2018 F1 Constructor development/techFormula 1 

Spanish updates are here, which is important cause they tend to set a tone from here until the end of summer into the break. Also I feel these are important more so this season with a couple of teams, because they could help hone certain chassis engine pairings that still needed fine tuning.

McLaren updates:
Dc2YKL5X4AAcJRz.jpg

Dc2YKL3X0AEvph5.jpg


Ferrari:
FB_IMG_1525949429837.jpg

racefansdotnet-20180510-170824-1.jpg


Also William Chief Designer steps down
https://www.racefans.net/2018/05/10/williams-confirms-designer-wood-has-stepped-down/
 
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So that was McLaren's big Spec B update? A new nose?

New front wing, nose, turning vanes, barge board revisions...and actually getting that nose through crash testing and passing I'm pretty sure. Not all that small of a task like you seem to think. And far more considerable than what others seem to have done.

Also I recall a certain world champion team bring an update like this during the same GP a year ago, and it improving their pace. Not saying that will happen for McLaren but it is a quite invested attempt.

Anyways here is the Merc update from what has been seen so far
Mercedes-Formel-1-GP-Spanien-Barcelona-10-Mai-2018-fotoshowBig-6e96b516-1162357.png

Mercedes has added Vortex fins to their wishbones and has changed the side pod opening a bit to be a more smooth transition.

Mercedes-Formel-1-GP-Spanien-Barcelona-10-Mai-2018-fotoshowBig-f3e67287-1162359.png

Mercedes-Formel-1-GP-Spanien-Barcelona-10-Mai-2018-fotoshowBig-e63afb41-1162360.png


And this news that I missed which is pretty big

https://www.racefans.net/2018/05/02/sauber-splits-from-technical-director-zander/
 
Not all that small of a task like you seem to think.
Hey don't put words in my mouth. At least season and cook them first. I remember it being talked up which lead to believing a more visual change, perhaps with the engine cover shape as well. Yes there are major changes but I expected it to look more different than it does. That's all. Nothing about how hard a task it was. That was never brought up.
 
Hey don't put words in my mouth. At least season and cook them first. I remember it being talked up which lead to believing a more visual change, perhaps with the engine cover shape as well. Yes there are major changes but I expected it to look more different than it does. That's all. Nothing about how hard a task it was. That was never brought up.

No one did anything like that, you implied it with what I quoted. You clearly expected more than that, and thus give the impression it's not as big of a deal. Also Engine cover shape? What exactly aero wise is that going to do now that it's be limited after last season? Again you may have not said it directly but there is enough there to infer.
 
We simply disagree. No need to get sassy :cheers:

:gtplanet:
For reference, in case you haven't seen the old car in a while.

2018-azerbaijan-fernando-alonso-qualifying-baku.jpg
.

Some other additions to the car that weren't posted.
zhhD7aYi6_RkNMB4ftvz3dqHNuWQ0aJnKbDF4NcbVeg.jpg


new turning vanes
-8MCbC6CDzwZh7FRnfvheeK-uV95wnuKO8Mo4OMzelw.jpg

extra layer to the diffuser central section
7hmGWeH-MgF0bECgnIGiF2Fp-ukSBsXIN0Jspohwbx4.jpg


I don't know how almost wholesale changes at every end of the car isn't much. Maybe the orange doesn't make it easy to see all the changes. But gone are the days where a B spec car is almost a completely different car, like the Brabham BT46B. You won't see a team make such wholesale changes to an entire car in one race in regulations as strict as modern day F1.
 
For reference, in case you haven't seen the old car in a while.

2018-azerbaijan-fernando-alonso-qualifying-baku.jpg
.

Some other additions to the car that weren't posted.
zhhD7aYi6_RkNMB4ftvz3dqHNuWQ0aJnKbDF4NcbVeg.jpg


new turning vanes
-8MCbC6CDzwZh7FRnfvheeK-uV95wnuKO8Mo4OMzelw.jpg

extra layer to the diffuser central section
7hmGWeH-MgF0bECgnIGiF2Fp-ukSBsXIN0Jspohwbx4.jpg


I don't know how almost wholesale changes at every end of the car isn't much. Maybe the orange doesn't make it easy to see all the changes. But gone are the days where a B spec car is almost a completely different car, like the Brabham BT46B. You won't see a team make such wholesale changes to an entire car in one race in regulations as strict as modern day F1.
Thanks for the post, the only reason I didn't post those is because at times if you post too many images you're asked to put a spoiler and I didn't feel like doing that. However, I did inform him in a post above of the changes you've shown other than the diffuser and yet he still refused to acknowledge these changes as pretty significant.
 
It's understandable, it's more difficult these days to get excited about any McLaren update, with all the let downs of the past 5 years. I wouldn't be surprised if the new nose is shades of FW26 with a big mouth and no bite, but I hope I'm proven wrong, as Alonso deserves better.
 
But gone are the days where a B spec car is almost a completely different car, like the Brabham BT46B. You won't see a team make such wholesale changes to an entire car in one race in regulations as strict as modern day F1.
I find this a crying shame.

When I started following F1 in the mid 80's, (my first race was the '85 Australian GP) I used to play what I called the identity game.
I imagined if all the cars were painted plain white, how could I know that was a Ferrari or, that was a McLaren?
Over the years, it was easy to know certain cars thanks to some unique design trait - no one could mistake the sabretooth FW26 or the twin floor F92A Ferrari.
Nowadays, that's not so easy as the designers face increasingly strict design 'windows' & regulations. Shame :indiff:
 
I find this a crying shame.

When I started following F1 in the mid 80's, (my first race was the '85 Australian GP) I used to play what I called the identity game.
I imagined if all the cars were painted plain white, how could I know that was a Ferrari or, that was a McLaren?
Over the years, it was easy to know certain cars thanks to some unique design trait - no one could mistake the sabretooth FW26 or the twin floor F92A Ferrari.
Nowadays, that's not so easy as the designers face increasingly strict design 'windows' & regulations. Shame :indiff:
Trust me, without the windows and heavy regulations, the field would be so much more spread out it wouldn't be fun. With the detail engineers can get in aerodynamics now, letting them go free would only make everything worse.
 
Trust me, without the windows and heavy regulations, the field would be so much more spread out it wouldn't be fun. With the detail engineers can get in aerodynamics now, letting them go free would only make everything worse.
I think that with aero tunnels and CFD being as advanced as they are today, we would have teams come to the same conclusion after season or two and we wouldn’t have cars much more different then they are today. We might get a breakthrough once in a while, but teams would end up going the same way, as it would be the fastest way
 
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I find this a crying shame.

When I started following F1 in the mid 80's, (my first race was the '85 Australian GP) I used to play what I called the identity game.
I imagined if all the cars were painted plain white, how could I know that was a Ferrari or, that was a McLaren?
Over the years, it was easy to know certain cars thanks to some unique design trait - no one could mistake the sabretooth FW26 or the twin floor F92A Ferrari.
Nowadays, that's not so easy as the designers face increasingly strict design 'windows' & regulations. Shame :indiff:

I don't think that is true at all.
All of the teams have a pretty distinctive cars. Yes, it's not the wild times of the 70s and 80s, but given how stringent the regs are, the car's are clearly all different.

Ferrari; raked car, stubby steep nose and highly complex top facing sidepod inlets, like nothing seen on an F1 car. They also have the crazy mirror inlets
Mercedes; flat, long wheel base (almost limo like), thin nose, wide airbox and very complex barge-boards.
Red Bull; raked car, snorkel nose, sidepod winglet madness,, high sidepod air inlets
McLaren; well, new car, snorkel thin stubby ant-eater/pig nose, pretty basic bargeboards, tiny airbox..


...that's not including the crazy stuff Force India has or the Sauber with wings everywhere, the Hass with almost last years Ferrari... Considering how advanced the aero (and that unlike the 80s ground effect isn't legal) is and the modelling the teams are using, the rules to make the racing better and the fact this is only year 2 of the new regs. The cars all look pretty different...

adb
I think that with aero tunnels and CFD being as advanced as they are today, we would have teams come to the same conclusion after season or two and we wouldn’t have cars much different then they are today. We might get a breakthrough once in a while, but teams would end up going the same way, as it would be the fastest way

Only the teams with the most money. Meaning the earnings for teams would be even more skewed, resulting in even less cars on the grid, until the sport stopped existing.
 
adb
I think that with aero tunnels and CFD being as advanced as they are today, we would have teams come to the same conclusion after season or two and we wouldn’t have cars much different then they are today. We might get a breakthrough once in a while, but teams would end up going the same way, as it would be the fastest way

That wouldn't happen because the sum design philosophy of each chief designer would remain different. If what you said was true then we'd already have seen that many times within the many instances of the regulations.

@DesertPenguin, I'd recommend you read Adrian Newey's "How to Build an F1 Car", you might be surprised how small visual changes carry a massive design change requirement along the length of the floor and the aero body. It's a fascinating read.
 
Also the RB14 is updated. And now lets see if it are also improvements.

PS Did I miss the thread about this F1 Barcelona GP weekend?
 
That wouldn't happen because the sum design philosophy of each chief designer would remain different. If what you said was true then we'd already have seen that many times within the many instances of the regulations.

@DesertPenguin, I'd recommend you read Adrian Newey's "How to Build an F1 Car", you might be surprised how small visual changes carry a massive design change requirement along the length of the floor and the aero body. It's a fascinating read.
They already have different philosophies, cars are different, what I’m saying is they wouldn’t be radically different, especially few years into “Rule #1: No Rules” type of F1, because nowadays, IMO, teams would come to very similar conclusions due to how advanced CFD simulations. There still would be differences, noses, side pods, bargeboards etc, but I don’t think we would see cars with much different positions of wings, cockpits, car dimensions, which for me would be considered as much more different then today
 
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They already have different philosophies, cars are different, what I’m saying is they wouldn’t be radically different, especially few years into “Rule #1: No Rules” type of F1, because nowadays, IMO, teams would come to very similar conclusions due to how advanced CFD simulations. There still would be differences, noses, side pods, bargeboards etc, but I don’t think we would see cars with much different positions of wings, cockpits, car dimensions, which for me would be considered as much more different then today

Given that wing position is dictated largely by where each end of the car is from origin then I still think different designers will prefer different wheelbases for starters (again, we've seen that plenty). If the engineers are allowed to remove the pesky extra weight from crash structures then we'll see fatal accidents making a regular return, of course - there are no rules about mitigating impacts after all.

Personally I'd design a bullet car that always qualified on pole and then swelled to the width of the track every time another car came close to overtaking. With missiles. A "no rules" concept is impossible and ridiculous, imo.
 
Just saw the Ferrari Halo with attached mirrors live in action at Barcelona. If it is better for the driver ok. It is just an opinion, but this is UGLY.
 
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