Technical 2014 Technical Regulations

[sushifiesta]

If I go a long time without reading or thinking about any of the details of the new regulations I can get myself quite excited and optimistic about there being a shakeup that might knock Red Bull off their perch. However, I'm not sure there's anything about the 2014 regulations that I actually like... it basically comes down to why can't we have cars that are getting faster over the years rather than slower?! Heavier, less powerful cars with less efficient aerodynamics (smaller wings) and 3 or 4 seconds per lap slower than 2013 before you even consider that they're going to be crawling around conserving fuel.

I really hope that 2014 still looks and feels like F1, but the last few years have already been feeling pretty contrived with DRS and the Pirellis etc. and that just seems to be getting worse.

Anyway, I was reading Gary Anderson's article here if others haven't seen it: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/25158104 . I didn't realise the rear wings were also getting smaller - they've already looked ridiculously out of proportion since the start of the 2009 regulations!

So there's a nice miserable post for you

 

[Fenderman]

Miserable maybe but not wrong!

 

[Blog Zbod]

Jenson Button confirms that the 2014 cars will not find approval from those drivers who rather would not steer with the rear. Says it will be easier to make misteaks (sic).

A few days ago, some sharp-eared tifosi heard a LaFerrari tear-arsing around Fiorano and making a very un-V-12 whistling noise, giving rise to speculation they had mounted the 2014 F1 V-6t in it. Which would make this the first presumed instance of a 2014 F1 engine being fired in anger. Video/audio here.

Yesterday there was news Renault have put their 2014 F1 engine in a World Series by Renault car for a few laps around Magny-Cours.


All of which leads me to ask, Mercedes, Mercedes, wherefore art thou, Mercedes?

 

[Fenderman]

Jean Todt has kindly clarified the rules concerning the performance of Donuts. In a quiet chat, initiated by 4-times WDC Sebastian "Donut Forsake Boo Me Darlin' " Vettel, he explained the fine was for "not returning to Parc Ferme [in the car]".

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111719

So hopefully that bit of news will get around and we'll see all the race winners do it! Yippee!

 

[jez101]

All of which leads me to ask, Mercedes, Mercedes, wherefore art thou, Mercedes?

Putting out fires apparently

http://grandprix247.com/2013/11/28/fire-brigade-called-as-mercedes-v6-turbo-goes-up-in-flames/

 

[Blog Zbod]

Scarbs has done a drawing of what the RB10 will look like (but it's a bit rubbish because the hosting website have put their wartermark in the middle of it, and the livery colours make the details hard to distinguish).

The spec weigh already is due to increase to 700 kg for the 2015 season, and Adrian Newey, for one, is pushing hard to have that change also applied to 2014. I guess Ricciardo is having a spot of bother losing those last couple of kilos and squeezing into a cockpit designed for an anorexic pixie.

Seems to me, if they already have scheduled an increase for 2015, before the first 2014 car ever touches tarmac, that can only mean they already realise they have erred. So why not push the change forward to 2014??? I can only imagine it was because certain teams made a request for the identical increase, and the FIA do not want to appear to have been cowed into making the change.

Speaking of Newey, he says the biggest engineering challenge for 2014 is the location of the front wing's end plates relative to the front tyres. With the wider 2013 wing, the decision to engineer the flow off the wing to circulate outboard of the front tyres was a no-brainer. Now the end plate is in the middle of the tyre. So first they have to decide whether to go inboard or outboard, then figure out the how. He said the second biggest challenge was the packaging for the new power plant.

 

[Andyoak]

Sheesh... I thought it looked bad as a line drawing but

 

[Westy]

I noticed that Scarbs put a "monkey seat" on the rear wing, those aren't allowed next year. It should have two vertical beams instead.

 

[teabagyokel]

and the livery colours make the details hard to distinguish).

They think of everything!

 

[sushifiesta]

The end of the nose just looks bloody awful and the whole thing looks more like a Formula Renault car than an F1 car, but maybe that's because it's just a mock up.

Westy Scarb's reply to that question at the bottom of the the link that was posted:

What were the Y75 winglet (monkey seat) rules, remain in the regs. Although they have been edited to allow a wider winglet up 50mm to 200mm wide, to allow for the exhaust to pass through (technically its now a Y100 winglet!). The exhaust regs prevent the monkey seat sitting in the path of the exhaust outlet. This is effectively an exclusion tunnel +30mm in diameter from the exhaust pipe axis. So you can fit a monkey seat above, below or to the side of the exhaust, you can even make a 20cm wide winglet and drill a 13-16cm hole through it!

 

[Westy]

sushifiesta - thank you for the update.

 

[sushifiesta]

Based on the crash test video Caterham posted a few days ago Scarbs has drawn what he thinks the nose of the Caterham will look like.... and what it looks like is man bits...

http://jalopnik.com/crash-test-video-may-show-2014-f1-penis-nose-1482836523
https://twitter.com/ScarbsF1/status/411505972478107648

 

[sushifiesta]

Nice video showing the differences in the 2014 regulations:

 

[Blog Zbod]

He doesn't cite his source but Scarbs tweets a sketch of the new Ferrari engine, hinting its exhausts will exit vertically through the valve covers rather than horizontally to the sides. His sketch:



Odd that this should first appear in his Twitter account, rather than at scarbsf1 or Autosport. Or the Greek site he sometimes uses.

Seems that the vertical exit would compromise exhaust valve packaging but, if correct, Ferrari apparently believe the narrower, taller engine pack provides benefit compared to Renault/Merc's wider, shorter model enough to offset it.


EDIT:
Referring back to my earlier post RE: the decline of NASA, earlier today, a commercial enterprise called 'Orbital Sciences' (who were hired by NASA) launched a rocket carrying 1260 kilos of supplies to the ISS. So NASA apparently no longer even have a suitable grocery getter.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Was that drawn my a two year old?

 

[no-FIAt-please]

I thought the exhaust had to exit horizontally over the rear axle between the rear wing struts. How have Ferrari allegedly got around this?

 

[sushifiesta]

no-FIAt-please The exhaust gases exit the engine vertically but they will have to leave the car horizontally, if I've understood correctly.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Is this really what F1 has come to?

 

[Fenderman]

Apparently. It seems the tech' side has been all about blowing hot air for the past year or so. Now they're not allowed to blow it anywhere useful some of 'em are trying to blow it in interesting ways for the heck of it!

 

[Blog Zbod]

no-FIAt-please The exhaust gases exit the engine vertically but they will have to leave the car horizontally, if I've understood correctly.

So it would appear. However, today Scarbs tweets that the design depicted in the drawing came entirely from his own 'knowledge of the rules' and not from any insider information.

But I suspicion otherwise. In another tweet he remarks the exhaust WILL exit vertically (emphasis mine). That he is so unequivocal tells me he already knows this to a certainty, which only can mean he is prevaricating concerning the no insider information. He would look the fool if he were mistaken after being this emphatic, so framing this as a wild-arsed guess makes him look all the more brill if it should be correct. And best of all, his inside man cannot call him out on it without revealing his own role.

Ferrari are thinking outside the box to keep the car as narrow as possible. It widely was assumed that the additional airflow needs of an intercooler and the 10x more powerful ERS would make everyone's sidepods appreciably larger this year. But unlike Mercedes' and Renault's conventional side-exit headers, the vertical arrangement conceivably might not enlarge the engine block's footprint in the least, and will intrude little to none into the sidepods.

According to today's Omnicorse.it, Ferrari also have elected to use a smaller/heavier water/air heat exchanger in their intercooler, where others are known to be going for bulkier/lighter air/air heat exchangers. Ferrari obviously have run the simulations and found the adverse consequences to mass and CG of these two changes are at least offset by aero improvements from the smaller sidepods.