Renault R31

[TURU]

After almost two decades since Senna's tragic crash, Petrov's incident shown that steering can suffer fatal damage from quite mild shocks of the chassis. Senna's chassis was broken/ripped from the impact in concrete wall, Petrov's just severely stressed and it resulted in steering fatigue.

I would not call that a fatigue failure... the damn thing snapped as a result of the vertical impact...if not -my dear.. we are really close to disaster ...

It did.

Evaluating the performance of Vitaly Petrov, Eric described the main reason for the vanishing Russians unsatisfactory shoulder: "On the replay it clearly shows how high the car jumped, because when it lands it had received such serious injuries. Technique of Formula 1 is not designed for such loads, steering column broke down. "

[Hangaku]

Reference: Quite amazing to see how quick the Renault was out of the corners in Malaysia - Heidfeld was easily destroying a potentially much faster car behind him (Webber).

Question: Why does the Renault have such good traction out of the corners?

[Lindz]

Also remember that the Renault had KERS and Webber's RBR didn't...

[Donuts]

Also remember that the Renault had KERS and Webber's RBR didn't...

You are absolutely right, but look at Hamilton vs. Heidfelt on(entry) the start/finish straight. Heidfeld disappeared every time and there was nothing wrong with Hamilton's KERS or DRS.

[marekk]

Reference: Quite amazing to see how quick the Renault was out of the corners in Malaysia - Heidfeld was easily destroying a potentially much faster car behind him (Webber).

Question: Why does the Renault have such good traction out of the corners?

We discussed this in more detail on FFE thread - my thinking is you get more downforce from FFE at slower speeds, and it's obviously really big gain. Jenson Button was quite amazed by this, and he was in best position to judge it from behind Nick.

This car has quite efficient DRS and KERS, so max speed is not bad at all, should be very competitive on tracks with not to many quick corners.

[Donuts]

Reference: Quite amazing to see how quick the Renault was out of the corners in Malaysia - Heidfeld was easily destroying a potentially much faster car behind him (Webber).

Question: Why does the Renault have such good traction out of the corners?

We discussed this in more detail on FFE thread - my thinking is you get more downforce from FFE at slower speeds, and it's obviously really big gain. Jenson Button was quite amazed by this, and he was in best position to judge it from behind Nick.

This car has quite efficient DRS and KERS, so max speed is not bad at all, should be very competitive on tracks with not to many quick corners.

I agree, but there has also been evidence before of the RS27's strenght in slow speed corners(start/stopp characteristics). Maybe somebody with more knowledge about engines can explain this? How do you achieve this advantage when you have 3Ohp(rumour) less than your competitors?

[Dragonfly]

Discard the rumours
Complaining about weak engines has become a kind of fashion since the engine "freeze".

[Blackout]

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... medium.jpg

These must be new Gbox radiator air canals. The previous ones were more 'S' chaped AFAIR...

[marekk]

Reference: Quite amazing to see how quick the Renault was out of the corners in Malaysia - Heidfeld was easily destroying a potentially much faster car behind him (Webber).

Question: Why does the Renault have such good traction out of the corners?

We discussed this in more detail on FFE thread - my thinking is you get more downforce from FFE at slower speeds, and it's obviously really big gain. Jenson Button was quite amazed by this, and he was in best position to judge it from behind Nick.

This car has quite efficient DRS and KERS, so max speed is not bad at all, should be very competitive on tracks with not to many quick corners.

I agree, but there has also been evidence before of the RS27's strenght in slow speed corners(start/stopp characteristics). Maybe somebody with more knowledge about engines can explain this? How do you achieve this advantage when you have 3Ohp(rumour) less than your competitors?

At slow speeds cars are grip limited, you can't use all of your power anyway.
Renault for years has good mechanical grip, now it seems is even better with added downforce of FFE.

[Blackout]

Another update: the rear wheel winglets have vertical fins now, like other cars.

[Boost]

At slow speeds cars are grip limited, you can't use all of your power anyway.
Renault for years has good mechanical grip, now it seems is even better with added downforce of FFE.

In the past this was achieved to an extent by the heavily rearward weight bias (especially when the tyres were bespoke to each team) that Renault used to run. As the CofG is now fixed the excellent low speed grip must be achieved either through clever suspension design to increase the mechanical grip or the diffuser working very well.

[aral]

What seems to have been overlooked, on this thread, is the fact that Heidfeld used a different rear wing to that used by Petrov.
Looking at a head -on shot of Heidfelds car, you can see through the wing, making it appear as if the drs was partially open. Whereas Petrov had a "fully blanked off" wing.
The airflow on Heidfelds wing, should be able to be more finely controlled, as there is a certain amount of "bleed" to the underside of the top adjustible section.

[TURU]

Wrong. They both used the same RW.

[H.Lyoud]

Question: Why does the Renault have such good traction out of the corners?

Front Exit Exhaust is the answer

[aral]

[quote="TURU"]Wrong. They both used the same RW.

Thanks. It looked from the TV shots that Petrov had a "solid" wing, and Lotus Renault also stated that Petrov was using an old wing. Was the first picture taken in practice or in the race itself?