Virgin Racing (aka Manor GP)

[Richard]

He was involved with the CDG wing

For ignorant folk like me...

CDG = Centreline Downwash Generating Wing

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&o ... q=cdg+wing

[Richard]

It seems that USF1 are also designing their car in CFD, but they are going to put the finished car in a tunnel to do some calibration checks before hitting the test track.

See viewtopic.php?p=138063#p138063

Does anyone know if Virgin are going to use one of the 6 aero test sessions before hitting the test track in Feb? ie full scale wind tunnel test, or use the straight line/constant circle.

Wirth does mention testing at Silverstone, so I guess that's one of their 6 aero test days?

We are well ahead, the parts are coming through and the build is on schedule. We will fire the car up on about the 25th of January and will go testing at Silverstone unless it's snowing

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/16122009/ ... unnel.html

[marcush.]

Wirth research website make the statement that straightline testing is not producing repeatable reliable results ,so I guess no straightline testing.
also they make the statement that they have reliable means of on car testing and evaluating during normal test or practise sessions .
also I think I remember them stating they will crosscheck the car with a 100% tunnel test to confirm their CFD numbers.

[Richard]

also I think I remember them stating they will crosscheck the car with a 100% tunnel test to confirm their CFD numbers.

I've had a look on their website. It says....

Real-world validation and performance verification are integral to the aerodynamic development processes at Wirth Research.

Therefore, to supplement our mainstream Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) development, we have created sophisticated full-scale wind-tunnel testing technologies and full-car test systems, to enable customers to validate full-scale aerodynamic test components prior to race application, thereby saving expensive, time-consuming and unrepeatable straight line track testing

http://217.33.58.6/wirthres/aerodynamic-design

Perhaps they are going to do the USF1 route as well?

[marcush.]

I ´d assume they USGP have had the same lookup of the Wirth research website recently...

Contrary to the guys talking up the current trend big recources are everything and go a conventional route thinking ,again and again it was proven that this will in fact not stop a team to follow up blind alleys and coming up with complete shitboxes -as proved by BMW ,Renault,Toyota,Williams,Mclaren,Ferrari,Honda,RedBull,
in fact it seems right every team sat itself into the deep mud in spite of the recources available recently....and right every team did so because of one or more of their tools they could not stop to rly on did deliver them with constant crap results.
My understanding is if those big money teams would not have had those recources would their car have been any worse ? would it be possible to build an even slower
car then the BMW and Mclaren ? Its not the tools that make the car fast or slow it is the guys deciding on wich route to follow the basic and detail decisions that make a car good or bad. So in case of CFD if you rely on some basic errors the endresult will be crap ...maybe not instantly but in the long term -see renault
see BMW.
what you need is guys like Brawn ,Newey and those experienced guys in the second row like Bigois (who went through hell with his ligier designs)to arrive at a quick car it is not like let all those boffins do their work and the end result is a winner.Not at all.

[Belatti]

Has someone some clue of why this Alex guy lasted for only a couple of months?

[WhiteBlue]

Has someone some clue of why this Alex guy lasted for only a couple of months?

He was an ex pilot and apparently inexperienced with racing. He had some experience in new business development (at Virgin Galactic) and business development may be his future role at Virgin.

[marcush.]

maybe they realised they need one more guy to actually do some work on the car at this time in the year and this Virgin guy does not know the difference between a spanner and a set of pliers? ...

seriously ,I think all the teams will soon realise that a headcount of 180 will not
allow for 50 guys pursuing purely administrative tasks.in effect you will need to install processes and structures at the very beginning and hire the right people
with expertise ,dedication and the right state of mind strictly living in this world
then you can get away with a slim administration .
But then I have the feeling ,Wirth and Booth know their trade ,looked into what happened in recent weeks and made decisions.
Not every personal dicision lives up to the expectations and to react quickly is not a sign of weakness but strength of organisation.

[PlatinumZealot]

they might be using software to manage the whole works too.

[marcush.]

sure they do ,and i bet they do not rely on something like SAP... this indeed would
boost the headcount dramtically in the wrong direction...

[zgred]

So it looks like the car will be mainly black after all: Virgin car will be black, says di Grassi

Speaking with Brazil's Globo this week, di Grassi has revealed that the main colour of the Virgin car will be black, with him electing to keep the same helmet design which has been sported since the age of 14.

His helmet from Renault test-driving days.



Reminds me litle bit watermelon :]