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That would go into the team thread.stan_french wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 13:46Honestly while this is a fairly vanilla interpretation of the rules, where do you guys see Alpine this season? I feel it doesnt look that uncompetitive, but what do you guys see?
Anything from the way the car handles that indicates something?
I don't think it's vanilla. It's the same philoshophy as the RedBull side pods just maybe an inch or two smaller undercut.stan_french wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 13:46Honestly while this is a fairly vanilla interpretation of the rules, where do you guys see Alpine this season? I feel it doesnt look that uncompetitive, but what do you guys see?
Anything from the way the car handles that indicates something?
AR3-GP wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 21:01Apparently some of these cooling outlets have been blocked from underneath, rather than from above:
https://i.postimg.cc/WbbhrzkN/Image-21.jpg
Interesting. So it's not obvious how much cooling they are actually running.
It's a bit strange, why bother to make the cooling louvers blank, with the louver shape in them. IF you are laying up new carbon, why not just make it flat? Or better yet why not just tape over?
I wonder if there is some deception in play.
If you look at the Alpine, it has far too many cooling outlets.
1) Leading edge slot on sidepod
2) 5-6 louvers on top of sidepod
3) 5-6 louvers on engine cover barrel
4) Narrow section of cooling louvers under the sharkfin
5) Barrel outlet to the left and right of the exhaust.
It seems like Alpine have just designed the engine cover so they could pick where the best place is to exhaust the cooling air. On it's own, there are far too many openings when you compare to Mercedes and RB for example.
Another thing to note, with this mess of blanked louvers on the b-side, these bumps had some losses to the internal flow of the cooling exhaust. I imagine once they determine where to exit the cooling air, the panels will become smooth from the inside as well which will reduce the losses internally.
I think this has an interesting connection with the movement of the radiator for Bahrain as blackout has pointed out previously. If they have no intention to use the louvers on top of the sidepod, then they can remove this part of the sidepod completely for a tighter package. They have cooling exits at the back of the car which have been tested.
Why? It's simple imo. You want to test which exit location is better.diffuser wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 21:25AR3-GP wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 21:01Apparently some of these cooling outlets have been blocked from underneath, rather than from above:
https://i.postimg.cc/WbbhrzkN/Image-21.jpg
Interesting. So it's not obvious how much cooling they are actually running.
It's a bit strange, why bother to make the cooling louvers blank, with the louver shape in them. IF you are laying up new carbon, why not just make it flat? Or better yet why not just tape over?
I wonder if there is some deception in play.
If you look at the Alpine, it has far too many cooling outlets.
1) Leading edge slot on sidepod
2) 5-6 louvers on top of sidepod
3) 5-6 louvers on engine cover barrel
4) Narrow section of cooling louvers under the sharkfin
5) Barrel outlet to the left and right of the exhaust.
It seems like Alpine have just designed the engine cover so they could pick where the best place is to exhaust the cooling air. On it's own, there are far too many openings when you compare to Mercedes and RB for example.
Another thing to note, with this mess of blanked louvers on the b-side, these bumps had some losses to the internal flow of the cooling exhaust. I imagine once they determine where to exit the cooling air, the panels will become smooth from the inside as well which will reduce the losses internally.
I think this has an interesting connection with the movement of the radiator for Bahrain as blackout has pointed out previously. If they have no intention to use the louvers on top of the sidepod, then they can remove this part of the sidepod completely for a tighter package. They have cooling exits at the back of the car which have been tested.
So those are the louvers above the sidepods, directly to the left and right of the driver. The louvers that are further back, below and slightly ahead of the Castrol Logo (the ones taped up at the Spain test). So they ran the front ones in Spain and the rear ones in Bahrain. Why I have no clue.
To me, looks like Alpine, for some reason, wants us (and the rest of teams) to think that there are louvers.AR3-GP wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 21:01Apparently some of these cooling outlets have been blocked from underneath, rather than from above:
https://i.postimg.cc/WbbhrzkN/Image-21.jpg
Interesting. So it's not obvious how much cooling they are actually running.
It's a bit strange, why bother to make the cooling louvers blank, with the louver shape in them. IF you are laying up new carbon, why not just make it flat? Or better yet why not just tape over?
I wonder if there is some deception in play.
If you look at the Alpine, it has far too many cooling outlets.
1) Leading edge slot on sidepod
2) 5-6 louvers on top of sidepod
3) 5-6 louvers on engine cover barrel
4) Narrow section of cooling louvers under the sharkfin
5) Barrel outlet to the left and right of the exhaust.
It seems like Alpine have just designed the engine cover so they could pick where the best place is to exhaust the cooling air. On it's own, there are far too many openings when you compare to Mercedes and RB for example.
Another thing to note, with this mess of blanked louvers on the b-side, these bumps had some losses to the internal flow of the cooling exhaust. I imagine once they determine where to exit the cooling air, the panels will become smooth from the inside as well which will reduce the losses internally.
I think this has an interesting connection with the movement of the radiator for Bahrain as blackout has pointed out previously. If they have no intention to use the louvers on top of the sidepod, then they can remove this part of the sidepod completely for a tighter package. They have cooling exits at the back of the car which have been tested.
Good point. It may just be as simple as that. Budget cap.BassVirolla wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 22:18To me, looks like Alpine, for some reason, wants us (and the rest of teams) to think that there are louvers.AR3-GP wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 21:01Apparently some of these cooling outlets have been blocked from underneath, rather than from above:
https://i.postimg.cc/WbbhrzkN/Image-21.jpg
Interesting. So it's not obvious how much cooling they are actually running.
It's a bit strange, why bother to make the cooling louvers blank, with the louver shape in them. IF you are laying up new carbon, why not just make it flat? Or better yet why not just tape over?
I wonder if there is some deception in play.
If you look at the Alpine, it has far too many cooling outlets.
1) Leading edge slot on sidepod
2) 5-6 louvers on top of sidepod
3) 5-6 louvers on engine cover barrel
4) Narrow section of cooling louvers under the sharkfin
5) Barrel outlet to the left and right of the exhaust.
It seems like Alpine have just designed the engine cover so they could pick where the best place is to exhaust the cooling air. On it's own, there are far too many openings when you compare to Mercedes and RB for example.
Another thing to note, with this mess of blanked louvers on the b-side, these bumps had some losses to the internal flow of the cooling exhaust. I imagine once they determine where to exit the cooling air, the panels will become smooth from the inside as well which will reduce the losses internally.
I think this has an interesting connection with the movement of the radiator for Bahrain as blackout has pointed out previously. If they have no intention to use the louvers on top of the sidepod, then they can remove this part of the sidepod completely for a tighter package. They have cooling exits at the back of the car which have been tested.
It would be cheaper and easier to manufacture a flat blind cover for testing purposes.
Nevertheless, for manufacturing / tooling costs, make some sense to lay up a louvers part without machininh the openings...