Should be half way up the grid if they have spent last years and this years development budget on it.
(That was their excuse for being back of the grid last year!)
2 Likes
My god wasn’t expecting that. Looks like we could see some very interesting designs. Can’t wait to hear Scarborough’s opinion on the McLaren.
1 Like
Ok I fell for a Lego car didn’t I 
8 Likes
The team launches are marketing exercises. The lego model will be as helpful as the launch car to understand the aero solution that McLaren have gone for.
No team will give away any secrets at the launch and will minimise what they show when testing.
Once we get to the first race we will see what the teams have done.
And then the fun really starts as the teams try to copy ideas and out develop each other.
7 Likes
New Aston Martin revealed today.
I could do with one of those front wings for clearing the snow from my driveway.
2 Likes
Push me pull you front suspension…
2 Likes
Friend of mine worked on the reveal today, doing all the support stuff like streaming, vision etc. He has a surprisingly cool job.
1 Like
That choice will have been driven by the aero requirements.
It is no problem to design a pull rod or pushrod suspension work, the choice is down to the airflow requirements between the tyre, wheel, brake assembly and the nose cone back to the tub.
The front suspension hardly moves at all (10 to 15 mm) as the driver needs the aero to be as consistent as possible around the peak performance, around the lap.
Down in the detail there is of course more to it, and that is why F1 teams have so many people working on optimising the design and operation of their race cars.
6 Likes
It will be interesting to see if the front suspension travel still has to be so small with the new aero rules. Before flexi-skirts and then flat bottoms made the cars ludicrously height sensitive, ie since 1981, we used to run around 50mm front suspension travel and 75mm at the rear with both sliding skirts and pre-ground effect.
Of course nobody working in F1 today has experience of this, or perhaps even knows it is possible!
9 Likes
Yes, I think that there will be some quick learning going on!
I will talk to some aero friends and get some idea as to how it is likely to pan out.
And then see what effect that would have on the suspension travel requirements for aero and then how that would relate to tyre contact patch force control across the frequency range.
4 Likes
Forgot to add, the aeromap (measured aerodynamic vehicle response in the wind tunnel) will make it very obvious what ride height ranges will work and what won’t. So I have no doubt that the aero response range has already been well optimised, with more to come.
The more challenging area is how the tyres will actually operate. Even with supposedly no changes from year to year Pirelli managed to engineer in changes that forced further optimisations. So a switch to a completely different tyre type will require a lot more work to understand and get the best out of them.
3 Likes
Even I can tell that one is orange and the other is green.
3 Likes
Brace for impact