2022 Car Launches and Livery Thread

[Zico]

Enjoying seeing a bit of variety in the various design solutions.
As interesting and stunning as the Ferrari is, its probably still hard to look past Merc as favs with their short lifespan 'rocket' engine.
Hope I'm wrong though, would be great to see Ferrari back at the sharp end.

[airshifter]

Ok , that spun my head a tad , but I think I get it .

I would have thought , though , that the form of the plume would pretty reasonably represent the effect of the low pressure area , and , outside of that , wet or dry , you were "home-free" .

Is the wake actually wider in the dry ?

I somehow actually deleted my reply while trying to fix some typos.

The plume would give a fairly good representation of the aero wake, but the water droplets being heavier it is a bit deceptive. The general shape stays the same for the most part, but the weight of the droplets and mist make it fall quicker. In reality the air itself would remain in roughly the same shape, but with the majority staying up higher longer than the mist. I've seen a few photos that people darkened to highlight the flow, and it looks promising for following cars.

ScarbsF1 (I think he changed his social media names actually now) stated in a video that he now expects that it might be common for a following car to line up more "nose to back tire" for reasons of various aero changes. It will be interesting to see if he got it right.

[Bagwan]

I somehow actually deleted my reply while trying to fix some typos.

The plume would give a fairly good representation of the aero wake, but the water droplets being heavier it is a bit deceptive. The general shape stays the same for the most part, but the weight of the droplets and mist make it fall quicker. In reality the air itself would remain in roughly the same shape, but with the majority staying up higher longer than the mist. I've seen a few photos that people darkened to highlight the flow, and it looks promising for following cars.

ScarbsF1 (I think he changed his social media names actually now) stated in a video that he now expects that it might be common for a following car to line up more "nose to back tire" for reasons of various aero changes. It will be interesting to see if he got it right.

I get it now .
Thanks for that .

Does he mean , when he says "nose to back tire" , that there will be a heavier central blast of wake ?
That would make sense , but add an extra bit of fun turbulence when a following driver does close in .


It smells like it could be a good season ahead .

[Mark]

Best livery of the reveal season, Ferrari - I mean it's not even close is it? I just hope they are fast this year!

Worst - Alpine. Alfa haven't released yet but I they'd have to go some way to end up worse!

Special mention. Mercedes - on paper the silver, red, blue combo shouldn't work, but it does!

It does help that the cars in general are gorgeous this year.

[airshifter]

As expected, the actual on track RB18 is quite a bit different to what we have seen.




Massive undercut at the front of the pods, along with a scoop of sorts that extends in front of the intakes quite a distance. The "non bargeboard" strakes at the front of the exposed floor area are the subject of a lot of speculation.



From above you can see how far these side strakes push forward. It appears RB have gone to great lengths to make sure the unwanted air off the front tires is washed outboard. The exposed floor area under the pods is a large surface. Most teams went with more exposed area towards the rear of the car, similar to the Merc approach.



RB join the number of other teams suspending the lower element of the front wing. Other shots show some very creative suspension geometry. It seems that several teams now have various sized access covers of some type on the front nose section. So far I don't think anyone really knows for sure why, and speculation is all over the place. Hopefully testing will allow some photos to catch the covers off and expose the truth.

[Bagwan]

Ah , there's the rub .

Drivers are starting to notice less slipstream , thus , it sounds like my dream of a world with the dreaded DRS may not come to pass .

Perhaps the DRS has softened them , or at least , spoiled them .

[Zico]

Ah , there's the rub .

Drivers are starting to notice less slipstream , thus , it sounds like my dream of a world with the dreaded DRS may not come to pass .

Perhaps the DRS has softened them , or at least , spoiled them .

Indeed... imagine being able to follow closer but with a much reduced slipstream, it turned out that the net effect was actually negative. That would be pretty sad.
I guess whatever the outcome is, they will simply balance it out by playing with the DRS parameters either way.

[airshifter]

Getting rid of DRS would be so nice. But we would have a lot of drivers that wouldn't know how to pass any more! Most of them weren't around before DRS was introduced.

Reports look decent on the following, and if they can follow close enough DRS might not be needed. The reason the big tow was needed (both pre and post DRS) was mostly due to the fact that you couldn't follow closely out of a corner so had to overtake on long straights. IF we could get rid of DRS and go back to the old way.... that would be grand. Or if nothing else shorter DRS zones, if needed.

[Bagwan]

Ah , so , advantage Alonso then .

Tame the porpoise is the new game .
I worry about curbs , and that first step out into raw air when making a pass , or coming over a rise in the track , or a combination of any or all three scenarios .

I hope we don't see any cars flip when I see severe bounce like that .
They will be able to control some of that effect , but it illustrates the extreme loss of suction that occurs to produce the effect in the first place .

[Zico]

Ah , so , advantage Alonso then .

Tame the porpoise is the new game .
I worry about curbs , and that first step out into raw air when making a pass , or coming over a rise in the track , or a combination of any or all three scenarios .

I hope we don't see any cars flip when I see severe bounce like that .
They will be able to control some of that effect , but it illustrates the extreme loss of suction that occurs to produce the effect in the first place .

Porpoising has to make fast curves a far greater challenge on the limit, it must really also affect corner grip balance, not my idea of fun. I'm getting vibes that this could be far from being a typical season.