Renault R31

[Carlo's]

Only minor updates for Hungary, then some big ones for following races.

From Sunday, they raced with new FW:

[Carlo's]

Technical director James Allison said there were "a lot" of new updates for the upcoming races.

"We have quite lot of improvements to deliver over the next five races," he said. "These developments are largely as a result of research work that is already complete, leaving us with the task of designing and manufacturing them for use in the races.

"By the time the summer break is complete, most of our factory research resource and around half of our manufacturing capacity will have transferred to next year's car."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93395

[marcush.]

Look at the diffuser in Heidfeld's car:

was that endplate on the winglets of the rear brakedrums used before? I remmber those only without an endplate ..
visible between endplate of rear wing and rr tyre ...

[Carlo's]

http://www.lotusrenaultgp.com/6100-Set- ... -Prix.html

Front Wing:
Maximum downforce for the circuit layout and also designed to help counter understeer; we will run a new specification front wing to assist with this.

[wesley123]

LRGP front wing, I see a small tab on the inside edge of the first plane, but apart from higher AoA I see nothing new

[Carlo's]

Sorry, what is AoA? I guess it is something related to aerodynamics or front wing angle?

[godlameroso]

Angle of Attack, or basically how curved upwards the wing is relative to a horizontal plane.

In any case, Wesley is that picture of this week?

[wesley123]

yep it is from Hungary from the formula 1 website.

[Blackout]

They tested two new floors and the splitter evolved a little bit I think

[jon-mullen]

Infrared shots of Senna's car stationary in the pits. He's revving the engine in the first two:

[ringo]

this car has stagnated somewhat.

Renault need bigger updates as we're not seeing much in the body of the car.
All the changes are happening on the wings alone.

Renault also never stated why their car is not challenging the top teams.
I really have no clue why it is weak.

However since they are sticking with the front exits. I suggest they nozzle the exhuast pipes a bit more and sacrifice the engine power for some exhaust speed.

Another idea is making the leading edge multi element. Similar to ferrari's slits in the floor. They get some more downforce from this as well.
applying this idea:


to the winglets on the r31:

this is a cutaway by the way.

should make some gains.

[marcush.]

compared to last year,Malaysia was the single race where R31 was actually closer to the poletime then R30 in 2010! (by 4 tenths of a second)
in Barcelona they could about hold the distance and usually there is an increase in gap from 0.4 to 1.4 seconds comparing to 2010 -the worst in Valencia and Monaco ...the pattern is clear .Renault was not able to retain R30 strengths and got lost in the jungle of upgrades and FEE..yes you could lay the blame at the door of the tunnel but what should Ferrari say ?

[Lurk]

this car has stagnated somewhat.

They are certainly paying their 12 day off when they were updating their wind tunnel to a 60% model in May. Adding to that the needed to accomodate processes & methods.

BTW can you explain how slits are producing more downforce? Is it by have a better control of airflow along the floor or something like that? I admit I did'nt search if there is already a subject on it...

[mx_tifoso]

Updating a personal wind tunnel is no excuse as there are plenty out there to be rented out in the meantime. This should be scheduled way ahead of time and cause no delays in development.

[Lurk]

Yep but obviously they did'nt

This involved stopping the tunnel for 12 days, stripping the entire working section back to its bare skeleton and then building it back up for the new model. This is a huge budget of work, but I am proud that we have achieved it without impact on the programme other than 12 days of lost development