Red Bull RB8 Renault (pre-launch speculation)

[MIKEY_!]

The tip of the nose must be at or below the center line height of the wheel i believe.
If they could find a way to send the air above the nose to each side then the current RBR nose would be best but otherwise you are right the V-nose rules (especially in Renault form)

[raymondu999]

To each side? Not sure how you mean? What you said there reminded me of the "dumbo wings" from the noses of the 2007/2008 McLarens/Hondas (I think they were Honda)

[MIKEY_!]

Guess dumbo wings would work


I mean having a raised V shape (in top view) on the top of the nose to send air that doesn't go under the nose around the sides to the sidepods (or beam wing for mclaren). Sort of like a splitter but not so aggressive. Hope that helps.

[raymondu999]

Kind of like "outwash vanes" on top of the nose, if I'm hearing you right. No?

[DM0407]

Guess dumbo wings would work


I mean having a raised V shape (in top view) on the top of the nose to send air that doesn't go under the nose around the sides to the sidepods (or beam wing for mclaren). Sort of like a splitter but not so aggressive. Hope that helps.

Dumbo works, but from this angle is looks like he hit a seagull.

[gridwalker]

Weren't they banned in the '09 reg changes?

[raymondu999]

That's what I thought too

[wesley123]

these in deed are banned, and if not then I do not know why teams are not using them.

But what we currently see is a small tab on the nose cone, this sheds a vortex creating a seal between the top and bottom of the nose, this stops air flowing in. Although that was the outcome on a small discussion I believe Ringo and I had back in 2009.

[MIKEY_!]

Yes these are banned, i am talking about shaping the nose itself to gain a similar (but lesser) effect.

[raymondu999]

I think Newey was already trying something similar with the RB6 V-nose, no? The leading edges of the nose bulges were trying to "push" air to the sides.

I think whatever it is, Newey might have ideas already for that.

I suspect with the 2011 championships practically sown up anyways, his main focus is already on the Red Bull ReBate.

[MIKEY_!]

Very likely, might go some way to explaining recent dip in performance.

PS v-nose is the same concept but on the underside so air goes to different places. Thought be bulges were to do with suspension (could be wrong) and they would contain the air above the nose as much as push it to the side.

[donskar]

Can anyone diagram the position of the exhausts as mandated by the 2012 regs? I wonder if they can do anything funky with the exhaust and beam wing.

Regarding rule changes, isn't Newey traditionally the strongest designer on rule changes though? If we didn't change regs forever, I could see maybe his dominance ending some time 2013-2014, but if they change again, I think that's more fuel to push him to the top.

You beat me to it, Ray. Maybe someone with better memory (or more time) can point out how successful Newey cars are in the first year of a significant rules change. If low nose and repositioned exhaust represent significant changes, Newey is likely to come up with another good design.

[bhall]

While it's hard to overstate Newey's talent and his accomplishments in F1, I've been wondering lately if Red Bull's success over the past few seasons was, more than anything, spurred on by having four cars from which to collect data in 2009. I feel safe in assuming that having double the data as every other team is quite an advantage, especially after a wholesale change in the regulations.

[raymondu999]

That's certainly tue. However you have to remember that they staggered the STR upgrade schedule. The STR was always 1 cycle slower. More to the point however, is would ascanelli, up to last year, have been working with newey/Marshall/prodromou? I suspect that would've had a bigger difference

[astracrazy]

but red bull was still pretty competitive in 2009, won quite a few races.

I don't think much data would have been taken from the STR. It was always one step behind red bull (maybe even more). Any data to be collected would surely have been collected from the RB which always had more upgrades and was much faster.