2024 Formula 1 Constructors threadFormula 1
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MagpieRacer
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Andretti making an announcement today. Almost all of Twitter thinks it’s announcing F1 but it’s probably just an Indy driver announcement or something.
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- Rossell2
New sponsor for Formula E. The announcement tweet made it sound like an F1 tease though.
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- 3,600
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For those who thought Mercedes stopped developing the 2021 present car and they already had all focus on 2022 new car:
Spotted before the GP USA starts. (Source: Craig Scarborough)
Spotted before the GP USA starts. (Source: Craig Scarborough)
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Is that so that they can track and monitor the car's progress when they release it into the wild?
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Innovation
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It's only cheating if you get caught Ferrari complains about it because they didn't think of it first.
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- GTP_Famine
Whatever "it" is, Ferrari did think of it:
And... it turns out Red Bull also did.
That said, I don't even know what "it" is. I can't actually listen to Paul di Resta's nasal whining, but is he seriously pointing at the back end of the car moving in relation to the tyres as if there's some kind of nefarious thing happening like a flexiwing (which isn't what's happening at all)?
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Apparently yes, the implication is that because the rear end is squatting down visibly under acceleration and rising back up under braking, evil engineering magic is at play. Or at least that's supposed to be the case since the Merc is apparently doing it more pronounced than the Red Bull is and thus they've "bolted something onto the car", as he so puts it.
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- ScottPuss20
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I thought something looked a bit off with the rear ride height.
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- GTP_Famine
Pretty much. There's also some tech in there, which Red Bull also has but which is less effective due to the high rake design.
Basically there's a third, lateral spring (called a heave spring) which ties the two sides of the car together - there's actually one on the front and one on the back - which manages total load across the... uhhh... "axle" when both wheel springs are moving in the same direction: compressing due to downforce (acceleration) or extending as they unload (braking).
What you see here with the car squatting more at speed and then rising under braking is the spring (it's not really a spring) compressing and then passing a certain load threshold (which can be tuned per track) at which it essentially collapses to full compression. Under braking, as the load decreases, it does it the other way round, slowly extending back to that threshold and then popping back into becoming a useful spring again.
On the rear axle when the heave spring compresses it basically interrupts air flow to the diffuser, stalling it out and reducing drag as a consequence. The result is a higher top speed.
It's been on F1 cars since... forever. Like, well before Paul di Resta had a career, and likely much further than that. It doesn't work as well on the Red Bull, because they can't get the car to squat enough to stall the diffuser due to their high rake.
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Remember how Andretti Autosport was going to be the hope for another American F1 team? Yeah, that won't happen.
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The rumours among the usual paddock sources is that as part of the deal Andretti planned to close some of the Sauber base in Switzerland, move operations partially to the US, and make several hundred people redundant. Sauber weren't happy with those terms, naturally, so it collapsed.
But as usual, just paddock rumours, so take them with a David Coulthard jaw of salt.
MagpieRacer
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McLaren have moved to deny this pretty quickly and said it’s wholly inaccurate.
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I may have jumped the gun on it but I actually hope it isn't true. I really like the running joke of "When is VAG going to join F1?"
MagpieRacer
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If the report is true (since it hasn't been confirmed), I'd like to think one of two things will happen:
1. Audi joins as engine supplier and team name becomes McLaren-Audi.
2. Audi does the first one AND either starts a new team or enters an engine deal for a 2nd team. (HAAS maybe?)
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Wasn't their a link somewhere between Porsche (VAG) and RedBullRacing after Honda decided to leave the F1 arena? RBR use the Honda technology for 2022-2025 and could add Porsche for future development >2025? Could be (and probably is) fake news 
Even if it was true (which I doubt) they wouldn't get rid of the name any more than they got rid of the Lamborghini name when they bought them. The road cars are still Lamborghini, they still race as Lamborghini. Sure F1 is a little different in that they're not based on road cars but they wouldn't just ditch the familiar and historic brandname then spend years building up the Audi name as an F1 name.
