Williams FW26

[wowf1]

wow your eyes will pop clean out of their sockets at this one. Not sure what to make of the angle of the leading edges of the 'front wing brackets' and what turbulance Williams will get under the car, but it sure looks wild. I'd love to know other's opinions on it.

rob

http://www.suttonimages.com/fotoweb/pos ... 05ja08.jpg

(ps. not sure whether to paste it into the forum, but the correct link's above i hope)[/url]

[Guest]

I am at the launch, I'll upload some shotz soon,

Summary

'Walrus' nose uses a shorter wider nosecone, and uses forward leading plates to mount the wing, the plates are converging. aimed at improving downforce and cooling.

the front wing is similar to 03

twin McLaren-like keels are used and mount forward mounted bargeboards as per the Williams 03.

the rest of the sidepods, flip ups and bodywork follow the 03 design diappointingly closely

similar wheel base and gearbox length despite moving to a 7 speeder.

Neat pinched trailing edfge to the engine cover.

[scarbs]

Oops now logged in as me......

I am at the launch, I'll upload some shotz soon,

Summary

'Walrus' nose uses a shorter wider nosecone, and uses forward leading plates to mount the wing, the plates are converging. aimed at improving downforce and cooling.

the front wing is similar to 03

New FWEP with unusual variation on the wavy lip, forming more of an h shape

twin McLaren-like keels are used and mount forward mounted bargeboards as per the Williams 03.

the rest of the sidepods, flip ups and bodywork follow the 03 design diappointingly closely

similar wheel base and gearbox length despite moving to a 7 speeder.

Neat pinched trailing edfge to the engine cover.

[Lightning McQueen]

Which kind of aerodynamics advantage can get this nose ?
How can allows more freedom for the airflow, minimise drag and increase downforce ?

[Irvingthien]

What a strange nose cone(no offence to Williams fan) but very innovative. Makes the MP4-19 looks normal.the endplates of the rear wing seems wider.

[akbar21881]

yeah it looks weird.but..well...F1 is all about function not asthetic.
hopefully what I can see is a real innovation.

[drspeed]

Aside from the obviously shocking nose cone, it's quite disappointing to see that the rest of the car 'looks' very similar to the FW25. This clearly outlines how much the FW25 evolved over the previous season though. From what I've read so far, it sounds like Williams will need no less than the number of revisions they had on the FW25 last season to get the championship title this year.



Although visibly very different, I think Williams picked up the idea behind Mclaren's MP4/18's nose shape. While Mclaren minimised the frontal surface area of the nose cone by making it narrow, Williams took off the entire portion of the nose above the front wing so that air would move more freely up and below the nose. Since both solutions are aimed to maximise the aero adventages of having twin keeled suspension mounts, they are fundamenally similar stuff.



Maybe it's because I had far more time to analyse the nose cone of the MP4/18 & 19, but in my opinion, Mclaren's solution makes more sense at the moment because the nose here also 'seals' the air that go between the nose and the wing and pillars that connect the nose and the wing. And since the nose is curved upwards in the MP4/19, it probably has a 'mini diffuser' effect. In that sense, the FW26's doesnt make much of it.

So my quick conclusion at the moment is that the nose is designed to reduce aerodynamic resisitance unlike Mclaren attempting to squeeze out some downforce out of it.

[akbar21881]

I think Williams nose is also all about sealing the flow underside the nose.This is because those two protruding wing mount seems to converging towards the back and hence slightly become like a nozzle.Nozzle effect will stablised and make the flow uniform and hence cleaner airflow moving to the underside of the nose and to bottom of the car.

Twin keel looks like after thought though.No nice integration like Mclaren,just two protruding beams.Seems like all these years Williams is playing with geometric shape while others gone sculpted design.

But the rear end is conventional though.Maybe its efficient enuff.

I'm getting excited.F1 car really should looks this complicated.This is the pinacle of technology,and its not a cheap solution.Roll on Melbourne 04,can;t hardly wait.

[Reca]

First thing coming to mind is that between the supports there’s room enough for a further wing element...

BTW, the rear wing endplate and engine cover are bigger because of the new rules.

[joseff]

OMG, it's UGLY!

I'm a die-hard Williams fan but this was a hard pill to swallow... alright, I also thought the high-nosed Tyrell was ugly. Sidepod winglets, ugly. Airbox-mounted mid-wing, ugly. Narrow-track (180cm) F1 cars with grooved tires, ugly. Hell, the only "beautiful" GP racer for me is probably the Ferrari 125 of the 50s Form follows function, I suppose.

Those of you disappointed with the sidepods and rear end, relax... the FW25 almost never raced with its launch aero package. The curved (non-wavy) front wing only stayed for the very beginning, and the Ferrari-style barge boards were never raced at all. I'm pretty sure Dr. Terzi and her boys have something in the oven... probably something even uglier, heheh.

MP4/19, FW26 and let's see if the F2004 is as radical. We'll have a better year than 2003 yet!

Actually, the FW26 looks so ugly it's just beautiful in a geeky sort of way

[Guest]

I am also at the launch.

The nose looks realy strange but it is revolutinary. If it works as they expect soon other teams will be trying it.

It is not only the nose: the floor is different, the front suspension, the side pots, the exhaust is shorter and the rear wing is also different to cope with the new regulation. The engine cover is also innovative but it is one thing already tried last year (it looks like the IRL cars).

Montoya has just commented that the car is very quick and stable, quite different to what he felt with the FW-25 launch.

Let s wait and see.

More to come....

[Mclaren11]

On the home page poll I voted for "Fast things are beautifil" This car is going to be super slow

[Guest]

You wish! The car seems really innovative. Perhaps similar philosophy with MacLaren, but different empeltation, as drspeed mentioned. Since Williams had 18 months to study McLaren's design, it will probaly be more efficient. I have no doudt that FW26 is going to dominate!

[mirdavanfe]

can peoples please stop saying that the front end of the new williams look similar to the macca or has been inspired from it,i mean , how can a rational person possibly see both pics and say it's the same???this is ridiculous,what we have here ladies and gentlemen,is f1 revolution

[SpeedTech]

I agree with mirdavanfe, how can some of you guys say it is similar to the MP4/19. Com on guys look at the pics, there are no similarities at all and I dont think Williams go the idea from the MP4/19.

Hey scarbs can you tell me wether the FW26 has increased in overall length due to the new nose, even though the wheel base has stayed the same, as I have been told. Hope you enjoyed the launch some people have all the luck