Technical Regulations for 2009-2015

[MIKEY_!]

N12ck has a point guys...

PS are wings that slope downward as they get further from the car centre line permitted. They would improve stability but i don't see them anymore. Cars had them in about 1995 if that helps.

[raymondu999]

Hey guys. Can someone clarify for me; I know that exhausts are moved to periscope configurations for 2012; when does low nose come in? When does the narrower front wing come in?

[beelsebob]

Yeh, I'm not 100% clear on that either – The narrower front wing sounds almost pointless now... Most teams will have way too much front downforce anyway given the loss of rear DF from exhaust blowing.

[raymondu999]

I thought the front wing change was just shortening the center aero-neutral plane; with the front planes and flaps still the same sizes anyway? I thought it was more to stop the wings chopping tyres

[MIKEY_!]

With the low nose would it be possible to use a mclaren style snow plough but extend it to be further forward than the rest of the nose. This allows the nose to remain as high as possible which will be especially important next year.

Opinions please...

[enry86]

I tried to search in the forum and around the internet but I couldn't find the motivation behind the ban of high nosecone for 2012.
Is a way to limit the flow of air feeding the diffuser, or it's banned for safety reasons, like driver vision?

Anyway I think that rules are becoming way too strict, limiting innovation and restricting the areas where the teams are free to develop new solutions.
I fear that too many restrictions will make more difficult for a team to come up with some ideas that can give them a clear advantage, not at an affordable cost at least.
A more open approach to rules definition could give the possibility to teams to differentiate themselves from the others, choosing different development directions that can give results in less time (and less money). The current approach leads to the exasperation of research in the few areas still free to develop, so every little improvement to the car performances will cost more and more.
But I understand that the direction taken by who rules the sport is not what I would like to see, the fact is that we are witnessing the transformation of the sport from a sort of competitive technical research environment to a mere show.
The problem is that the sport needs spectators to retrieve the funds to go on, and often spectators are people who are interested in just shunts and overtakes, and don't give importance to the technical side of the sport.
To grant a broadly acceptable show, the more similar the cars are in terms of performance, the better, but this defeats the very concept of competition.
So I agree totally with wesley123, but I fear that F1 will never be as open as we hope, maybe in the future someone will find money and strength to organize a new series, racing on real tracks with real cars with a light framework of rules granting a real competition.
Ok, sorry for the long rant, but this situation turns me sad

[William]

I tried to search in the forum and around the internet but I couldn't find the motivation behind the ban of high nosecone for 2012.
Is a way to limit the flow of air feeding the diffuser, or it's banned for safety reasons, like driver vision?

If I'm not mistaken it's to prevent cars from going airborne in case of contact like the accident Mark Webber had with that Team lotus in valencia(not too sure which gp it was)

[enry86]

If I'm not mistaken it's to prevent cars from going airborne in case of contact like the accident Mark Webber had with that Team lotus in valencia(not too sure which gp it was)

In fact it was Valencia 2010, and being this the motivation I consider the ban a reasonable choice, safety always comes first.

[WhiteBlue]

There is also a view that high noses are unsafe in a T-boning type of accident and that the cars will need to slash some aero resistance in the near future.

The FiA intended to introduce low drag ground effect chassis in 2013 but the teams have vetoed that and promised to reduce drag by other means with more conventional configurations.

[raymondu999]

I still think they should've gone the way of ground effect.

[Just_a_fan]

I'd have liked to see g/f again too. But I can see why the teams didn't go that way. Of the current teams, only Ferrari, McLaren and Williams have nay experience of the old style g/f systems. (Lotus and Renault are not the same teams as in 1982).

I can see why there was such a reticence to go down that route. Lot's time and effor to learn/relearn the old stuff.

[MIKEY_!]

What if they were to lower the step plane back to the old level (pre-1996 i think)to get better efficiency. That wouldn't require much extra experience.

[Pingguest]

I'd have liked to see g/f again too. But I can see why the teams didn't go that way. Of the current teams, only Ferrari, McLaren and Williams have nay experience of the old style g/f systems. (Lotus and Renault are not the same teams as in 1982).

I can see why there was such a reticence to go down that route. Lot's time and effor to learn/relearn the old stuff.

It's very unlikely that teams stated above have actually preserved their knowledge with ground effect underbodies, as those were outlawed nearly thirty years ago.

From my point of view, the regulations should stipulate an absolute amount of downforce - somewhere between 500 and 1,000 kg. Apart from active aerodynamics, teams should be allowed to create that amount in any way they think fit, e.g. by flexible and driver adjustable bodywork and ground effects.

[MIKEY_!]

They would do that easily with a bit of ground effect or a fan. BTW can those work together, like say the fan sucks air though the venturi thus increasing its efficiency?

[MIKEY_!]

I am wondering if there are allowed to be air intakes in the nose (tip preferably). I know you can have driver cooling intakes but would it be legal to enlarge and send air elsewhere as well? (They did it with the F-duct)

Also can you have holes in the RW endplates below the wing. I was thinking this could be a good way to blow the RW and vent air from the top at the same time.