Do F1 engineers or FIA officials surf forums to get ideas?

[g-force_addict]

Do F1 engineers or FIA officials surf Internet forums (hopefully f1technical.net) to get new ideas?

[bhall]

One of our esteemed former members thought of a novel way to reduce drag associated with the upwash of the central section on pre-2009 front wings. His idea was to put vents in the nose cone so that the upwash could pass through the nose rather than around its sides.

Ferrari subsequently ran a vented nose cone on the F2008. Did they get it here? Beats me, but I like to think they did.

[raymondu999]

We at least know they do surf forums. Remember Goony and the dead zone?

[Kiril Varbanov]

They do, shall we start with wild ideas? I'm recently revolving around boundary layer disturbance via piezo-crystals or even shape-morphing, already used in aerospace.

[bhall]

We at least know they do surf forums. Remember Goony and the dead zone?

Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that fool. What an idiot.

It wasn't so much that he gave away the F-duct (sorta) and made it well known that he worked for McLaren, it's that he put up pictures of himself along the way, like he was begging to get canned.

[machin]

I like to take credit (or should that be "the blame?") for increased overtaking in F1; 6 months before the DRS Zone was first proposed;

Here's a simple fix to make F1 more interesting, without changing
the current cars at all (ok, maybe a little bit of extra code in the
standard ECU):-
VIRTUAL SLIPSTREAMING
Basically, when a car gets within 1 second of the car infront the rev
limit is raised by, say, 1000rpm... giving the chase car extra power
until he is alongside the other car at which point the rev limit is
brought back to normal.... the result is exciting racing that still
promotes good design (if you can pull out more of a gap than 1
second then you "break" the virtual slipstream and can pull
away....
With the new engine rules that we anticipate the virtual
slipstreaming effect could be through an increase in turbo boost
(assuming the small capcity, turbocharged engines is what we
get)....
OK, its a bit "false", but with winged-cars there is no escape from
the fact that a following car simply is at a disadvantage compared
to the leading car. If we want better/closer racing we need to re-
dress the balance... and this is a simple way of doing it....

Of course, they went the expensive route and used active aero to give the boost, whereas my idea would've required just some simple extra code in the ECU..... but the idea was basically the same....

Link;

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8134&start=60

[raymondu999]

We at least know they do surf forums. Remember Goony and the dead zone?

Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that fool. What an idiot.

It wasn't so much that he gave away the F-duct (sorta) and made it well known that he worked for McLaren, it's that he put up pictures of himself along the way, like he was begging to get canned.

He wasn't a McLaren employee, as I remember it. He worked for a supplier.

[astracrazy]

no i think he was an employee he took pictures in and around mclaren and a picture of himself in uniform

i think there have been a lot of things which people have said here and similar things turn up. Why wouldn't they look for inspiration on forums like this, then they have the tools/understanding to make it work in real life which is why sometimes there slightly different

[dren]

Here's my idea: make the car quicker. I'm going to take credit if that ever happens.

[raymondu999]

no i think he was an employee he took pictures in and around mclaren and a picture of himself in uniform

i think there have been a lot of things which people have said here and similar things turn up. Why wouldn't they look for inspiration on forums like this, then they have the tools/understanding to make it work in real life which is why sometimes there slightly different

I remember he suddenly said he just lost his job, then said "oh and btw I was just trolling when I said dead zone" - in a very lame cover up attempt.

Here's my idea: make the car quicker. I'm going to take credit if that ever happens.

We'll know who Mercedes took their inspiration from now.

[Tim.Wright]

You mean for technical ideas?

They might browse around, but there's no way in hell anyone would actively go through these forums just to find a good idea. The amount of crap you have to sift through to find something decent means that the time would be better spent elsewhere.

Not flaming this forum in particular, but any forum would have, I guess, in the region of 0-3% of really valuable content. Forums like Autosport et al I would put at less than 1% when you consider the how busy it is.

I would be more likely to come up with a good idea talking to colleagues or old uni mates at the pub. Engineers on the teams or their suppliers would have their own network of geeks made up of colleagues, contacts and uni friends they could bounce ideas off in real time.

Marketing research would be another story. I think forums would be quite useful for that.

Tim

[dren]

Here's my idea: make the car quicker. I'm going to take credit if that ever happens.

We'll know who Mercedes took their inspiration from now.

Inspiration is one thing, doing it is another.

[raymondu999]

I agree with Tim. They'll look around. If a good idea is there they'll take it. But they won't to LOOKING here.

[krisfx]

Guys at red bull had no idea it existed (Aero guys)

[astracrazy]

Here's my idea: make the car quicker. I'm going to take credit if that ever happens.

We'll know who Mercedes took their inspiration from now.

i think HRT are gonna be on your back now mate