderline for the demands of the Honda power unit.

Red Bull also had a new set of turning vanes, developing a design similar to Mercedes' combination of vertical and horizontal elements to straighten out the turbulence from the tyre and turn it around the sidepod.

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McLaren steps up to the (end)plate
Having managed to fight its way up to fourth in last season's constructors' championship following a few lean years, McLaren has quietly gone about its business at Barcelona in its efforts to move closer to the top three teams.

The team in orange seems to be particularly sanguine as a result, with team principal Andreas Seidl calling testing "by far the best start since many, many years for McLaren going into a winter test".

It managed a total of 802 laps across the six days with no major incidents, so the team outwardly looks to be in good shape too. Minor tinkering to the front wing heralded a slightly innovative approach to the footplate, raising the edge to presumably help the airflow spill outwards with greater guidance than before, and using the lip at the trailing edge in addition. It's a tiny change, but the front wings are so sensitive in modern F1 that every tweak can create a larger impact further down the car.

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Alfa Romeo's week-two update
After spending 2019 firmly among the midfield, Alfa Romeo has its eyes on climbing up the order hoping to challenge for the pseudo-honour of 'best of the rest'.

For week two, the team brought a flurry of new additions to its C39, aiming to build on an encouraging first week of running. A slightly reworked front wing emerged, building on the team's eventual move to a full five-element wing at the end of last season, and featured a detached second element to strengthen the overall tip vortex built by the wing elements.

The wing still follows the dramatic anhedral arrangement, so it's interesting to see the scope of development Alfa Romeo has had within quite a restricted regulatory box. Also at the front, Alfa returned to using a smattering of winglets mounted to the chassis bulkhead - albeit different to last year's 'eyebrow'-style fins.

Now mounted as two elements either side of the S-duct outlet, these break up into four little horizontal winglets to deflect airflow around and down the flanks of the car. Overall, each one develops a little bit of lift, but the overall aim is to manage airflow, so taking a minor hit on downforce in that area may yield more further down the car.

Alfa explored the effect of heightening its wing mounts, presumably looking to understand whether the airflow could be tidied up immediately before the rear wing. Those pair up with the fins added to the flanks - which appeared last year - to send airflow to the bottom of the sidepods. The team also tried numerous engine-cover arrangements, returning to the mini shark-fin design used last year - to which the T-wing is mounted.

Although the full-size fin will help to reshape airflow as it leaves the trailing edge of the engine cover, Alfa has probably found a way to keep the air sufficiently tidy on its old design before it reaches the rear wing.

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Author says nothing useful - because he’s not an engine guy - about fuel burn, jumps to inane oil burn discussion and concludes with “Ferrari finds itself embroiled in another scandal”. Biased much?

 

Talk to the FIA and Ferrari. This situation yields speculation. Its not about bias.

 

“Ferrari finds itself embroiled in another scandal" is not bias? What other scandals is he referring to?

Not biased? What are the chances of reading "Mercedes embroiled in another scandal" - with news of banning of their rear upright scoops, probable protest of their DAS and all their previous scandals related to illegal tire testing, team orders and driver preferential treatment, oil burning, etc.? I would say from Autosport the chances are nil to zero.

 

Its just the press. All teams have scandal. I simply posted an article.

 

Thanks for posting.

 

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Interesting story for this season Ocon and Ricci. Lets see how long the 'harmony' will prevail Go Ricci!!

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/148597/ocon-ricciardo-relationship-a-lot-better-than-perez


Esteban Ocon says his relationship with Daniel Ricciardo at Renault is a "lot better" than the one he had with Sergio Perez during their turbulent time together at Force India.

The Frenchman came to blows on track with Perez several times during their two seasons together at Force India. For a period, the pair were banned by their team bosses from racing each other.

But while Ocon has no desire to be a pushover on track against Ricciardo, he expects no repeat of the kind of 'unacceptable' incidents that marred his time against Perez.

"What happened in Force India is not something I want to re-do again," said Ocon, when asked by Autosport how he compares his Ricciardo relationship to that of Perez.

"It was not a nice atmosphere. It didn't slow down the team or anything, but the atmosphere between us was not so good.

"On track we came close too many times, that was clear. That was not good.

"It's not something I want to do again. Definitely the atmosphere is a lot better between me and Daniel than it was with Checo.

"So, I think if we can keep working like that, even though it's going to be different on track, it's going to be a lot better, just for everyone, just to have a positive energy and a great working environment.

 

A bit off-topic, but does anybody else switch to something else when they hear/see Will Buxton?

 

Yes the Mute button.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/51801768

BBC overview of the new season. Better than talking about 3 ply bathroom tissues lol

 

I dunno man, I have never had the pleasure of 3 ply.

 

What kind of precautions are the Aussie promoters taking for Covid19?

 

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'Look',they will just throw more meat on the barbie,try to smoke the buggers out. Hey Bruce want some lime with ur Corona mate?

 

All the races quoted above ('cept maybe Homestead; 'don't know when you were there; it was a CART race up 'til '00) were CART sanctioned, not IndyCar.
Hopefully, with The Captain (Rogere) now at the helm, we'll get some real race cars back as opposed to the present spec racers (as in the S5000 vein). Of course...I doubt it...but I can wish, can't I ?

 

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https://www.grandprix.com.au/event/coronavirus-information-australian-grand-prix

A preparedness and response plan has been developed by AGPC in consultation with health agencies and our partners in emergency services. AGPC is implementing a range of measures for the preparation, planning and response to this issue and will continue to closely monitor the situation.

These measures will focus on increased hygiene practices including:

• Placement of additional handwash stations at F1® Central, Beaurepaires Supercars Village, Versor Innovation & Tech Hub and Legends Lane.
• Hand sanitiser across general public areas, corporate facilities and entertainment precincts.
• Increased cleaning and disinfection programs (in addition to standard operations).
• Promotion of key public health and hygiene messages.
• Increased monitoring, assessment and escalation capabilities and protocols for the response to a potential, suspected or confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19).

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure the event is healthy, safe and enjoyable. Please assist us by adopting the following important measures:

• Maintaining a good level of hygiene (handwashing, covering coughs/sneezes).
• Bringing your own hand sanitiser/hand washing products with you to the event and using them regularly.
• Not attending the event if you are unwell.
• Reporting any cases of fever, coughing or other flu-like symptoms immediately to your doctor.
• Visit a first-aid facility if you have any health concerns at the event.
• Visit the DHHS website, which provides important and up-to-date information on coronavirus (COVID-19) at dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus.

We trust that this information provides you with an overview of the measures being implemented by AGPC and our commitment to maintaining a safe and enjoyable event experience for all. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and support of these measures.

 

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/europe/italy

Latest update
Still current at:11 March 2020
Updated:11 March 2020
Latest update:Italian authorities have extended measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) across all of Italy. As a result, we now advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Italy. We recommend you do not travel to Lombardy and other provinces in the north, which include Milan and Venice (see Travel for details). If you decide to stay in Italy, follow the advice of local authorities. Airports are open, but expect travel disruptions. If you’re returning to Australia from Italy, as an Australian citizen or permanent resident, you’ll need to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in Australia from 1800 (AEDT) on 11 March 2020. Check with the embassy or consulate of the country you are travelling to or through for any other entry or transit restrictions.

So if you are an Oz citizen or PR you have to self isolate for 14 days ...however if you are a foreigner arriving from Italy you are good to go just a quick temperature check on arrival!