Craig Scarborough is the man for all things technical in?Formula 1 , his website www.scarbsf1.wordpress.com has become a sensation amongst the Formula 1 faithful and receieves over 20,000 hits a month. His expert blogs on all the latest developments in the sport have been able to give the average fan an insight into the F1 team?s endless search for speed.
He very kindly took time out of his busy schedule to speak to THE WRITE FORMULA about the latest developments for 2012.
Hi Craig, thanks for speaking to us!
It?s still?early doors so far this season however there appears to have been? a drop off in pace, particularly in Qualifying, from champions Red Bull. It is widely acknowledge that the importance of the EBD on the RB7 is at the route course of this, albeit only slight, loss of pace. What was it about the anatomy of the RB7 that made it so perfectly suited to the EBD and how do you see Adrian Newey et al re-discovering that lost downforce on the 2012 RB8?
It?s true the recent run of Red Bulls have used the exhaust as core part of their aero mechanical set up, that?s made the most of the front wing and diffuser.?I don?t think the RB8 necessarily lacks downforce, its fast corner performance proves that.?In the opening races Red Bull haven?t made the most of the tyres, especially in qualifying and the wet race in Malaysia.?This has prevented us seeing their true race pace, so we need some more conventional weekends to see where the real issues lie. It might be that Red Bull are too light on their tyres, where as last year year they worked them much harder to the point of early degradation.?This may be from some over compensation in the design process.
From day one you name checked Sauber as a team to watch this season, early indications seem to suggest that you are right on the money. Their effective use of the brake ducts to gain aerodynamic advantage has been highlighted as the one key area of the C31?s design; surely there is more to it than that though? Could you enlighten us?
Last year the Sauber was a tidy package, we all saw it was a well-balanced car and easy on its tyres.? Over the winter the team appear to have aggressively clawed more performance from the cars aerodynamics.?This has shown its self with the nose, sidepod\exhaust and other detail work around the car.?This improvement in aero performance does not appear to come at the expense of the 2011 cars traits.
Despite Alonso?s win in Malaysia the spotlight is very much still on Ferrari after their radical development on the F2012 has yet to show they can seriously challenge for the title. BBC?s Technical Reporter Gary Anderson spoke during winter testing of how the Ferrari seems very inconsistent, looking blisteringly quick one minute and then handling terribly the next, what do you believe to be the reason behind this?
Ferraris problems are complex, I believe there is a fundamental aero imbalance, and this overrides other issues that people have highlighted, especially regards the pullrod front suspension and the exhaust configuration.?The cars downforce shifts unpredictably when braking and accelerating, this requires the team to stiffen the suspension which wreck low speed performance.? his partly explains the teams inconsistent performance, the car is inherently quick, but lack the balance in all conditions.? The team will need to look at the front wing and diffuser; perhaps the change in exhaust position forced by tyre heating issues has lead to a lack of sealing of the diffuser.?
Its clear Ferrari have more upgrades coming for china and the bigger upgrade package for Spain.? However the latter is not expected to be a new chassis with pushrod front suspension. Indeed the front suspension problems are a red herring masking the aero problems with the car.
If the team can minimise point?s losses to their rivals in the next two races, then the championship is still a possibility.?If they are still struggling after the first two European races, then I fear the year is lost for the team.
On the advice of Fernando Alonso Ferrari? are believed to have included a stiffening-arm above the gear-box, do you see this having a profound effect on settling down the thus far unstable rear end, or have Ferrari got more extensive problems?
The stiffening strut over the engine is a feature on all the Ferrari engines cars and hence unlikely to be a reaction to any handling imbalances.?It was designed-in at the early stages of the cars design.? With the teams much lower gearbox this year, it might a way to minimise any stiffness lost, but I don?t see this as a big issue for the team.
Although AMG Mercedes F1?s new FWFD (Front wing F-Duct) appears to be a terrific innovation it has thus far only seemed to aid Mercedes in Qualifying, improving their performance vastly from last year. However, having performed fairly averagely in both races, how do Mercedes alter their new challenger to match Quali pace with Race pace, without starting over?
Mercedes DRS F-duct system is clearly a benefit in qualifying, it has some benefits in the race, but clearly the Mercedes is not as fast a car as the McLaren.?The DRS F-Duct helps them in Q to get close, but it?s the total car performance Mercedes need to work on, not specifically the F-duct.? ast year?s car has rear tyre degradation issues and so too does this year?s car.?Mercedes resolved these by mid season last year, to create quite a strong race car.?I suspect they will catch up, but we should be under no illusions, while the Mercedes is a good step on from the W02, the W03 is not the class of the field just yet.
Sticking with Mercedes powered cars, McLaren have started the season in blistering form. They are obviously the only team of real note who opted against the stepped nose. I read at the time that this was because they already had in place a tighter rear-package in place which enabled them to adapt sufficiently. To your knowledge is this the case and what as exactly is in the rear-layout that helped the designers out?
As far as I am aware the reason for McLaren opting against the stepped nose has little if nothing at all to do with the rear-end package. (McLaren Technical Director)? Paddy Lowe explained to me that the team balanced the suspension and CofG benefits against the aero losses of the curved nose and came out in favour of the curved nose.?Indeed the curved nose set up may have some beneficial side effects on the airflow playing over the exhausts, to allow them to recreate a blown diffuser effect.?Put simply McLaren have come up with a package that works well out of the box, I don?t think their car has any more potential than the Red Bull or Ferrari, it?s just they found the performance straight away, whereas in recent years it?s taken a big development push to unlock the key to the car. I would say running their exhaust solution from the first test has helped them where as Red Bulls last minute switch in testing has back fired this year.
A word on Williams, who seem to have made a staggering jump over the winter, turning their car from bottom of the field struggler to genuine upper-midfield competitor. Having proved that their pace in Melbourne was not a blip with Bruno Senna?s excellent drive to sixth, have you got an idea on what their secret might be? And more importantly, can they keep up the development for the entire season, something that let Sauber down last year?
Williams jump in performance is as much to do with their incredibly poor performance last year.? Last year the team gambled on a radical repackaging of the car, meanwhile the basic underpinnings of the car were outdated and the resulting car was not sufficiently well engineered to make the most of the good design work.?Equally they were restricted by Cosworth?s lack of exhaust blown diffuser maps, as well as the engine being uncompetitive in other areas.?The revived technical department now has reengineered the gearbox and monocoque to make them lighter, the engine has been replaced by the far more competitive Renault unit.?This has allowed the design work on the rear end that still makes the Williams stand out on the grid to shine
It?s early days so far and we are yet to see all the teams show their true potential, making an educated guess, who in the long term do you see as producing the most technically astute car of 2012? Force India?s VJM05 was lauded over the winter however have shown some reliability problems so far, could they be the team that start slow but finish strong?
McLaren and Red Bull have clearly got the priorities sorted in design terms with their general layout.? In particular with exploiting the exhaust rules.?Mercedes and Ferrari have to catch up with exhaust development to keep up with them.?Sauber too had their priorities right and their rivals will need to reengineer their cars to make up the lost ground.?By the season end I suspect the midfield will be so close as to be completely unpredictable race by race to see who?s the fastest.
Lotus however appear to found pace in the new car, but with a wholly conventional set up.? As they start to catch up with exhaust and f-duct solutions they may be the dark horse.
Moving away from the technical side briefly, what have you made of the start of the season and who has impressed you so far? Any early predictions as to the possible drivers champion and constructors champion?
From the opening races we can see Perez has impressed, with his performance in the wet in Malaysia and generally outpacing his team mate.?Raikonnen and Hulkenberg?s return have also been notable; I hope that the steering problems in Malaysia were technical issues with the hardware and not a ?feel? as we had with Trulli last year.?In terms of a constructors championship I think it?s already clear McLaren are fielding two competitive cars, in my view they should be favourites for that championship.
And finally? Ash Higham, who is our technical writer and is currently studying Motorsport Engineering at UCLAN, has asked me to ask you what is the best way for a budding aerodynamicist to gain some work experience?
Due to the secretive nature of F1 team?s aero departments its obvious getting experience will be hard.? Ash is already doing the right thing, going to a good Uni? and getting involved with the Formula Student programme.?Team experience will only happen as a placement, so he needs to work like hell to get his name in front of the teams to get a good placement.?Publishing insightful articles on aero will help too, perhaps taking some time to use CFD to explain some of the latest thinking on the cars, teams do read this stuff.?It?s possible to be recognised simply from creating a good article or blog.
Thanks again for speaking to us Craig!
If you are yet to visit the wonder that is ?Scarbs F1? what are you waiting for! www.scarbsF1.wordpress.com
Image courtesy of www.rx8club.com
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