Good picture of the upper and lower (air) ducts behind the Red Bulls nose: please log in to view this image
But whither do they lead? Vettel looked as sweaty as anyone after the race yesterday so I think we can safely say that Newey fails at driver cooling letterbox inlets.
but even then, the ducts are tiny, I cant see how it could provide any bonus when they're that small. I wonder whether its something that does in fact give them a very small bonus, but keeps people from talking about/spotting other things on their car they don't want copied. Hopefully, though, I'm reading too much into it
Maybe it's a similar solution to that used by the Sauber. If you look at the Sauber from the drivers point of view, there is a slot behind the bump in the nose which simply goes all the way through to the other side of the nose. It might have been on here or ScarbsF1, but I've seen this explained as allowing air flow to be kept more tightly to the surface of the car. Maybe the Red Bull solution is the same? Admittedly though, I wouldn't put it past Red Bull to be doing something else with it, but there hasn't been much discussion about it once the season has started, so maybe it is nothing special.
I think Scarbs had the RB8 nose slot boxed off as a device to reattach the airflow probably the same day the car was launched so you're probably right that it's nothing specifically ingenious. Ross Brawn's opinion of the furore Red Bull are generating over the DRS-duct is that it is intended to deflect attention from questionable innovations on the RB8 (I've read that such inlets in this area are only allowed to provide driver cooling) and, since Red Bull are still struggling to get their exhaust right, I wondered from what else they might be trying to deflect attention.
Red Bull will take two different spec RB8s to China and evaluate on Friday which to run for qualifying and the race: http://t.co/2xSmD38e Because they can.
Thanks for the link Genji. I found this bit the most interesting: So does this mean Vettel has been having handling problems with the B-spec RB8? If so, you have to wonder how costly that final day of testing was - Vettel's problems could have been averted much sooner with a trouble free testing day.
I dont understand why Sebastian and Red bull and panicing, they have the race pace they just dont have their extra five tenths in Q3, they just gotta race hard and overtake for the win like McLaren and Ferrari have done the last few years.
That's the problem. They can't afford to start 6th and 7th because it's likely Mclaren will be 1st and 2nd and build a healthy lead. We haven't seen the true race pace of Mclaren yet I feel. Australia they had fuel probems and in Malaysia it rained.
agreed, I don't think we've seen the true potential of the McLaren yet due to the conditions in Malaysia and the nature of the Australian track. All teams want to be qualifying on the front row even if they have dominant race pace, but I think Red Bull especially need to do this as they are a relatively underpowered car engine-wise and their strength lays in their aero efficiency. Finding themselves behind several more powerful cars their aero package is compromised by their wake. That said, apart from a little bad luck in Malaysia Vettel is looking ok to gain a position or 2 by the end of the race. Swapping around chassis though says to me that Red Bull may be a little more worried than they are letting on, and probably isn't a luxury they would have under proposed resource restrictions and budget caps.
Neither of those teams have won a title for over three years which is probably why RBR are panicking.
Taken at face value (Marko said Webber will run an evolution of the Malaysia 'setup' and Vettel will run a pre-season spec in order to "compare the results") it sounds like they simply want a known quantity to measure the lastest spec against in various areas. Remember Marko said it's as if the car decides when it's going to be fast. I think they're just struggling to understand what's going on. I agree about that final day but it sounds like they needed even more time to get to grips with the B-spec than they lost in Barcelona.
Well done Seb! http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/video/12870/7710494 Was just watching the F1 show and the report from Ted Kravitz pretty much saying to me that Newey ****ed up the rear of the car. Newey was heard to be "proud" with the rectangle hole on the side of the car that would suck in air and push it out towards the diffuser. They found out that the hole it was meant to be blowing out of was flawed and was making it unstable as the air flow was not consistent. Seb pretty much directed Newey by saying it was flawed and he turned out to be right as he felt he could do better in the launch spec version which wasn't even race worthy. After it was sorted, Seb gets the pole and win at Bahrain. So full credit to Seb getting what he wanted quickly and putting his foot down with Newey who openly said that this was the course of action and that he only looks to the future, WRONG! It looks like Seb might of saved RBR's season here people by pretty much forcing Newey to think again. All the talk of he shouldn't defy Newey and that he would have to deal with it all season turned out to be wrong. In the end Newey shouldn't of defied what Seb felt was wrong with the car as he turned out to be right, Newey messed up. Full credit for Seb getting his title defence on track against one of the biggest names in F1 history!
The F1 public and Sky pretty much saying Vettel would be pretty foolish or brave to go against somebody like Newey with regard to the cars future. I'm not trying to say vettel grabbed Newey's notepad and did a better job overnight, but the kid was persistent saying something was wrong with the rear and he turned out to be right in the end.
