Williams FW29

[Sodder]

[quote="joseff"]Nah, they're definitely the old car. Bad, bad Williams PR dept!

As a side note, Frank Dernie seems to have left Williams.[/quote

Yep. The nose, front wing, sidepods (and their fins), flaps on the engine cover right next to the intake, and chimneys all look like last years.

I'm afraid it is a FW28 in this years paint scheme.

[ginsu]

I'm afraid it is a FW28 in this years paint scheme

.

Since most of their problems last year were with engine reliability, the fact that it hasn't changed the aero that much might be a good thing. After all, Mark Webber was doing really well at Monaco before engine failure.

[peterlittle]

The photos previously shown are the FW28B the FW29 has a virtually new aero package. It is Williams first year at being able to run a full scale car in their wind tunnel plus they have the ability to run both tunnels with 60% models now no it does not require two different size mockups (50% and 60% scale) any more.

Regards

[benjabulle]

Words by Frank Dernie in 1998 Racecar Engineering issue, about race cars and especially how fast a car "looks" :

" You would have to use flow visualisation to see what is going on. I have been doing racing car engineering long enough to know that you can't tell by looking what is going on. Generally speaking, anyone who thinks they know what's happening just by looking, their opinion is not worth listening to. Every little bit on the car affects the downstream flow. Just a small radius on a front brake duct can make a 5 % difference to the rear downforce ! You couldn't tell that by looking "

[ginsu]

I agree wholeheartedly with Frank Dernie, most of what we say is just hearsay and conjecture. But, Frank was an engineer responsible for a car. We are just spectators trying to make conclusions based on shreds of information, we only really have pictures and video to go off of, so we do the best we can.

I'd rather make up some reason for a part to exist than to not even think about it at all. Also, Mechanical Engineering is a very visual science and if you educate yourself about certain design principles you can actually gleem alot of information by looking at pictures.

After all, does Frank Dernie let people take super hi-resolution photographs of each part on his car? I don't think so.

[SkullyCollins]

Looks Pretty good IMO.

Testing debut looked promising as well.

[waynes]

Looks Pretty good IMO.

Testing debut looked promising as well.

at a guess i'd say empty tanks and fresh tyres

[joseff]

I'd say they're genuinely quick-ish. This year they already have a car full of stickers, they don't need to do that kind of thing anymore IMO.