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Formula 1 Season 2016
(75 posts, started )
Which looks better imo.
The antennas are the straight vertical wire-things. The bend-like-an-arm things really are sensors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot_tube
No F1 teams does without those. On the HAAS picture they must be missing for random reasons,
maybe removed for press photo.
I think one can actually see the small hole where it attachs on nose, between the wheels:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/haas-vf-16-21.jpg

On this picture the HAAS car does have the tube attached:


Manor Racing's car looks best so far. More simple, less bolted-on curvy stuff, much cleaner lines.
Especially those very elaborate frontwings ruin the proportions of modern F1 cars to me.
But the real reasons is likely that either that is not the final version or
they just did not have as much budget/time for development.
Similiar in LMP1 cars start with relatively simple designs and then lots of new holes, grooves, slits and curves appear on the wings/car.
Manor simply does not have the budget for more advanced aerodynamics. Anyhow they got hold of Mercedes engines with signing Pascal Wehrlein. Yesterday Wehrlein's best lap was three seconds faster than their 2015 qualifying time. Let's see if they can get closer to the midfield and how they perform compared to Haas.

Edit: Wehrlein's lap was on super soft while 2015 qualifying was medium, so there is less progress, if any...
Why does the mclaren have a tumor on its nose?
Quote from Bmxtwins :Why does the mclaren have a tumor on its nose?

The thing itself is the antenna/sensor stack.
In general there is trend to give aereodynamic functions to every part of the car, even to mirrors and such tiny things.
For this car from the top view it looks like there is the exit of an air-duct in the same area (behind the red number)
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mclaren-honda-mp4-31-2016.jpg
Air enters the duct somewhere in front/below and there it exists. This makes the bodyshape and everything else in that area much more important from aereodynamic view because air does not just flow over the car but another airflow also exists there.
The other cars do not seem to have such duct.
If you mean the bit under 22 I think it is rain on the camera,
It looks like a InfraRed sensor or similar pointed at the tire to see its temperature. It is usually mounted on the front wing, but they are probably testing the front aero. Or maybe it is just a normal camera to see if the rain tires are worn out.
The camera could also be there to look at flexing of the wings or tires.
Or perhaps it is pointed at some wool hairs and from their movement one can observe airflow. (like in windtunnel)
That stuff is just during testing, for race it will be gone.
Quote from k_badam :If you mean the bit under 22 I think it is rain on the camera,

it was on different photos from many sources and angles. Maybe it is some sort of sensor. Thought it was odd that it had logos and such on it, if it was temporary.
Soo what do you guys think about the new qualifying format?
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/02/24/fia-announces-elimination-qualifying-and-driver-of-the-day-award/

I first through it was outrageously stupid but then after thinking about it more it does have some power to improve the racing. I think it has some flaws in it.

First to me it seems track position out of pits is key. You want to be one of the first out in every session. That allows you to drive in clean air and helps to get more than one try. Come out the pits later and you are stuck in traffic. The engine that can sit longest on the pit exit without overheating will be first ones out of the pits. On dirtier tracks this can become more complicated though. It can create some funny moments when people try to pass and defend to keep ther positions or gain one on outlaps.

It also has the effect that it reduces the number of cars on track. In 2015 and 14 pretty much all the cars kept driving and did more than one attempt in most sessions. Now with the elimination some of those cars are sitting pits instead. Also cars which need some parts change have much less chance to make it into q1. By the time their equipment has been fixed they are too late to set a time. There will also be many instances when someone gets dropped out just because someone else caused a yellow or red flag.

Then there is the surprise or chaos factor. I don't think anything changes in p1-p4. The biggest changes happen in positions 6-12. Due to the dropout system there will be many cases where simple mistake can drop you from 6th to 12th. Or effectively out of q3. So the chaos factor mostly applies to the mid field imho. The system can also change the top2 slightly. I think it will be very equal between hamilton and rosberg in terms of who gets p1 becuase it will be more random. But not random enough for ferrari to get p1.

It is imho kinda messy and if the goal was to make top positions more random it doesn't succeed in that. Mid field racing can improve but it can also make mercedes domination seem even more strong becuase the midfield cars fighting amongst themselves will slow them down and allows top teams to run away.

I would have like a q1+q2 type of quali. First everybody goes out and sets fast lap times. Top 10 continues to q2. In q2 drivers go out individually in random order one by one using the tires they used in q1. Each driver gets one lap. Then drivers (who made it into q2) start the race on those tires.
New rims!
Dissapointing new quali format! Bleuh. Why change a working system.
sweet

awesome
Reminds me of Jordan Smile
I like the livery. Simple yet new. Also, that nose is refreshing.
Worst qualifying session ever, thanks Bernie.
the new mode is boring. q3 everybody drove one hotlap and the last 4 minutes nothing happened anymore. i hope theyll decide to change to the old format for the next race in bahrain
The new format is not catastrophically bad for the first two qualifying sessions, but not ideal either. It's terrible for the last qualifying session, I hope at least that gets changed for the next race weekend.

Rosberg appears to still have no answer for Hamilton. Crash in practice, mistakes in the first and third qualifying. Hamilton going from strength to strength it seems. I'm still hoping for a close race for the WDC title, but it's not looking rosy at the moment.

Good job by Jolyon Palmer.
I kinda liked the first two sessions. It would have been better if bernie's graphics people could have managed to create some graphics for the q1 and q2 knockout timers. It was just impossible to have any kind of idea where everyone is when you don't have the slightest idea if someone has enough time or not to to even try to improve his time. Not having the knockout timers in q1 was just unforgivable.

The worst part of the quali was how insanely unchaotic and predictable it was. Beforehand it looked kinda chaotic but turns out it was one of the most predictable qualifying sessions ever. If the goal was to mix up the order of the cars a bit so that cars don't start in order of fastest first and slowest last then it failed that completely. The cars are now in the exact order of performance.
..
Great race, seeing Vettel in the lead and immediately running away gave me some flashbacks. Big grin
I guess at least Rosberg, if not Hamilton would have overtaken Vettel had he been on mediums, so the supersofts and softs strategy wasn't is bad as I'd first imagined it to be. Still a shame that Ferrari couldn't manage to convert a one-two. If only Mercedes would get starts that bad all through the season.

Hamilton dropped to 6th, didn't gain anything from the red flag and still almost caught Rosberg. My conclusion is that had Hamilton started from the inside rather than the outside, he wouldn't have gotten shafted by Rosberg going wide in turn one on lap one. He's still the better Mercedes driver, even though Rosberg won. Which is fine of course, he did well to avoid mistakes and to get the win.

Veeery lucky for Grosjean, that's not where Haas will finish in the rest of the season, but fair enough, he drove a solid race. Palmer did a great job as well, he seems steady like Kovalainen, but better. The chumps of the race were Verstappen with his spin and radio antics, and especially Gutierrez. What an utter knobhead choice to move from the inside towards the side where Alonso was passing and thus causing the crash. Good thing to see Alonso plop out of the wreckage in one piece. Button's pace was very disappointing Frown.

Formula 1 Season 2016
(75 posts, started )
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