make sure you wear a HANS and your harness is tight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yas_TM4X0f8

 

^^^^ LOL I love how she(?) just stops fighting it after awhile, and lets the head slamming happen all the way. Gotta be a dent in the back of the driver's head support.

 

Rofl, brings new meaning to the word faceplant lol.

 

i bet the driver was laughing his a$$ off every time he felt a bump to the back of his seat when he hit the brakes.

 

Ok, the hole in the stepped RB8 is for the driver...this from Newey: "The slot in the nose is simply driver cooling. Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose, but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp."

Later, Ken

 

^ I bet thats what he wants us to think....

 

Agreed. I can't imagine an aero guy doing anything ONLY for "styling" purposes, especially one that's as heralded as Newey.

 

If you haven't caught "The Flying Lap", Peter Windsor's F1 video blog, you should check it out

Scarbs is also featured giving his analysis of the new cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t0ZzAjs4_c

 

Here's a vid I found of preseason testing, the Merc at the beginning still sounds like its running some sort of blown engine mapping, could be because its the 2011 car but I wouldn't be surprised if the teams are still messing around with exhaust blowing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YkKr...eature=related

 

Last season there was always alot of moaning and groaning about the horsepower difference between Mercedes based teams and Renault engine based teams with the latter having less hp than former. However, I did not pick up what that difference was. Recently Renault engine developer said: “The Mercedes engine is indeed about 15 horse power more powerful than ours,..." However, now Renault claims that this advantage is compensated for by increased "
...driveability and fuel economy,.... So when it comes to the bottom line, we [our engines] are a little bit better than Mercedes,“ and explains this with: "... our consumption is lower, Red Bull can start the races with 15 to 18 litres less petrol in the tank than the competition,”
Now going through the numbers, we R talking about a 24-28.8 lbs less weight. with a total weight of 1408 lbs, this amounts to a measly 2%. Doesn't seem like that much of a difference to B a significant advantage but am not sure relative to performance gains from differences in aero design. Any thoughts on this?

Later, Ken

 

These guys worry about grams, and tenths of grams, I'm sure 25lbs makes a huge difference as far as the team is concerned. Look at the way the times drop as the cars burn off fuel, time sheets don't lie.

 

if these engines make 750 hp, so 15hp is 2%. two percent advantage in weight is much better than 2% advantage in power. weight advantage improves acceleration, cornering and braking. power advantage only improves acceleration.

if you do the math, the reduce power and reduce weight comes out to the same power to weight ratio for both scenario.

 

Vettel provided an excellent demonstration of this last year at the Spanish GP (Catalunya) when he was able to hold off Hamilton down the main straight. By being able to put the power down earlier coming out of the last corner he always had enough of a gap to where Hamilton, with a more powerful engine _and_ DRS to boot, was never able to make the pass.

l8r)

 

^ i think that was more to do with the RB chassis and aero advantage. they RB were fast in the mid to high speed corners due to better aero but lack in top speed do to drag on the aero. it doesn't hurt that they were running lighter due to less fuel needed.

 

^ Agreed!
HP usually affects top speed and top end acceleration. Weight only affects low end acceleration.