Most liked posts in thread: F1 - 2012

Steve · Feb 1, 2012

McLaren unveils MP4-27 in Woking (GPUpdate.com)

1 February 2012

McLarenâ€™s drivers have removed the covers from the new MP4-27. The launch presentation took place at the teamâ€™s Woking factory on Wednesday morning, hosted by Sky television commentator David Croft. The 2012 car features a selection of fresh features, not least a short wheelbase and tighter rear end to make up for the lost downforce now that exhaust-blown diffusers are banned.

The launch began at 11am, with both race drivers being joined by team reserves Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey. Following an introduction and initial thoughts from Button, he and Hamilton proceeded to reveal the 2012 contender, generating a number of laughs from the gathered media as the 2008 Champion warned his team-mate, â€˜Careful not to rip any (cloth)!â€™. Also in attendance was ex Team Principal Ron Dennis.

Both drivers stressed that the current task is to increase rear-end downforce and that driving in general will be tougher this year, as the rear ends of cars will slide around more.

â€œI think the car is the most refined weâ€™ve had for some time now, so Iâ€™m looking forward to getting back into it,â€ Hamilton commented. â€œWe have changed the sidepods, we had the l-shaped sidepods last year. The front wing is different and weâ€™ve changed our mirrors, so hopefully we should be able to see a bit better â€“ Felipe (Massa) will be very happy with that!

â€œWeâ€™ve made it tighter at the back, as snug as possible to improve aerodynamics. Weâ€™ve tried our best to improve the floor, now that the blown diffuser has gone; we donâ€™t have that this year, so that is really the biggest loss for us and weâ€™re trying to regain it in other ways. Itâ€™s a lot trickier to drive now so I think, as we get into the season, we will really improve and find out where that downforce will come from.â€

Turvey will be first to drive the car for the shakedown run in Jerez next Tuesday.
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Hmmm, no "broken" nose on the McLaren...

minimark · Feb 1, 2012

Great pics Steve, will stare at them for hours, thanks!!

Steve · Feb 2, 2012

We would be looking at pics of the new Ferrari by now but heavy snow in Maranello forced them to cancel the presentation and demo laps. rrr: Change of plans: public launch via the web some time before the first 2012 test session starts next Tuesday.

Steve · Feb 2, 2012

McLaren Denies 2012 Car Close To Legal Limits (formula-one.speedtv.com)

SPEED Staff / GMM | Posted February 02, 2012 | GMM Newswire

McLaren has denied that a senior staff member expressed concern the team's newly-launched 2012 car flies close to the limits of the technical regulations.

The staff member made the comments about the new MP4-27 single seater before it was launched by the British team at its Woking headquarters on Wednesday.

The story was only live on the internet for a short time before it was removed.

After that, members of the media were contacted by McLaren insisting that the quotes had not been accurate.

The saga caught the attention of the widely circulated German newspaper Bild, which wondered: "(The risk of a) protest? So maybe the car is illegal?

"The rivals will now be looking very closely (at the car) at Jerez," wrote correspondent Frank Schneider.

He said the MP4-27 has "mysterious lumps" on the side, perhaps to "hide the exhausts."

Spanish sports newspaper Marca's correspondent Marco Canseco, meanwhile, said the new McLaren is "not revolutionary" at first glance, with the disappearance of the L-shaped sidepods of last year even indicating a "backwards step."

The exhausts, however â€” with blown diffusers now banned â€” were "very well camouflaged" at the launch, "embedded in a strange bulge" at the rear of the engine cover.

The diffuser, added Canseco, is "non-existent" in the MP4-27's launch version "to avoid clues being given to the rivals."

Former World Champion Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, laughed as he revealed that McLaren answered his call for better mirrors in the wake of several incidents last year.

He said the new MP4-27 mirrors are higher and "don't flap around," joking that "Felipe (Massa) will be very happy about that."
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minimark · Feb 2, 2012

Gosh, an F1 team pushing the limits of the rulebooks...heck they wouldn't be doing their job well if they didn't!

That's a racing!!!

Steve · Feb 2, 2012

Button Looking Forward To Austin: Jenson Button weighs in on the upcoming US Grand Prix... (formula-one.speedtv.com)

Adam Cooper | Posted February 01, 2012 | Woking (UK)

Jenson Button says heâ€™s looking forward to visiting Austin for the US GP in November, and is expecting the COTA venue to be a good one.

Speaking at the launch of the new McLaren today, the 2009 World Champion said he hopes that F1 attracts a lot of support.

â€œI'm really excited about heading back to the States,â€ said Button. â€œI've never been to Austin but I've heard great things about the city itself, and I've heard also great things about the circuit, the layout, and hopefully we can put on a great show when we get there.

â€œI remember racing in the States before in Indianapolis which was, you know, a good circuit, but I think the steps that Austin have taken to make sure this is a proper, pukka Formula 1 circuit I think we're gonna love it, you know. It's going to be a lot of fun. And hopefully we have the support of the American fans.â€

Meanwhile team boss Martin Whitmarsh emphasized once more that the USA is a major market for F1.

â€œI think all the teams believe it's very important and we've got to make a success of it this time. As we all know, our time in America has been spasmodic and unsuccessful. We have to treat it almost as a new market. But actually there's a huge interest in Formula 1 that is untapped in the States. We've got to work harder. What we have to accept is, America doesn't need Formula 1; we need it more than it needs us.

â€œSo I think the onus has got to be on the teams, the promoter, all of us, to work â€“ and the commercial rights holder â€“ to work very hard to make sure that we educate we promote, we develop the interest, we reach out in America.

â€œSo we've got to work harder than, perhaps, a new Grand Prix in Europe or Asia or South America, where, there is a ready interest and a ready uptake. We've got a real challenge. But it's important. It's important to our commercial partners. The States is still a rather big market for really any multinational company. There are only two world sports, soccer and Formula 1, and for us to be a great world sport, we've got to conquer the States.€
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ScottinBend · Feb 3, 2012

Wonder how Maclaren got by w/o doing the stepped down nose like these have?

Steve · Feb 3, 2012

ScottinBend said: ↑

Wonder how Maclaren got by w/o doing the stepped down nose like these have?
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Quote from an interview with Force India technical director Andrew Green:

The new Force India VJM05, which was unveiled at Silverstone this morning, featured the distinctive shelf where the nose joins the higher front section of the monocoque. Despite the McLaren MP4-27, launched on Wednesday, not featuring the drop nose thanks to a lower chassis front, Green thinks most will follow the design concept that his team has chosen.

"We think most will follow our philosophy," Green told Sky Sports News. "It [the lower chassis] is an aero philosophy that McLaren apply to the front of their car, last year they were the only team to apply that.

"There's a regulation change on the nose height and we went with the drop nose. For us, it's not big deal, it's purely asethetics."
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Steve · Feb 5, 2012

Video launch of the new Lotus (another stepped nose car):

There's a lot of extra crammed into 21 minutes and not a lot of the car itself. If you get bored with interviews, etc, skip ahead to around 15min - 18min to see the technical director explaining rule changes and their effects on the exhaust and the nose.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjgSaYQ_GeY]Amazing F1 stuff - Lotus E20 Launch - YouTube[/ame]

Steve · Feb 6, 2012

New Sauber:

Steve · Feb 6, 2012

Red Bull air inlet raises eyebrows in Jerez (GPUpdate.net)

6 February 2012

The new Red Bull RB8 is very much an evolution of its elder sister, the RB7, which crushed its opposition last year. However, one aspect has already attracted a keen amount of interest as the Formula 1 community gathers in Jerez on Monday.

The point in question is an air inlet located on part of the car which was non-existent in 2011 â€“ the level drop down to the nose cone, which has been generated (to various extremes) on all of the new cars as FIA safety regulations call for lower noses.

The exact reason for the inlet â€“ shown in the photo atop this article â€“ has yet to be confirmed. Firstly, an opening of this kind can only ever be either an air inlet or outlet, as opposed to serving a dual purpose. In this case, an inlet is certain.

Some suggest the hole may be for cooling purposes, such as for KERS, with which the team suffered problems last season. Another option could be for aerodynamic reasons, with the inlet possibly sporting an exit which could direct airflow over the cockpit and in the direction of the air box and rear wing; if this is the case, it would help compensate for rear end downforce now that exhaust-blown diffusers are banned.

More will be reported on the Red Bull air inlet in due course.
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Steve · Feb 6, 2012

The Lotus (Raikkonen at the wheel):

ScottinBend · Feb 6, 2012

I tried to find out the spec's on the new nose req. but was unable to find anything that I could relate to why the cars "had" to go with the stepped down look. Only thing I could find was that the nose had to be a maximum height off the ground, nothing about how far back it had to go. Wonder if it has to do with the cars design and the crash test that is done. Maybe Mclaren was able to pass the crash test w/o having to step down the whole nose.........?

Steve · Feb 6, 2012

The new rules require the nose to be lower, but only just so far back, beyond that point you can raise things up again. Most teams want the front of the chassis raised fairly high for aerodynamic reasons, mostly downforce. As I mentioned above (see post #165), McLaren went with a lower front of the chassis so they don't need to step up from the new lower nose height.

A few words from James Allison (Lotus Technical Chief) on the rule change:

"Up at the front of the car, there is a very obvious changes, there is a distinctive slope to the nose," he said. "The reason for this is for years you will gradually notice that the height of the nose has been coming up and up as there is more downforce if you raise the bodywork at the front of the car.

"However, the problem with that high nose is that eventually the nose can get to a height that if there were to be a T-bone crash the tip of the nose could be so high that it exceeds the height of the cockpit of the other car. Clearly that's a very poor situation as you don't want the driver's head having a nose slamming into it from the side.

"And so for this year we agreed that the tips of the noses all had to be lowered by a considerable amount. But the rule itself doesn't require the front of the car to be lower, it only requires the tip of the nose to be lowered."
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minimark · Feb 6, 2012

Believe the height change is there in the Mclaren. They just chose a different approach, going for more of a less drag design whilst the others seem to be trying to get some downforce in their shape.....of course then we have Red Bull and their duct....lol

Steve · Feb 6, 2012

The new Toro Rosso:

ScottinBend · Feb 6, 2012

OK....after comparing very un-scientifically the side views of the cars so far, it seems that Mclaren went with the gradually curve the nose down vs an abrupt step in the nose.

It appears that the bodies are all about the same height at the front suspension and about equal in height off of the ground.

Steve · Feb 6, 2012

The McLaren's nose must be as low as (or lower than) the others at the bottom of the step seen on the rest of the cars. It can't be any higher at that point because the new tech regs limit the height of the entire nose assembly from the front of the bulkhead forward.

"... the height of the chassis immediately ahead of the cockpit can still be up to 625mm above the reference plane, but then in the space of 150mm it must fall to 550mm." See simplistic diagram here.

Looks to me like Ferrari used the entire 625mm max height in a straight line all the way along the front of their chassis from the front of the cockpit to their step.

The only way McLaren can have a smooth top curve from the front of the cockpit to the tip of the nose is if the front edge of their bulkhead is also no more than 550mm above the reference plane. It can then curve upward toward the rear to approach the 625mm max. That's only a 7.5cm rise so it can be hard to see but I think I can see it here.

There's some good info here Launch Analysis: McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 and here 2012: Nose height Regulations.

Steve · Feb 7, 2012

2012 Williams:

ScottinBend · Feb 7, 2012

This year is going to be really ugly............

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