Newey gives insight to RBR's leap forward

[John S]

This from 'GP update' shows how much the testing ban has changed things for teams this year. It also underlines the big resources needed to move forward, I don't think this sort of rapid catching up would be possible under a 40 mill budget cap, but it's what we have come to expect from top F1 teams

Adding double diffuser was 'huge', says Newey

Adrian Newey has explained that the job of incorporating a double diffuser to the Red Bull RB5 was a mammoth task in the first months of the season as the car has not been designed to include such a feature. Since redesigning the rear end of the Renault-powered car, the Milton Keynes squad has launched an aggressive attack on Brawn GP for the championship.

With Brawn, Toyota and Williams achieving an initial jump on the field with their innovative, downforce-friendly designs at the beginning of the season, Red Bull was one of a number of teams to introduce such a feature later in the championship, with the first version of its 'double-decker' apparatus appearing in Monte-Carlo.


Newey remained in the factory for much of the spring

"It was a huge amount of work as the car wasn't designed to work with a double diffuser and, in particular, it wasn't an easy marriage with the pull rod rear suspension," explained Red Bull chief technical officer Newey. "We decided we didn't have the resources to redesign the gearbox and rear suspension to better suit the double diffuser concept, so we kept the existing mechanical package and adapted as best we could; the first attempt was our Monaco package, which was a small step that didn't work as well as we would have liked. The second step was then introduced for the British Grand Prix."

The latter worked miracles and the car is yet to be beaten since the introduction of the new component, putting more emphasis on the battle between the two leading teams' technical teams, headed by Newey and Ross Brawn respectively. "It took up a lot of my time and during that intensive two month period I was less involved with the rest of the car than I would normally have been, but we were able to handle our usual development in parallel," 50-year-old Adrian continued.

2009 regulations permit spaces in the middle section of diffusers, allowing more air to pass through to generate more downforce but with a ban on running cars on circuits outside of race weekends in 2009, analysing on-track performances is limited to the practice sessions of race weekends as well as taking crucial data during qualifying sessions and the race itself. "When you introduce something without testing, you are reliant upon your research tools: wind tunnel testing primarily, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and simulation to a lesser extent," Newey explained.

"As we are now introducing new elements at race weekends, if we have stepped in the wrong direction by a small amount it's hard to notice, as we are unable to do back-to-back testing to quite the same level as we used to; but we do use the Fridays of a Grand Prix as a test session as well as for preparation for the rest of the weekend."

[lkjohnson1950]

This explains why teams are introducing new bits one car at a time. Put it on one car, compare performance during the GP, then decide to keep the new part or rubbish it and start over. I don't think we will know how good the RB5 really is until we get a race on a hot low grip track like the early races were run on to see the Brawns in their preferred conditions.

Lonny

[Jericoke]

This explains why teams are introducing new bits one car at a time. Put it on one car, compare performance during the GP, then decide to keep the new part or rubbish it and start over. I don't think we will know how good the RB5 really is until we get a race on a hot low grip track like the early races were run on to see the Brawns in their preferred conditions.

Lonny

Knowing that cars perform differently based on the weather... is that something designers take into mind?  Do they check the forecast and decide if most races will be cool or hot, and then go that way? 

Do they figure a sport that spews carbon dioxide means they should plan on global warming for next year's car?

[lkjohnson1950]

I think it's a roll of the dice. Most designers would probably be happy to have their car work under a certain combination of weather, track conditions, etc, rather than it be bad everywhere. And Global warming is a theory, not a proven fact. If it is in fact happening, and it does seem likely, there is no proof greenhouse gasses are to blame. Remember at various times in the past, the earth has been both much warmer and much cooler than it is today without any help from us.

Lonny

[Jericoke]

I think it's a roll of the dice. Most designers would probably be happy to have their car work under a certain combination of weather, track conditions, etc, rather than it be bad everywhere. And Global warming is a theory, not a proven fact. If it is in fact happening, and it does seem likely, there is no proof greenhouse gasses are to blame. Remember at various times in the past, the earth has been both much warmer and much cooler than it is today without any help from us.

Lonny

I wasn't trying to start a debate on Global Warmism, this obviously isn't the place.  Just wondering if it does come into the minds of teams.  Honda painted their car as though they cared about the Earth, and then designed their car, the Brawn, to run better in hot weather.

[cosworth151]

I've always read that the teams do make major changes to the cars to suit each individual track. With only a second or two between the front and the back of the grid, I'm sure they fine tune everything, including aero, to suit the weather.

[Jericoke]

I've always read that the teams do make major changes to the cars to suit each individual track. With only a second or two between the front and the back of the grid, I'm sure they fine tune everything, including aero, to suit the weather.

I understand that, but still, it seems to be 'fact' that RBR has Brawn's number when it's cold, and Brawn seems to be better in the warm.  (This 'fact' might be mere coincidence that Brawn's surprise design happened to be in warm races before RBR could reply...)  From that point of view, designers could make a car that is better suited for a certain weather, and hope that's the weather that dominates the season.

[lkjohnson1950]

I think it's a roll of the dice. Most designers would probably be happy to have their car work under a certain combination of weather, track conditions, etc, rather than it be bad everywhere. And Global warming is a theory, not a proven fact. If it is in fact happening, and it does seem likely, there is no proof greenhouse gasses are to blame. Remember at various times in the past, the earth has been both much warmer and much cooler than it is today without any help from us.

Lonny

I wasn't trying to start a debate on Global Warmism, this obviously isn't the place.  Just wondering if it does come into the minds of teams.  Honda painted their car as though they cared about the Earth, and then designed their car, the Brawn, to run better in hot weather.

Sorry, wasn't trying to start a debate on Global Warming. I think the designers just try for the best design they can, and it turns out the way it turns out. Part of the Brawn's cool weather problems lie in Button's smooth style, which underworks the tires. In hot weather this becomes an advantage as we have seen Button do longer, stronger stints on tires that went off quickly for the other teams. Whether they still have an advantage over Red Bull here is the question that may decide the championship.

Lonny

[Jericoke]

I think the designers just try for the best design they can, and it turns out the way it turns out. Part of the Brawn's cool weather problems lie in Button's smooth style, which underworks the tires. In hot weather this becomes an advantage as we have seen Button do longer, stronger stints on tires that went off quickly for the other teams. Whether they still have an advantage over Red Bull here is the question that may decide the championship.

Lonny

In which case, designing a car for the driver's personal style would probably be best. 

Probably best not to let the other driver know that though...

[Scott]

Which relates to my point about everyone knowing that Rubens was going to be the tailgunner to Button, except for him.

[Jericoke]

Which relates to my point about everyone knowing that Rubens was going to be the tailgunner to Button, except for him.

Based on their careers, it would be reasonable to assume that they'd design the car for Rubens, not Button.

I suspect it was basically blind luck that caused the Brawn to be perfect for Button in hot weather.

Does Newey have a history of designing cars for a specific driver?

[Scott]

 Based on the telemetry they had of both drivers, it would be reasonable to think it was designed for Button.