Williams FW36 Mercedes

[humble sabot]

I was hoping it would be lighter than the dark blue in testing, hopefully it would reveal something. And reveal it has.

I was sure there was a little more going on at the nose than we could see in the dark paint.

[DAMNINice]

To be honest...

This was clearly visible already. Also with the dark blue colour:

click for HR...

http://postimg.org/image/ohmyg77n1/

[thedutchguy]

"We'll be running an updated 20th anniversary Senna logo on the nose of the FW36 this season. Here it is... pic.twitter.com/iqxLN2XMKw"

[humble sabot]

To be honest...

This was clearly visible already. Also with the dark blue colour:

I hadn't noticed it. Or perhaps the degree of twist of the wing support was just not as evident. The contours of the piece on the whole look a lot more sophisticated than they did in the shade. Also interesting to note that the rear cooling bodywork that was singled out on the front page of F1technical.net was not present in the livery release pics, I imagine that has mostly to do with timing? Or can we hypothesize that the new engine cover did not provide results? I guess we'll have to wait for the next on-track session in the new paint to find out. For now it's just interesting that they built such a short engine cover in the first place, cooling paranoia i guess.

[R_Redding]

Also interesting to note that the rear cooling bodywork that was singled out on the front page of F1technical.net was not present in the livery release pics

I would expect that they have crated the new parts , and may even be shipping them anytime now.
I doubt that the car shown is anything more than an original non running mock/test car.

Rob

[foxmulder_ms]

Love the Martini colors...

[Hobbs04]

I wonder if the CFD results are similar to the martini stripes? It kinda flows around the car and onto the rear wing, kinda visual trickery eh?

[theWPTformula]

Any ideas? Cooling maby?
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr68 ... b61dbf.jpg

It's a cooling arrangement that has a very minimal drag penalty as latent heat can pass forwards through the slot from the radiators and then back over the sidepod. As mentioned earlier, McLaren had something similar in 2010 and Toro Rosso took it even further last year (possibly 2012).

I'm unsure if it has a benefit in keeping airflow attached as the air passing out of the slot is quite low energy.

[trinidefender]

Any ideas? Cooling maby?
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr68 ... b61dbf.jpg

It's a cooling arrangement that has a very minimal drag penalty as latent heat can pass forwards through the slot from the radiators and then back over the sidepod. As mentioned earlier, McLaren had something similar in 2010 and Toro Rosso took it even further last year (possibly 2012).

I'm unsure if it has a benefit in keeping airflow attached as the air passing out of the slot is quite low energy.

The radiators are placed further back than the slot so that some air going in the radiator intakes would exit through the slot before it even has a chance to get to the radiator. I can pretty much guarantee you that this takes ram air from the radiator and uses the slot in the same way that a slot gap is used in an aircraft wing. This helps to keep airflow attached over the top of the sidepod and helps to stop turbulent air from being formed.

Edit: re-reading I realised what I said may seem confusing. The ram air of the radiator inlet feeds the slot. The air that is fed through the slot is taken before the radiator therefore it has no cooling value. The slot then functions the same as a slot gap on an aircraft wing as was shown in the picture.

[theWPTformula]

Brilliant, cheers for the insight. So it's also quite efficient as it takes normally built up air through the slots?

[trinidefender]

Brilliant, cheers for the insight. So it's also quite efficient as it takes normally built up air through the slots?

Well the thing about slot gaps is that they are tricky to design, two designs that look similar can behave quite differently. One of the reasons that they are tricky to design is that they are most efficient over a fairly small speed range, smaller than vortex generators anyway. Another problem is that they behave quite differently at angle of attack changes however in F1 the AoA changes very little so shouldn't be to much of a problem.

On the other side of things they can produce less drag in their efficient range than vortex generators if built right. Remember last year the McLaren mp4-28 started with a slot gap at the front of the sidepods then switched to vortex generators.

Williams must have felt that removing some airflow from cooling needs and using it to blow a slot was worth the drag and cooling loss exchange.

*note* it is interesting how much you can learn about F1 aerodynamics from aircraft. Luckily I take a large interest in aircraft aerodynamics as I am a pilot.

[stefan_]

2014 Australian Grand prix - Wednesday, 12.03.2014

[AfroDude41]

Probably a silly question, I wonder what happens to the parts which had the interim livery on it.

[Sevach]

Those are probably 2 new chassis, the pre-season one is gonna get painted.

[Gridlock]

Another silly question; is it usual to have a detachable footplate like all those noses demonstrate? Not a familiar sight to me, noses with no FW attached - I assumed they were generally one piece, to reduce weight.