The front is really different. Will it work?

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=143633#
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2004/gen/f1-2004-gen-tm-0129.jpg

Wow...it most certainly looks to have a lot more surface area on the 2 elements of the front wing than in years past.

Should be fun to see!!

Thats a lil different....

Also just noticed that the supports for the front wing continue back into the body. Looks like they were designed to further direct air and keep the turbulent air from around the wheel/suspension from interacting with the air that passes over and underneath the nose. Very radical design! Way to go Williams!

It'll be real interesting to see how good it works and how fast the other teams will try to mimick it.

Looks like it will produce a lot off downforce, with those elements, but I hope they still have more power than anybody else. Looks like it will punch a pretty nice hole in the air.

I'm not so sure. With smaller sidepods and the strakes? running back from the nose, the car may actually be more aerodynamic. By better controlling the way the air moves from the front of the car to the rear wing, they can likely produce more downforce with a smaller angle of attack than in the past (this also goes for the front wing which looks to have more surface area, and thus may be able to produce more downforce with a smaller angle of attack). The smaller angle of attack would create less drag and result in more top speed.

All in all, I'm guessing they wouldn't make such radical changes if they weren't more aerodynamically efficient. Seems as though the new nose will keep more air away from the "dirty" sections around the front suspension and the spinning front tire too, which should lead to more efficiency.

Check out the additional pieces behind the nose and near the front suspension that look to be designed to further control the air as it comes under the nose and keep it away from the suspension/tire.:

http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2004/gen/f1-2004-gen-tm-0118.jpg

http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2004/gen/f1-2004-gen-tm-0129.jpg

I really hope they do well, Schuey is great and all, but I am getting sick of Maranello boys. I think if Juan can keep it onthe track this year they should be fine. Ralf is no slouch either

What do they do with the air flow that goes under the new nose cone? Is it just more air forced under the body to create more of a tunnel for the bernadi (sp?) to create more downforce? If so why not just raise the middle section of the front splitter to compensate for the difference? Overall I like the look, but I would love it if someone could post some real technical fluid dynamic analysis of this new concept and what they are trying to accomplish. At first glance a single foil is less drag than two, but if they are trying to dirrect the flow down the center for a reason I'd like to know what it is.

I don't think Williams know for certain that it will work out, but kudos to them for pushing the envelope.

Regardless of how it works, two entertaining thoughts come to mind:

1. If they managed to keep the catamaran nose secret from the other teams (iffy) then those teams are scrambling and burning some midnight oil to study the concept, LOL.

2. I'll bet that Ferrari are going over the rules with a microscope, and they'll try to find something - anything - there to use against Williams if the car does well.

^^^True^^^
I'm sure if this design shows any inprovements over current designs they will argue that it breaks some kind of rule. But they will wait until the season progresses so they can have a better political leg to stand on. It will kind of be like if the Bush admin finds osbl in october vs finding him now. If they find him now there won't be much to say, but if they find him in october people will start to ask questions.
Personally I don't think this advance is that radical that people can say much; but I don't think it will give them that much of an avantage anyway. With the new rules the engine will really make the difference. If williams can finish as many races as ferrari they should win, but that's the $64,000 question.

The engine situation is going to be interesting. Hopefully there won't be a big spike in engine failures.

Ugly as hell but interesting nonetheless!

Looks like McLaren and Williams are going in completely opposite directions with their new nose cones. Didn't McLaren have some issues with crash-worthiness of last year's MP4-18? Wonder whether it was because of the extremely slim nose cone that they used in that car and in their current iteration. Hmm! Wonder whether Williams are going to face any problems in getting this car to meet the crash regulations.

I believe I read that the car already meets the FIA regulations. I can't imagine that Williams would unveil and start testing a car full time if it didn't.

Late to chime in, but i've been reading a lot on the new FW26 nosecone lately due to its radical design. The design is pretty simple kinda when you think about it based on the rules..

When the FIA mandated higher front wing heights a few seasons ago they did allow the center of the front wing to sit lower than the outer flanks (i believe this has now changed), but this made the teams focus on maximizing downforce from the front wing in the center area since they could have the lower height there. The problem was that there wasn't any room behind the center for the wash to head, thus the high-nose front end was born.

Sauber made the next move in '02 with twin-keel front suspension. Basically, before then everyone mounted the lower control arms to a central "single keel" in the middle of the nosecone (on the bottomside).. Sauber decided to mount the two pickups at the outer edge of the cone instead so they could capitalize on the airflow in that region. Currently, Williams, Renault, and McLaren run twin-keel front ends (they say it costs ya some stiffness) and only Ferrari runs single-keel of the top teams.

For '04 McLaren refocused the d/f on the front wing to the outside of the nosecone, but before the endplates. They made the nosetip as narrow as possible to achieve this and to minimize drag in that region. Little downforce is made on the center, but airflow under the nose is very clean, thus aiding the whole underbody aero.

Williams has taken the opposite approach. By splayin that cone open they created a massive region of flow on the center of the wing, thereby maximizing downforce in the center of the new wing with MINIMAL dirty washleaving the under-cone area. Pretty genius, but i'm not as impressed with the rest of the FW26. The sidepods are still quite bulky and lack the tightly packaged asses of the Ferrari, and the new McLaren.. in addition, no vortex-generation hindering technologies seem to have been implemented on the new rear wing, but perhaps the rear wing simply isn't finished. I was surprised not to find a 3D type wing on the rear.. i do like the short winglet mounts though and the integrated flip-ups for the rear. Surely cleaning up the rear wing airflow and reducing vortex generation off the older taller mounts.

As a whole, i prefer the new McLaren based on what i've seen. I think its tight coke-bottle sidepods, compact rearend, 3D wing and engine cover are real sharp, but the front nose arrangement is hard to debate versus the Williams.. im not a PhD or anything.

Where does the air go after the nosecone under-area?

Well, the "tuning vanes" (the pushers beside the suspenion arms, force the dirty flow backwards out of the path of critical aero points and the sidepod inlets.. then the "barge boards" (the flanks forward of the sidepod) seperate out clean and dirty air. The barge boards flush the more turbulent air outside of the chassis while the cleaner/faster moving low pressure air sweeps into the sidepods for cooling and upwards over the sidepods where air is directed to the rear wing.

Hope that helps..

Well that didn't take long for others to jump on. Renault may do the same.

http://www.planetf1.com/Home/story_14021.shtml

It certainly is a sweet innovation, i wonder if McLaren is still confident in their decision or whether their wishing they had thought of that. Either way, i still think the rest of the 26 chassis is kinda behind.. but with all the teething problems the 25 had, i dont blame them for not wanting to change drastically again this year.

Can't wait to see what the red boys from Maranello bring.. should be marvelous.

Originally posted by Alex McHenry
Hope that helps..

VERY helpful. Can you come over to my house and explain this stuff to me while I'm watching the races next season, sort like of my own personal Steve Matchett? :D

Originally posted by ///DavidC
VERY helpful. Can you come over to my house and explain this stuff to me while I'm watching the races next season, sort like of my own personal Steve Matchett? :D

Hehe, yeah i've just become so interested in chassis design and aero the past season and i've been obsessing online and through books reading up on this stuff. Info is hard to come by, but there are plenty of places with awesome data if you look around. I'll post some graphical depictions later.

The nose treatment will also allow for a cleaner airflow to the diffuser under the car. Did you notice the picture of the rear of the car showing what they didn't want anyone to get close pictures of...the diffuser?

http://www.atlasf1.com/gallery/picture.php/dir/2004willaunch/image/djm0405ja19-3

Originally posted by Alex McHenry
... there are plenty of places with awesome data if you look around.

I bought my first issue of F1 Racing magazine (from the UK) a while back and was really impressed with the graphics in their "Debrief" sections. They do a great job of pointing out changes like the "shark's teeth" that Williams had on the rear wing's trailing edge at Monza, and so on. Interesting stuff.

If SpeedTV had a weekly half-hour show on that kind of information/technology, and not just from F1 but also WRC etc., I bet it would be very well-received. Of course, then you know someone's going to be trying to use this stuff on their old CRX... :rolleyes:

With my aeronautical engineering background it looks like the new front end design has moved the center of downforce forward. Plus, the front axle looks like it has moved rearward relative to the rest of the chassis.

I think this means that the front tires will do more work in this design relative to the FW25.

Anyone else notice how the front tires may actually be larger than the rears?

Originally posted by Phantom
Anyone else notice how the front tires may actually be larger than the rears?

Hard to tell from the pictures I've seen, as most look to be taken with wide-angle lenses and so the perspective is distorted. Would be very surprised if they were larger than the rears but I've been surprised plenty of times before...

Is it March yet? :D

Originally posted by Phantom
Anyone else notice how the front tires may actually be larger than the rears?

Wait, I just looked at the photos from testing. The fronts don't look larger than the rears, but they seem to be relatively larger than last season's fronts.

David C, looks like you're right about the lens perspective in the still shots. My bad.

First off, correction : the Renault R23 is a single-keel front suspension. The R24 will likely have twin-keel though..

The center of d/f on the front end is probably further back if anything. The front overhang is quite a bit shorter than the FW25's, and the driver position has been moved back several inches, which opens up the footwell to increase the flow volume behind the front wing. The rear wing also extends quite a bit further back.. check out this image from F1 Technical.

<img src="http://www.f1technical.net/articles/history/images/special/fw26_1.jpg">

The front tires are not larger than the rears. The stated limit is 270mm in the front, which Michelin meets (there was beef last season about the deformation causing an illegal contact patch) but the Bridgestones are narrower at 250mm in the front. Rears max legal size is 340mm i think..

Alex,
That's a great photo! I'm adding their website to my Favorites list.

Thanks for the correction!

No sweat man, I've learned so much browsing those sites and talking with aero guys. My favorite F1 sites are:

www.F1-live.net
www.AtlasF1.net
www.F1Technical.net
www.ScarbsF1.net
www.racingcircuits.net

www.f1racing.net
www.planetf1.com
www.itv-f1.com
www.pitpass.com

You guys left out the big one - http://www.formula1.com/.

The official Formula 1 web site!
Check out their Insight section, particularly 'Understanding the Sport' and 'FIA Rules and Regulations'. Very informative!!!