[Team] The new teams development for 2010 so far, discuss here.

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by jab

Pastor's been linked there but I doubt DLR really wants to stick to testing when there are race seat offers on the table - he's said many times before he wants to get back into racing. I'd say it would be more likely in that case that he's signed for US F1 instead

If so that would be a coup for us, consdiering how Wurz backed out on us.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Peralta

Speedtv will show it this weekend probably a special with steve matchet during the grand prix broadcast. They have several shows during the weekend dealing with F1 so you have to watch all of them

Early in the race broadcast they had their RPM (Racing Per Matchett) segment and that included Steve Matchett making a visit to USF1. It was very short and consisted of Steve meeting Peter Windsor in his office, then talking to two aero guys. They showed some CFD as well as CAD representation of the car (with specific rule based exclusion areas). They then moved onto showing two different items in the multi-axis CNC machine. I am curious if anyone is able to identify what they were machining. Overall, it was slightly a bit more than has been shown previously, but not much more.

[Marbot]

The FIA recently paid them a visit and were said to be "impressed" !?

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Early in the race broadcast they had their RPM (Racing Per Matchett) segment and that included Steve Matchett making a visit to USF1. It was very short and consisted of Steve meeting Peter Windsor in his office, then talking to two aero guys. They showed some CFD as well as CAD representation of the car (with specific rule based exclusion areas). They then moved onto showing two different items in the multi-axis CNC machine. I am curious if anyone is able to identify what they were machining. Overall, it was slightly a bit more than has been shown previously, but not much more.

I saw this, and I honestly didn't know what to make of it. I assume the part on the CNC was a gearbox part, like a side plate.

BUT, I thought the plan was to utilize existing organizations to make parts, supplying them with the design and not have the overhead of owning machinery (honestly, now, there must be a glut of capacity on the market going cheap). Maybe that didn't extend to CNC type equipment, but, I just had this feeling with that episode that nothing we saw was real. That is a bizarre concept. They also made a play of this being Windsor's final reporting. I just found the whole thing odd, and if I was being asked for investment, I think I would want a walk through... I know I would want a walk through.

rober

[JeremySmith]

It was most strange to say the least...

[DanShenise]

Well either PW is an ardent minimalist or his office was a very quickly thrown together affair. It appeared from the camera angle to be:
1. very small, say 12' x 12'
2. consist only of a stock desk
3. Artwork/memorabilia consisted of 1 unframed but matted Jim Clark photo.
4. I think he was using a laptop as well, so no integrated PC (though this is becoming more common).

Overall it felt between staged and just really that they are too busy to work on anything but the car. The Aero department they showed was maybe 20' - 24' on one wall length and you could see the other complete wall. It had the feel of a college dorm.

[Peralta]

I agree with you all. The whole thing seemed bizzare. I also got the feeling that PW was even a bit embarrassed and uneasy. I was hoping to see a freaking tub at least but nothing. No explanation of why no tub, no wind tunnel model no nothing. This guys are way behind schedule. They said they would have a rolling chassis by now but where is it. I was hoping to see a tour of the shop but all we saw was an almost empty office room and 4 or 5 guys working behind screens. I atleast expected a busy place. Very odd considering this guys where bosting at the beginning of the year that the public would have unpresedented access to how a car is build and tours of the shop.

BMW should continue with their own design for next year cause it can easily become the 13th team.

[Richard C]

I am a bit puzzled as to why anyone expected to see anything more than what was shown. Or that what was shown would be radically different than what has been shown recently. It was basically moving pictures version of the recent photos. The "new" stuff that was shown was that something was actually being created (probably their #1 goal of the visit).

I can't remember what race (Brazil?) in which Peter told Steve during the SpeedTV race broadcast that they were producing part X and that Steve should drop by and check it out. Steve mentioned that maybe they could bring a camera crew. I can't remember what part if was, but I think it may have be part of the top of the cockpit area. I suspect that the one of the two parts shown on Sunday was a foam cockpit surround (for a full size mock-up of the car?) The other part, I would have guessed as transmission related, but am not sure. Based upon what they showed, I would guess they might be at the full size mock up stage or maybe slightly beyond. Time will tell as to when they will show a rolling chassis (if they even choose to show it early at all).

Regarding outsourcing, with them having the 5x machines, autoclave, etc. I suspect they expect to fabricate some/all of the carbon parts there and machine some/all of the major metal parts. I think at this point the outsourcing they have mentioned is for aero testing, shaker rigs, etc. That topic has been pretty well covered by interviews with Ken and Peter.

Regarding the inside of the building, it was pretty minimalist. However, from being inside the lobby personally, my impression is that they didn't re-do the existing office portion of the building when they leased it. Maybe a fresh coat of paint, etc. As young as they are, that is about as glitzy as I would expect it to be on the inside of the office portion. Frankly I would rather they spend the money on the car vs. interior decorations.

Overall, as a fan and being generally curious about any F1 team/technology, I would have liked to have seen more. Back when the USF1 website was first launched it was totally different. They had a "Blog" from Peter in which he talked about how they wanted to have an open and fan friendly factory. That they would us an in-house production facility to show what is happening inside the factory. That was pulled off the site month ago. However when I talked to Ken in late September, the one question I asked was if they planned to go foward with the fan friendly aspect and he said it was something they still wanted to do.

I don't think there was mention of it on the early version of the website, but I had hoped they may even go as far as live webcams. However, I doubt any F1 team would open up their factory that much. With YouTube being the sponsor, I am expecting that they will do most if not all of this via YouTube videos. So I am hoping that they eventually open up a bit more. But I would not be surprised if they don't until they are well into next season.

[climb]

Originally Posted by Marbot

The FIA recently paid them a visit and were said to be "impressed" !?

Didn't they specify if they were impressed positively or negatively?

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by climb

Didn't they specify if they were impressed positively or negatively?

No, they were just "impressed". But maybe it's in the FIAs best interests to say these things knowing that it is they who gave the team the go-ahead in the first place.

[Ted bennett]

I guess this is the 'RPM' segment mentioned previously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbrHk0EmQP0

The piece of tooling block on the 5 axis could be a section of the chassis pattern or it might be for a mock up.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Ted bennett

The piece of tooling block on the 5 axis could be a section of the chassis pattern or it might be for a mock up.

Or it could be just about anything else.

[Ted bennett]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Or it could be just about anything else.

Well hardly.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Ted bennett

Well hardly.

They're probably not building a 'time machine', but it would come in handy if they were.

[old man]

Not impressed with Mr Branson's "diplomatic" grid comment about next year and Manor, so far as I am aware their involvement is not confirmed, just a glorified rumour, am I right?

[RaceFreak]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I am a bit puzzled as to why anyone expected to see anything more than what was shown.

Well, for two reasons actually.
First is the search for sponsors. If I were a potential sponsor I would not get much of a warm and fuzzy feeling about where they are; as opposed to where they need to be with 3 or 4 months until the beginning of testing.

Second was even more disturbing. I didn't see one piece of race hardware. No engines, electronics,tires, CF parts, etc. Now I realize that AUTOCAD prototyping is done pretty quickly, but they can't believe this car is gonna bolt together and roll out the door on to the test track. Can they....?

[old man]

According to a big report on Manor in the Yorkshire Post today Virgin and Manor will make an announcement "early next month" and again says the car aerodynamics will be "designed totally by CFD"

[F.O.F.]

Originally Posted by old man

"designed totally by CFD"

By Wirth Research isn't it? They made the Acura prototypes in ALMS.

[Marbot]

From a cost saving POV wind tunnels are a luxury that only a few can afford.

They are not particularly environmentally friendly, and even though they have been stopped from operating 24/7 they still need to be started up regularly, which usually requires the factory to inform the local power station that it is about to do so, such is the power consumption.

So it's small wonder that some teams are using only CFD to design their cars.

Also: Force India are keeping an eye on the Lotus design because it looks too much like their car.Which begs the question: Why would you want to copy a car that was only quick at a couple of circuits ?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80029

[duke_toaster]

I don't know about banning wind tunnels totally, but I'd certainly put in a rule that they can only be used for 40 hours a week, getting rid of the sillyness of running them 24/7.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

I don't know about banning wind tunnels totally, but I'd certainly put in a rule that they can only be used for 40 hours a week, getting rid of the sillyness of running them 24/7.

My mistake, the wind tunnels are still operating at 24/7, but now can only use 60% size models with wind speeds not in excess of 50 metres per second.

Running them 24/7 means that they don't need to be started up from standstill very often, so they're still going to use a hell of a lot of power which ever way you look at it!

[Marbot]

The Force India vs Lotus issue takes another turn.

Recently Force India had called into question the legitimacy of Lotus's car design, and now things seem to be heading for some sort of confrontation.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80039

At this point it is worth noting that the pictures of the new Lotus also look to be of a similar design to that of the Ferrari,Renault,McLaren,BMW,Toyota,RedBull,Brawn,Williams and STR F1 racing cars.

[Tim the Grey]

It looks like a current F1 car to me. As do they all...

Although the Brawn seems to have a lower nose than most.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

Although the Brawn seems to have a lower nose than most.

RedBull had a couple of different noses on their cars, but the real differences were in the bits that no one can see.

[RaceFreak]

Concerning USF1; Germany's Auto Motor und Sport estimated the chance that they will be ready to race in 2010 at "zero". They have done no crash testing yet. This procedure cannot be simulated on a supercomputer and needs to be accomplished before the official FIA tests begin.

I think it's looking less probable every day.