Posted: Thursday at 6:14am The next high-profile departure at Ferrari will be chief designer Nikolas Tombazis. That is the claim of the well-informed Ferrari specialist and media insider Leo Turrini. As Ferrari faltered yet again in 2014 despite the start of the all-new 'power unit' era, the red-coloured exits have flowed like wine at Maranello. Stefano Domenicali, Luca Marmorini and even Luca di Montezemolo, Fernando Alonso and Marco Mattiacci have all now gone, and rumours suggest Pat Fry has been marginalised by the promotion of the 2015 car project leader, James Allison. Not only that, Ferrari's Greek designer Tombazis, 46, also looks set to depart. Writing on his reliable Quotidiano blog, Turrini said the end of Tombazis' "Ferrari experience" is now sealed with the exception of "formalities and technicalities". Notwithstanding the period of turmoil at Maranello, however, continuing Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen is confident about the future. Backing the arrival of new teammate and friend Sebastian Vettel, and new boss Maurizio Arrivabene, the Finn said: "It's not easy to change things. "But we have a clear plan of where we need to improve," Raikkonen is quoted by Speed Week. "I feel that the things that have been changed within the team will bring a very, very big improvement."
ever since Tombazis joined Ferrari they have been below par in my opinion. I dont even know why he got a high reputation when at Minardi??
I wouldn't be so sure and I have to admit I'll feel more than a little schadenfreude if they decline further. But anyway, it sounds like Tobaccoman is fumigating the place. I know that James Allison is being touted as a potential saviour in terms of designing a more competitive car but how will they do that if they still have that wind tunnel that doesn't work? Or was the wind tunnel just an excuse? We need Forza, he usually knows what's up over there.
I really dont understand how the wind tunnels can be that far out in todays world of technology? I have been fortunate enough to see one in action and you can clearly see where the air moves, where the vortexs are generated and how the car moves under the pressure of the downforce etc.
Correlation is actually a pretty difficult science from what little I know. Firstly, the wind tunnel models are 60% scale, and there's all the real world factors to consider too. But it gets more complicated: The way air behaves means that the results from a 60% scale model aren't simply 60% of the magnitude of results from a full scale car in the same conditions. Fluid Dynamics aren't my strong point, but I think you have to manipulate the way you conduct the experiments (something to do with Bernoulli's principle and Reynold's numbers) so that the data will make sense when compared to the full car. The vortices, etc you see on the wind tunnel model will not match those experienced on the real car unless you've got the correlation right, which makes producing a coherent aero package very difficult.
.....but you would imagine with the on track data they would be able to understand the correlation and adapt it accordingly?
Pretty much. The wind tunnel gives an idea but at 60% size, that is it. It's not an exact science. There are also other factors to consider too (as mentioned) that are pretty much impossible to replicate in a wind tunnel, such as how the car reacts under pitch and yaw through corners (something McLaren struggled with in 2013, hence why their car was always so stiff), under braking. Whether the car becomes aerodynamically unstable over bumps etc (all alter how the diffuser can operate and result in a sudden downforce loss), how crosswinds can effect it (something Force India struggle with).
