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Showing posts with label Sebastian Vettel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sebastian Vettel. Show all posts
24 Sept 2013
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Sebastian Vettel already commands 3 driver's championships and is well on his way to a 4th consecutive title, however if the actions heard at recent podium celebrations of fans are to believed he has also become a driver that is dis liked.

Opinion amongst fans about who is the best driver will always be swayed by the fact that most people follow a specific team or driver.  What however is clear is that some drivers can transcend this trait as either they have moved between teams and therefore carry support from past endeavors, they drive for a team that bears a different Nationality to their own or they are media savvy.  The latter is a difficult one for some drivers as perhaps 75% of the media that follow the F1 circus are British, this therefore tends to skew the representation of the facts in a certain way. 

Those countries that have their own media that follow the F1 circus, like Italy and Germany obviously favour their own too, with Ferrari sharing most of the limelight in Italy and (currently) Mercedes in Germany.  Vettel should therefore be able to command a good media presence and therefore a good standing in the fans eyes by virtue of him driving for a British team and being of German Nationality. 

The problem however is how he comes across (at least in the British media), his confidence often borders on arrogance whilst his 1 finger salute to winning grinds many fans gears.  Whenever we see him he is in PR mode, wearing his racesuit in a FIA post session interview or in the pit huddle with one of the reporters.  We rarely see the relaxed Vettel doing a feature the likes of Jenson, Lewis etc partake in for Sky or the BBC which represents their lighter side.  He also has the problem of following and very much cast in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher, of the same Nationality and with the same win at all costs mentality he doesn't ingratiate himself into the mind of Brits.  That however is another debate that see's the British at their best when supporting an under dog (usually one of our own) and is akin to small man (Island) syndrome.

Aware of the 'boo boys' that have taken to booing his performances as he stands on the podium to receive the trophy he deservedly been awarded, Sebastian doesn't seem overly concerned by it, nor should he.  Booing is essentially a signal of disdain but then can we assume that these people are unhappy with the best driver on that given day, or indeed most days during the GP weekend's this season? Or are they unhappy with their own driver and feel this is the best way to shame their performance?

If we draw parallels with other sports and in this instance football (or Soccer dependent on where you are reading this) then you boo your own team when you are upset by the performance they have given in that match or a string of matches that preceded it.  As Sebastien is achieving the best result possible then we can only surmise that the 'boo boys' are people that support other drivers/teams.  Whilst it would appear they are booing Vettel essentially they are lauding him and pouring scorn on their own driver(s).

I constantly hear the phrase 'Yes, but he has the best car' well that may all be well and true but it is only the best because it is married to his talents.  Mark Webber is a fantastic driver but prefers a car that can only be described as less aerodynamically dependent, wielding the same car as Vettel during his 3 championship years he has yet to best the German...

The same can be said for other Championship winning drivers, on their day their team mate will take victory but when it comes down to a sustained challenge the cream always rises to the top.  Drawing parallels once more, we could look at the dominance of Michael Schumacher taking 5 titles from 2000-2004.
Had BrawnGP not have made the grid in 2009 and/or utilised the Double Decker Diffusers that dominated the performance of that years cars Sebastian could be looking at taking his 5th consecutive title this year not his 4th and drawing level with Schumacher's consecutive dominance.

So having the best car does win you Championships? Well of course, Formula One is a team sport that requires not only the best driver, but the best strategists, engineers, pit crew, facilities, car and of course the driver.  To those that say Sebastian is not a good driver I'd suggest you cast your mind back to Monza 2008 when he took victory for Toro Rosso or many of his drives through adversity that required a calm and presence of mind that many don't possess.  (Abu Dhabi and Interlagos 2012 are two of the most recent examples where he was forced to recover from earlier mistakes)


The question remains with a widesweeping regulation change in 2014 will his dominance remain?  The regulations that were introduced in 2009 are undoubtedly one of the contributors to Red Bull / Vettel's dominance over the last 5 seasons (once they installed the DDD in 2009 they really were the team to beat).  The switch from in race refuelling, slick tyres and heavy dependance on the use of aero suit the Milton Keynes based squad.  The problem for Sebastian is momentum, the upheaval in regulations for next season may dilute some of the areas he finds advantages, namely commitment as their current crop of cars have had such amazing aero balance, Pirelli will undoubtedly scale back the level of performance/grip their tyres give and lastly we see a return to the power units making a difference between the teams.  In the short term then, he may find himself on the back foot or could be even more dominant than ever.

World Champions are not made by mistake, they are the best of the best over a season long campaign that requires the utmost dedication from them both on and off the track, Sebastian has proved this for 3 years running putting him amongst some of the greatest names that have graced F1.

At 26 he finds himself in the company of Jack Brabham, Niki Lauda, Jackie Stewart, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.  Whilst at the end of the season he could join the ranks of 4 times winner Alain Prost, leaving him every chance of eclipsing Fangio's 5 and Schumacher's 7 world drivers titles.
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23 Mar 2013
3 Feb 2013
Infinti Red Bull Racing RB9 Launch - Technical Analysis

Red Bull's unveiling for all intents and purposes sets the benchmark in terms of design for 2013 with the other lead teams already showing that they have converged on ideas running through the RB5-RB8's lineage. I talked about Red Bull / Newey's adoption of halfshaft shrouding many times last season but the piece that really showed this was when I traced it's evolution through from the RB5 in the second part of my technical assessment of Red Bull.
The integration of the halfshaft within the lower wishbone has been seen on the McLaren, Force India, Ferrari and Sauber so far allowing the exhaust plume to pass un-encumbered over the rear of the cars floor, by doing this the teams are also raising the wishbone further clearing the airflow path.

Toward the end of last years campaign Red Bull installed a myriad of updates to the Red Bull with the key goal of exploiting DDRS (Double DRS). Unlike the Mercedes system Red Bull simply opted to further reduce drag at the rear of the car via the beam wing but with the other changes they made (Front Wing, Nosecone under belly, FOM camera's moved into the hammerhead position and exhaust ramp and cross-under tunnel rearrangements) they were able to create a more stable platform - http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/red-bull-recent-development-analysis.html

The 2012 season for Red Bull uncharacteristically started on a low which we now know was due to the FIA altering it's perspective on the exhaust solution that Newey and the design team had prepared just prior to testing. I believe the idea behind their original system was the re-ingestion of exhaust gases through a section attached to the brake ducts allowing them to re-direct the airflow into the critical region between the rear wheel and diffuser wall. When this was restricted the team went back to the drawing board and redesigned the RB8 but with time before the start of the season at a premium the team struggled to correlate it's design between CFD, Wind Tunnel and real world scenarios leading a small downturn in fortune. This is why we saw a rise in comparable form of Mark Webber at the start of the season as he is able to extract more from a more squirrely rear end where as Sebastian thrives on a firmly planted aero car.

The question we must ask is how close will the unveiled RB9 car of today be to the one that features at Melbourne? Red Bull have in the past opted to show little at launch in favour of baselining the car at testing and then adding their aero configuration throughout the test scenario. It would appear from the outset that the RB9 also follows this path with the RB8's DNA fimrly scattered across the car. Fans and media alike were dissapointed to find that Red Bull were being very confrontational about pictures being taken of their 2013 challenger. Simultaneously the team released the following video via Youtube.



The first few minutes show the viewer some of the details that goes into making a Red Bull Racing car (see my article here on some of this: http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/red-bull-racing-historic-technical.html)

With the media on lock down at the launch the quantity of good quality pictures available to assess the RB9 is limited but as usual the team also released the following images:

When compared to the RB8 renders (below) we can see that the car is clearly an evolution (albeit the RB8 renders show the car pre exhaust and cross-under tunnel)

Let's start from the front and work our way down the car

Front Wing: As usual on F1 launch cars thiese don't change drastically from their 2012 challengers but it's an area where i'm sure Red Bull will have invested time due to the increased load testing introduced throughout 2012.  Some minor alterations to the design of the top flap with the upper inner portion of the flap looking like it protrudes vertically and is has a more bulbous top edge. I suspect we will see a new design during testing.


In terms of the nose the frontal section of the nose carries the hammerhead appearance it's predecessor did at the end of 2012 courtesy of the FOM camera mounting positions.  The Nose tip itself once again droops down from the pylons forward in stark contrast to their rivals who seem intent on clearing as much space under the nose as possible.



Retained from the Singapore onward spec under the nose is the curved underbelly which goes some way to manipulating the airflow heading toward the keel and then onward to the Sidepods.  Newey and the team not one to shy away from thinking of aero over aesthetics have kept a step nose on the RB9.  Instead of the abrupt shelf like step with cooling slot on the RB8, the RB9 utilises the vanity panel to extend the step transforming it into a slope much like how Lotus have done with the E20/1.

As we can see from the 2 pictures the nosecone region tapers in toward the bulkhead allowing the step to also taper outwards. From the lower nose picture we can see how this sculptured piece of bodywork allows the air to migrate from the nose over the control arms.


As we can see from the blurry picture above it does appear the team may have adopted a slimline version of Saubers rearward facing duct (fed via an S duct from below the nose) I'll keep looking for a better image in the meantime

The Front Wing pylons have also been treated to some attention and are seemigly wider at the bottom following the McLaren trend (When viewed from the front). From the side the pylons also taper from the top down to their connection with the mainplane.


Moving along the car we can see that the Sidepods haven't been treated to a dramatic change in philosophy but the team have added a nice piece of detail on the floors edge.  The Floor Scroll is detached from the floor itself bar a few a few connecting strakes and courtesy of F1_Aero over on twitter he explains that ' It's designed to increase the draw under the front of the floor and provide a stronger floor edge vortex for floor sealing'


On top the Sidepods the airflow is conditioned by the same elements used last season

At the rear of the car, the launch version at least is treated to a similar exhaust and cross-under tunnel configuration used throughout 2012 with the halfshaft cover remaining and 3 Vertical strakes placed either side of the Coke Bottle region and under the shroud to help distribute the airflow.


Lastly we have the Monkey Seat which is fairly innocuous with the only real thing of design merit being the large perforation between the two wing sections it uses. It does however sit on a curved section of the Beam Wing which has been designed to allow air to pass between the Wing and Structure.

In summary just like all the launches that have preceded it the Red Bull car launch acted as a way of showing off commercial partners and so doesn't show it's hand, we must therefore wait til testing to truly see what they have up their sleeve.




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26 Dec 2012
Red Bull Racing - Historic / Technical Assessment - Part 1 2005-2008

The Team, Personnel and Facilities

Red Bull's roots in F1 can be traced back much earlier than it's team ownership with the brand using F1 as a platform to advertise it's energy drink as far back as 1995, with it's logo's adorning the Sauber C14. The partnership continued through until 2005 when Dietrich Mateschitz elected to purchase the Jaguar Racing outfit from Ford (The team was purchased toward the end of 2004) and use F1 as a vehicle for further enforcing their brand globally.

Above: The Sauber C14 featured Red Bull livery in 1995 and continued to do so through until the C23 of 2004

The newly founded Red Bull Racing team would race the Jaguar designed chassis in 2005 mated to a 3.0 V10 Cosworth engine continuing the collaboration the Jaguar team had when it took over from Stewart Grand Prix in late 1999. Mateschitz had given Dr Marko Helmut an advisory role with the team who installed Christian Horner as Team Principal ousting Tony Purnell who had been seen as one of the key figures in Jaguar Racing's turn around in the preceding seasons. Horner himself had raced in lower formulae, but as he moved through the ranks to F3000 and founded the Arden Racing team he realised that management could be more his forte. The symmetry of Horner's success can now be seen, with the early years in F3000 like a new born breaking their teeth they struggled to stamp their mark. However as time went by the results started to flow with the team collecting titles in 2002, 2003 & 2004 and their drivers Wirdheim and Liuzzi taking drivers titles in 2003 & 2004 respectively.

It was the core values of understanding that you need the right people around you that Christian had forged in F3000 that I believe bought him to Red Bull's attention. His ability to spot and nurture talent was also important to a Red Bull brand that also thrives on it's youthful outlook. Christian's own youthful exuberance would form the basis for the direction the team would take, allowing a relaxed but pragmatic environment in which the talent they already had and would entice could thrive.

Christian has continued his work with Arden International in combination with his Red Bull endeavours, even though Arden has failed to replicate the Championship winning years they do provide a platform for young drivers to ascend to F1. Having seen 6 of their drivers already reach F1 (Liuzzi, Kovalainen, Bruno Senna, Buemi, Perez and Pic) they are still nurturing talent through their GP2, GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 programmes. The GP3 team is MW Arden born from the connection with Red Bull's senior driver: Mark Webber fortifying the brand and giving another avenue in which to groom talent. For 2012 Arden collaborated with Caterham competing in the World Series by Renault allowing Caterham's American driver Alexander Rossi a seat and the other shared initially with Lewis Williamson (who moved to GP3 with Status Grand Prix to complete the season) and latterly a driver from the Red Bull young driver programme that we should all watch with serious intent: Antonio Felix Da Costa.

Da Costa has impressed this season in WSR taking 4 victories and 166 points leaving him only 23 points short of Robert Frijns who won the Championship. Bear in mind however that he missed the first 5 races whilst Williamson deputised, he also went on to victory at the Macau Grand Prix taking pole and leading every lap of the race. All of this whilst taking 3rd place in the GP3 championship for Carlin and taking 3 victories throughout the season. I personally see the young Portugese driver taking charge of a Toro Rosso at some point throughout the 2013 season as a taster to his possible progression to a Red Bull Racing seat going forward. Da Costa got a taste of F1 when he piloted the RB8 at the Abu Dhabi Young Drivers test late in 2012 season.

With Horner at the helm Red Bull turned their attentions to providing him with the personnel needed to elevate the team to the top ranks.  Top of their shopping list was McLaren's Chief Designer, Adrian Newey who the previous owners Jaguar had also courted early in their gestation period.  Newey's achievments speak for themselves having had success throughout the 90's with both Williams and McLaren.  Newey penned cars took the Constructors Championships for Williams through 92-97 with 95 being the only blotch in an otherwise dominant period. In 1998 he won a further Constructor's title with McLaren and although the MP4/14 of 1999 was clearly aerodynamically superior to the rest of the field a string of retirements for David Coulthard meant that only the drivers title went to Mika Hakkinen / McLaren that year.  As F1 moved into the next decade Ferrari became a dominant force with Schumacher at the helm of the Scarlet red machines.  Adrian's appointment at Red Bull in 2005 marked the teams desire to succeed at the highest level and would lead to further success for Newey when the rules drifted to his arena in 2009.

Geoff Willis spent a short period with the team during 2007-2009 as Technical Director once again reprising a relationship that had seen him work with Newey at both Leyton House and Williams.

Red Bull realised to be successful in F1 that personnel was not the only requirement and Red Bull would need to invest in high end technologies.  Over the past 8 years the team have amassed an arsenal of equipment and facilities whilst building relationships with companies that wish to drive their own products/brands forward.  This appears to be part of Red Bull's success with them working in partnership with their suppliers allowing each other to understand the processes involved so that both may benefit.  


Part of the initial purchase from Jaguar Racing included a Wind Tunnel facility that Ford had purchased back in 2003 and had set the task of refurbishing. The tunnel dated back to the 1940's and was initially used by the MOD to develop aircraft and had also been used to develop Concorde, the upgrade to the facility took 2 years including the installation of a rolling road bringing the facility inline with some of the top tier teams. The tunnel is full scale and although the regulations now limit models to 60% they could initially use the full capabilities when the tunnel was completed. All F1 teams are notoriously secretive about the inner workings of their Wind Tunnel facilities and only a handful of video's/images show what lies inside. I'll talk about their previous Wind Tunnel facilities at Bicester a little later in the article. The Wind Tunnel however is just one of the tools required by a contemporary F1 team to use and is perhaps where Red Bull's investment paid off at a time when F1 was moving from track testing to simulation in order to fulfill the budgetary requirements.

Remarking on the changes invoked from the Jaguar days Christian has had this to say: 'We set clear goals in each area and matched those objectives by investing in the facility, in tools or in personnel. It is absolutely true to say that a totally different culture exists today.”

Just as important as the real world environment of the Wind Tunnel is CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) this is a process that allows the designers to test the fluidic nature of their CAD models. The process can be used as a first step to realising the advantages or flaws to a given design without the intrinsic costs of actually building the part(s). This saves time, materials and inevitably cost as many iterations of the same model can be tested for validity before processing the part(s) for manufacturing and testing. Just as in the real world Wind Tunnel CFD affords the team the options of straightline testing or testing cornering / braking. The latter of course will yield a far more complicated result and so the time in which this is achieved is also raised.

In order to fulfill the needs of the team their own in house computing cluster uses hardware from HP and IBM. All F1 teams are tight lipped about the power they have at hand in terms of computing power but the FOTA RRA was initially designed to limit the Teraflops available in a cluster to the teams (A Teraflop is 1 trillion floating point calculations a second) the FOTA agreed limit isn't available on the open market but I believe it to be between 60-80 teraflops. Of course as with everything the engineers are always wanting more power and so in 2006 they formed an alliance with Platform Computing in order to help streamline their processes. Platforms load sharing facilty schedules workloads and proportions resources to prioritise the needs of the team. As we all know both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso are no longer part of the association and so can live outside of their rules. (This doesn't mean to say they are but it is possible).

The process of transferring the CAD data to CFD can be a time consuming matter with the process of meshing the model for CFD usage taking huge quantities of time. Red Bull have a partnership with ANSYS and use their Fluent package to run CFD allowing the team to use Immersed Boundary Methods (IBM) which takes a short cut to the production of the final CFD model. IBM fills the gaps from the CAD model with an accurate representation of the final structure allowing the designers to model and run more CAD/CFD projects in a short time frame. All of this would not be possible without the high performance computing platform that Red Bull have access to utilising Siemens NX software. The NX software covers CAD/CAE/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Engineering/Computer Aided Manufacturing). CAD allows the designer an environment in which to build a representation of the part. CAE allows the part to be virtually tested for vulnerability, testing it's capacity to take stress under load or vibration. CAM takes care of the manufacturing element of the part giving the information to a plethora of in house CNC machines that produce the parts.

3D printing (Via 3D Systems) has now become an integral part of developing an F1 car, leading to both reduced lead times, cost reduction but most importantly the construction of previously un-manufacturable components/parts. The ethos is not new and has been used in F1 since the late 90's, but as time has marched on the processes have become more intricate and rewarding. In a world where the margin between a winning car and a losing one are so small this process helps to bridge a gap. Working from CAD a team can print parts at a alarming rate allowing them to be tested in the real world environment. Furthermore many of the none structural components of the full scale car are also manufactured in this way allowing many permutations to be used at the track. The team also use 3D printing in order to produce casts that are used in the production of Gearboxes and so forth. Due to the way in which 3D printing uses the materials any products that do not meet the requirements of the team can be destroyed and around 80% of the raw material re-used.

Their association with Hexagon Metrology affords the team highly precise 3D scanning capabilities through the use of ROMER Absolute Arms which mated with their CMS108 Laser Line Scanner allows time to be spent productively elsewhere. This allows vast quantities of parts to be checked against their original CAD designs for imperfections in a timely fashion. The Arm is also none intrusive, scanning the part(s) without contact meaning it doesn't deform under load allowing for a more accurate result.

With hand held measuring tools from Leica the team are able to accurately measure dimensions to a level that seems intangible. This bears fruit when we bear in mind that Red Bull use the tool across the whole platform and in combination with the likes of the products mentioned above from design, to scale modelling to full production. (Case Study on the use of Leica products by RBR - http://metrology.leica-geosystems.com/downloads123/m1/metrology/general/case%20studies/Red%20Bull%20Racing_Milton%20Keynes_CS_en.pdf )


Testing parts on the scale and full car are still a worthy variable to have at a teams disposal and so the use of a 7 post rig is used in order to evaluate the car as a whole. The test rig uses hydraulic actuators in order to put the car under load, this movement exerted on the car can show any weaknesses that may scupper performance. As with the driver simulator it is possible to use data collected from the circuit to create an environment that the car will be placed in.


Another area of crucial investment from Red Bull Technology has been the driving simulator, it's nothing like being sat in front of your xbox with a steering wheel as the drivers are seated in a full blown Red Bull Chassis. All of the controls mimic those on the current car to allow the driver to train like he would at the real circuit. Data that the teams have collected in the past or during a current race weekend can also be used in the simulator in order to extract more performance through setup. Teams use their simulators during race weekends in order to assist the team at the circuit make informed choices and/or strategy calls. The Chassis is mounted to a 6 post rig that is actuated to simulate the effects felt when on track, with a 180 degree field of vision further immerses the driver in the experience. Data extracted from the track before has been used to accentuate the depth of the experience. This is also a great place for driver assessment as data can be shown to the them in order for them to adjust their approach. It also allows for the drivers to be pooled together and assessed for their own strengths and weaknesses, a vital tool when selecting new drivers with limited on track testing.

The Cars

2005 - RB1

2005 saw regulations alter the racing with the drivers only allowed a singular set of tyres for both qualifying and the race. The impact of this would be far reaching and require not only great skill on behalf of the driver but careful aerodynamic and mechanical planning in order to extract performance and life from the grooved Michelin / Bridgestone tyres. The technical story of the year (and 2006) was Renault's Mass Damper: housed in the nosecone it allowed the team to alter the way in which the aerodynamic platform of the car behaved. Attenuating the Suspension and Front Wing it allowed the car to behave much more sure footedly giving a better contact patch for the Front tyres thus extracting better performance over a larger timeframe.

Above: The RB1 at pre season testing in Jerez

If I were to compare the RB1 aerodynamically to the Renualt (R25) and McLaren (MP4-20) of the time we can see that the RB1 featured little Sidepod undercut. Although they had Aero appendages sprouting from the rear of the Sidepod to help control the rear wheel airflow they weren't as refined as their opposition. The likes of Renault and McLaren were using multi element sections in order to make those regions more efficient.

Above: The Renault R25 from 2005

Above: The McLaren MP4-20

The regulations of that year had forced the designers to raise the Front Wing giving the impression the Wing had sagged in the centre. At the rear of the car we can see that the RB1's Rear Wing lacked the design prowess of it's more equipped rivals with the Red Bull team sporting a far less complex design.

The teams aerodynamic deficiencies didn't however stop them from producing some great performances. Coulthard notched up two fourth place finishes and tallied a total of 24 points throughout the season meanwhile Klein and Luizzi in combination managed a further 10 points.

Above: The team made incremental updates to the RB1 throughout 2005 with the largest upgrade arriving later on in the season at Hungary where they slimmed the rear bodywork and added a Shark Fin to the rear of the Engine Cover

2006 - RB2


For 2006 Red Bull further increased their presence within F1 when they purchased the Minardi team renaming the team Toro Rosso. For 2006 a switch would be made from V10's to V8's in order to reduce the power output being created by the teams. Minardi had already come to an arrangement with the FIA to continue using the Cosworth V10 for 2006 but in a more restricted capacity. This allowed the Toro Rosso team to simply use the RB1 chassis design reducing costs across the board for Red Bull. Red Bull Racing meanwhile made the switch to V8's with the assistance of Ferrari power. The RB2 replaced it's 2 tier Front Wing with a 3 tier one and altered the design of the Rear Wing for more efficiency. A much bulkier nosecone donned the RB2 than that of the R26 or MP4-21. 

Above: Kimi Raikonnen at the wheel of his McLaren MP4-21

Above: Renault's 2006 challenger the R26

The R26 featured Front Wing cascades as the teams realised the need to control the airflow up and around the front wheel/tyre. Meanwhile Ferrari adopted Bridge Cascades across the width of the Front Wing in order to better alter the airflow over the rest of the car.

Above: Michael Schumacher driving the Ferrari 248F1

Like the Renault team Red Bull adopted a V Keel on the front of their 2006 challenger in order to allow good adjustability whilst maintaining an aerodynamic advantage. The flexibility of some of the front teams Rear Wing planes were bought into question early on in the season and the FIA stepped in at San Marino adjusting the vertical load tests. The idea behind the flexing rear wing was to allow the gap between the top and mainplane to be reduced resulting in the Wing stalling and reducing drag for a higher top speed.

The complexity of the rear bodywork on the RB2 failed to match that of their rivals and with reliability issues from poor cooling of the Ferrari engine the team failed to match the points haul of 2005. The team abandoned the development of the RB2 early into it's lifespan with the imminent arrival of Adrian Newey from McLaren tasked with designing the RB3. David Coulthard once again produced the best results from the RB2 with the Scot even driving to a podium finish at Monaco.

2007 - RB3 

Above: Mark Webber negotiates the streets of Monaco in his RB3

2007 saw a singular supply of tyres via Bridgstone as Michelin departed the sport, this also bought rise to the 2 compound rule that we still have today. In order to drive down ever increasing demands on engine suppliers to build superior engines the FIA also introduced the engine freeze (Homologation). Steps were also taken to reduce spend on track testing with a 30,000 km limit placed on teams testing throughout the season.
Red Bull took Mark Webber as their other driver for the 07 campaign, the Australian driver returning to the team having previously driven for the then Jaguar. Meanwhile Antonio Liuzzi would line up for the sister team Toro Rosso, accompanied by the US driver Scott Speed.
Red Bull Racing's contract with Ferrari for supply of their V8 engines was also moved to the Toro Rosso team as Red Bull ushered in Renault engines.

 
Controversy surrounded the two Red Bull teams throughout 2007 as many teams (led by Spyker) argued that the RB3 and STR2 were essentially the same car. Red Bull Technology had produced both chassis for the teams and although the designs were intrinsically the same there were nuances that made them differ. Chiefly the aforementioned difference in engine supply which would make for subtle differences to not only power but weight and cooling requirements.

This was to be the start of Red Bull's ascendence to F1 notoriety and marked a distinct difference in approach to the other leading teams. Scuderia Toro Rosso could be used as not only a test bed for future talent from their young driver programme but also allowed the design team to try/test more components over a wider spectrum.

Both the RB3 & STR2 featured much deeper Sidepod undercuts and sported the half moon Sidepod airflow conditioners that had featured on the BAR throughout 2006. Both cars seemed infinitely more shrink wrapped than their predecessors and featured more intricate rear end aero 'flip ups'. This signaled the influence of Adrian Newey as he bought his expertise to the Red Bull Technology setup. Red Bull Technologies Achilles heal for 2007 was their seamless shift gearbox mated to both cars, fraught with problems throughout the season for both teams it was the cause of many DNF's.

Red Bull and Toro Rosso concluded the season in 5th and 7th respectively but the largest ray of hope for the outfit was the young German, Sebastian Vettel. Seb had been BMW's test driver during the 2006 season and had impressed when being placed behind the wheel in testing. He got his F1 debut at the US Grand Prix replacing the injured Kubica and became the youngest driver to score points in F1 taking 8th place for 1 point. He was released by BMW in order to take a drive with Toro Rosso but struggled through the first few races as he adapted to the STR2. However in a rain hit race at Fuji he would find himself in 3rd place behind Lewis Hamilton's McLaren and the sister car of Mark Webber. This was however not to be his crowning glory as under safety car conditions the young German made a mistake and rear ended Webber. Angered by Seb's inexperience Mark gave an interview to ITV stating: "It's kids isn't it... kids with not enough experience – you do a good job and then they fuck it all up."

The mistake was fairly costly for Red Bull in general and although the extra 8 points for Webber wouldn't have been enough for them to leapfrog Williams the same couldn't be said for Toro Rosso who with another 6 points would have jumped ahead of Toyota.
Unfazed by the media furore that would follow Vettel produced another emphatic performance in China scoring 4th place with his team mate Liuzzi also scoring points just behind in 6th.

2008 - RB4


The RB4 showed the further reaching grasp of Adrian Newey over the Red Bull project with the car sporting a much lower Sidepod and the engine cover encapsulating the components much tighter. The RB4 arrived at testing with a Shark Fin engine cover something that the other teams duly noted and went off to produce their own iterations in order to enhance their packages. The team now with a year shod on the Bridgstone tyres perhaps had a better grasp of the task at hand in regard to their aero influence too. The usual in season updates occurred with the likes of a perforated 'Bridge Wing' that featured slots at it's outer extremities to boost it's effectiveness and helped to flex the Front Wing assembly. This lead to the legality of flexing Front Wings being bought into question with the FIA who duly adjusted their stance and the teams rectified their designs. To cope with the regulation changes Red Bull altered the central portion of the Bridge Wing in order to add rigidity and then latterly altered the Endplate Horizontal blades and added additional vertical turning vanes underneath the Mainplane.

 
At the start of 08 BMW Sauber had introduced Nosecone Winglets which helped to manage and vorticise the airflow downstream. Red Bull added their own appendages in this region later on in the season at the Inaugural Singapore night race.

Mark Webber outscored his more seasoned colleague throughout the season but it was Coulthard who had the best result of the season taking the podium and 3rd place at Montreal. 

Above: Sebastian Vettel drives his STR3 through the tunnel in Monaco

Meanwhile over on the Toro Rosso side of the fence the team started their 2008 campaign with a B spec STR2 with the STR3 not being competitively ready until round 6 in Monaco. This led to a poor start to the season with the only points being scored by the newly appointed Sebastian Bourdais at Australia. Sebastian Vettel was a revelation in the 2008 season scoring 35 of the 39 points accumulated by the Toro Rosso team. The crowing glory however came in Monza when Vettel and the team beat the odds to score Red Bull's first victory in F1 ahead of their lead team.


In Part 2 I look at 2009 through until 2012 the years that have defined Red Bull Racing as a force to be reckoned with within F1.  However as we have learnt above every story must have a beginning and although the results didn't always meet their ambitions in the formative years it put them in good stead for what lay ahead.
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25 Nov 2012
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  • Sunday, November 25, 2012
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The FIA allows engine manufactures the opportunity to supply to a set number of teams. Currently we have 4 suppliers: Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Cosworth with the latter likely to fall by the wayside at the end of the 2013 campaign. Cosworth have reportedly started work on a 2014 specification engine but with them up for sale and their most sought after products in aerospace technology the 2014 Cosworth Engine may never see the light of day.
Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault meanwhile have all invested huge sums in the 2014 engines and associated technology that will form ERS. All of the big three have had their engines on the test bench and are on schedule for the 2014 season.

Of the two Cosworth powered teams HRT are also up for sale and currently their future looks somewhat bleak. This leaves Marussia as the sole Cosworth powered car which would undoubtedly seal Cosworth's F1 fate in regards to further heavy investment in 2014.

This leaves 11 (maybe 12) teams requiring supply on the grid and so lets see where those engines may go:

Constructor Engine

2013 2014
Ferrari Ferrari Ferrari
Sauber Ferrari Ferrari
Toro Rosso Ferrari Renault
Red Bull Renault Renault
Lotus Renault Renault
Williams Renault Renault??
Caterham Renault Renault
Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes
McLaren Mercedes Mercedes
Force India Mercedes ??
Marussia Cosworth ??
HRT Cosworth ??

Force India are apparently in talks to switch supply from Mercedes to Ferrari, meanwhile Williams have had a reasonable amount of success this year with Renault and so switching would most probably be more of a financial one for 2014 if they do indeed move. This still leaves Marussia (and hopefully HRT) to find engine partners, with Marussia's technical tie in with McLaren I would not be surprised to see Mercedes power behind the Russian sponsored team.

The FIA limits the amount of teams an engine supplier can supply to 3 teams (unless the FIA give dispensation as they have for Renault this year who supply 4 teams). When Toro Rosso join Renault in 2014 this would be elevated to 5 if Williams are to stay on board, bringing the Renault reach far beyond that of their counterparts. The original limitation on engine supply was brought in when F1 had the luxury of 7 suppliers and was used to level the marketplace. With only 3/4 suppliers and 11/12 teams to supply the FIA have been asked to revise their stance as the cost of the 2014 engines will then be dramatically reduced for the teams.

Renault may however have decided to take the ball out of the FIA's court and employ another tactic we have seen before in F1: Re-Badged Engines. Renault form a much larger concern when considering the group of manufacturers their aligned with. Red Bull's announcement in Interlagos signals in my opinion their intentions as 2013 Red Bull Racing will be have Infiniti as their title sponsor. This is no coincidence with Infiniti being one of the aforementioned Renault-Nissan groups luxury marques.

This would open the door for RenaultSport to supply upto 6 teams even under the current regulations with both Red Bull teams carrying the Infiniti banner whilst one of the other Renault teams take the other slot (Most probably with a level of support from Renault/Infiniti which to my eyes lends itself well to the currently named Lotus). Caterham will most definitely remain under the RenaultSport banner with their fresh association resurrecting the Alpine brand.

Infiniti has been around the Red Bull team for quite some time but more recently their adoption of Sebastian Vettel in their ad campaigns has cemented their F1 intentions. Utilising the Renault platform in F1 the Infinti brand will quickly emerge as a master stroke used by the group to not only raise it's global profile but maximise Renault's F1 presence in a very cost effective manner.

Seems I wasn't the only one considering this as Autosport have now run this story denying Renault will rebrand their engines: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104561

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16 Sept 2012
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Eddie Jordan threw Silly Season into full swing by announcing he was privy to information relating to Lewis Hamilton making a move to Mercedes. However this rumour alone has not the only impacted Lewis Hamilton, McLaren & Mercedes but it will form the lynch pin in the whole driver market.

Red Bull shrewdly moved earlier in the season to resign Mark Webber for another season and with Sebastian Vettel already on board until the end of 2014 the team can concentrate on racing rather than PR.

Ferrari have Fernando Alonso signed until 2016 further showing his status as number one driver within the team. Meanwhile Felipe Massa's seat with Ferrari has been in doubt all season, a recent climb in form may be enough to warrant his seat for 2013 whilst Sergio Perez spends another season with Sauber. Felipe struggled to come to terms with the F2012 and Pirelli tyres at the start of the season and marked Monaco as a turning point in the season claiming that he finally understood the setup required. It could be no coincidence that Felipe's struggles could be down to Ferrari's decision to run with Front Pull Rod Suspension, with Fernando Alonso being the last driver to utilise it to his advantage in his maiden year at Minardi.

McLaren are obviously at the centre of a battle between themselves and Mercedes over procuring Lewis Hamilton's services for 2013 and beyond. Lewis signed a lucrative deal with McLaren just before the economic downturn and it's understood that McLaren are no longer in a position to fund the same or better deal. Further adding to his requirements are his image rights and the relinquishing of any trophies the driver may win. McLaren have a history of insisting on their drivers being intrinsically linked to the sponsors that McLaren have onboard these image rights alone can be worth many millions if carefully managed and so XIX Entertainment will be fighting to release these from any further contracts Lewis should sign.
Jenson Button meanwhile has already been in this position last year and easily manoeuvred his negotiations whilst also being put in the frame for Red Bull & Ferrari seats. Although the team always give the impression that they favour neither driver it could be argued over the last 2 seasons their development path has been more favourable to Jenson. Could this also be a catalyst in Lewis' thoughts about a switch to Mercedes?
I've previously written about the relationship between McLaren and Mercedes which leaves us wondering are the two working on a deal that sees both parties win in the battle for Lewis' signature? http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/could-lewis-merry-go-round-be-engine.html
Much has already been talked about the use of Mercedes global platform to catapult Lewis' image to a larger audience but I personally feel that if the negotiations are actually taking place he needs to decide if he is a racer or a celebrity.

Mercedes have Nico Rosberg signed for 2013 and beyond but with them courting both Michael Schumacher for a contract extension and Lewis Hamilton to sign on for the team could he be forced to leave the team? Using Rosberg as leverage in a multi faceted driver and engine deal / compromise could see the young German line up alongside Jenson Button for McLaren. Rosberg's driving style is not dissimilar to Jenson's and so could allow McLaren to focus their design process behind the MP4-28 solely on their more conservative attributes.
Ross Brawn has already alluded to the fact that their 2013 challenger (WO4) will be an evolution of the WO3 but has instructed the team to 'try out' things toward the end of the season in order to have a better chance throughout 2013. (They did exactly this at Spa with the own DRD http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/lotus-mercedes-drd-drag-reduction.html – and took a McLaren Style exhaust, DRD and other bodywork to the Young Drivers Test this week in Magny Cours - http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/mercedes-wo3-updates-at-young-drivers.html )
The teams DDRS system although innovative has failed to make a huge dent in a season that has seen the teams closer than ever. Meanwhile they have been lacklustre in terms of developing the WO3 and now with only 9 races left of the season although mathematically still able to contest the Championships really find themselves battling for 4th place alongside Lotus and Sauber.
Michael Schumacher's impact since his return to F1 in 2010 has been low key, however this year has shown that the old dog still has some fight left in him. Schumacher's best chance of further glory lies in the regulation changes of 2014 at which point he will be 45. So can the German convince the board in Stuttgart he can still bring them success or is this why they are moving for Hamilton? I fear without Hamilton's signature either in place of Nico or Michael the German Marque may decide to cut their losses with their own team and re-focus their F1 aims at just being an engine manufacturer.

Lotus in my opinion made a shrewd move when signing Kimi Raikonnen although he had been out of the game for 2 years Kimi had remained competitive in 4 wheel sport. The Finn brings a certain character style that neither McLaren or Ferrari truly harnessed. Kimi's goals are not driven by the celebrity limelight that some require but instead lets his racing do the talking. He is signed with the team for 2013 that may be forced to rename as their sponsorship deal with Group Lotus expires at the end of the season. I have seen Kimi mentioned by McLaren fans as someone to return to the team should Lewis move but personally I cannot see that happening.
Romain Grosjean is undoubtedly a talent having succeeded at varying levels of open wheel racing however his F1 career is always under somewhat of a cloud. Whether it's his first attempt at F1 with the Renault team after Nelson Piquet Jnr was dismissed or his current drive with Lotus. Boullier however is sticking by Romain and although his contract expires at the end of the season I expect he'll remain with the team for 2013.

Sauber are a team on the up, typically Swiss they always seem to be the most neutral of all the F1 teams. However behind close doors they work away on relationships that allow them to keep a foothold in the sport. The use of Sergio Perez who is part of the Ferrari Academy allows the team to create a partnership with Ferrari who also supply their engines, KERS and drivetrain. Notably Checo has been able to use the Pirelli tyres to his advantage throughout 2012 bringing him to the attention of some of the top teams. As part of the Ferrari Academy Checo will undoubtedly have his career manipulated by the Ferrari team whilst Checo joins a long line of drivers drawn into the Hamilton to Mercedes battle as the Daily Mail today infer that McLaren are interested in the Mexican. Meanwhile Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has said that Checo is not yet ready to join Ferrari and so the temptation of a top seat with McLaren could test his mettle if offered a contract. The largest stumbling block I forsee in a move for Checo to McLaren are his ties to Telmex. Although Telmex are largely a South American concern any deals he currently has with the brand would eliminate him McLaren's radars due to their own involvement with Vodafone. As we can see from the C31 the Mexican's sponsorship is displayed on virtually every corner of the car (Telmex, Claro, Visit Mexico) with the Billionaire Russian Abromovich fronting the rest with his Chelsea logo's.
For a team like Sauber that relies heavily on funding from outside sources Checo must remain a driver for the team to continue in F1.
Kamui Kobayshi is a driver that will have warmed most people's hearts when he burst onto the scene with Toyota at Interlagos in 2009. He famously took on Jenson Button who needed to finish well at Interlagos to secure the 2009 Championship. Although Kamui has scored more points already this season than that of 2011, he has been overshadowed by Checo and I'd imagine like many others is struggling with the Pirelli rubber. Kamui is a solid driver and I see no reason for him to be replaced unless the cash strapped Sauber outfit do indeed lose Checo and need to balance the books with 2 sponsored drivers rather than one.

Williams acquired the services of the Venezulean driver Pastor Maldonado for 2011 and retained his services for 2012. I was recently at Williams for the FOTA forum where Sir Frank Williams lauded his driver for his dedication and skill set. I see no reason why Williams would want to replace Pastor as he brings plenty of money to the team and previously had success in GP2 with the Rapax Team.
Bruno Senna joined Williams having previously had arduous seasons behind the wheel of the HRT (2010) and replaced Nick Heidfeld for the end of the 2011 season for Renault. The Brazilian brings his own array of sponsors to the table for Williams and although going almost unsung hasn't had a dissimilar season to Pastor. Rumours are abound that he will be replaced for next season, however unless a driver of much higher talent or one that can bring much more money were to be available I see no reason for him to depart.

Force India have both of their drivers contracted for the 2013 season but have already stated they won't stand in the way of either making moves to higher teams. Both Di Resta and Hulkenberg have been linked with Felipe Massa's Ferrari seat and as possible replacements should Michael Schumacher decide to retire once more. Di Resta has more recently been linked as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton at McLaren should the latter make a switch to Mercedes. This may be fuelled by Di Resta's new management who also looks after Jenson Button.

Toro Rosso have already proven that their driver programme comes first when they ejected both Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguesuari from the 2012 plans. The Red Bull brand use the Toro Rosso team as a platform to find new talent for their senior team with Sebastian Vettel being the benchmark. Daniel Ricciardo jumped the queue during 2011 by being place with HRT in order to access his abilities in advance. With neither Ricciardo or Vergne showing the type of pace that Vettel did in his Toro Rosso days it will be a surprise to no-one if the team start with a fresh line up next season. This will leave the current drivers looking for drives in 2013.

Caterham have had the services of Heikki Kovaleinen throughout their various guises over the last 3 years. It does however seem that Heikki is done with his share of trying to help the team elevate through the grid and rumours have linked him to both Sauber and the seat potentially being vacated by Lewis Hamilton. Heikki has already been part of the McLaren team once in his career and so McLaren and/or himself may be reluctant to revisit the partnership. Vitaly Petrov found his way to a Caterham seat after a lacklustre performance for the Renault team. I've heard rumour that some of his sponsors are becoming disillusioned by his and Caterham's performances and may withdraw their support at the end of the year. I personally never understood why the Russian didn't find his way to a Marussia seat in the first place but he looks destined for there should the rumours hold firm.

Marussia may well be a further force throughout 2013 with their technical partnership with McLaren bearing fruit. The team have also announced they will run KERS for the first time during 2013 which will give them a much needed boost in order to chase the teams in front. Timo Glock is the lynch pin in the Marussia team and is signed on a multi year contract, however Charles Pic is rumoured to be unhappy and reports have him linked to Caterham, Force India and Sauber for 2013 drives.  Marussia could well place Max Chilton in the second seat in place of Pic (Thanks to @MarussiaF1Will for his fan perspective)

HRT the team if they are wanting to progress surely need to recruit some young talent in order to inject both life and money into the team. However De La Rosa's Spanish connection and years of technical experience inside McLaren may well see him keep his seat.  Both Dani Clos and Ma Qing Hua have connections with the HRT team and could see their way to at least one of the seats.  Meanwhile Antonio Liuzzi still has some connections to the team and could take up one of the seats again. (Thanks to @Lundo888 for an insight who is a HRT fan)

On the fringes – There are plenty of drivers out there that still either warrant a seat or warrant a shot at one but the most likely candidates would be:

Adrian Sutil – Was dispatched by the Force India team but has been touted to be talking to quite a few teams including Ferrari and a return to Force India
Jaime Alguesuari – Toro Rosso driver for 09-11 and currently keeping himself busy with the Pirelli test drivers role.
Lucas Di Grassi – Ex Virgin Racing driver and the previous Pirelli driver has now aligned himself with a test role with FormulaE (See my article on Formula E here - http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/formula-e-future-of-motorsport.html )
Karun Chandhok – Ex HRT and test driver for Team Lotus in 11 Karun never really had the opportunity to show the talent he may have.
Jerome D'Ambrosio – Currently a reserve driver at Lotus and drove at Monza in place of the banned Grosjean
Sebastien Buemi – Currently a reserve driver for Red Bull Racing
Rubens Barrichello – Still wants a seat in F1 and could prove an asset to one of the younger teams.
The list of drivers that could/should step up from Feeder series like GP2/3 is huge but as Will Buxton mentioned in his recent article (http://willthef1journo.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/poisoning-the-well-f1s-underlying-problem/ ) the problem with this no longer just lies in the expectations of quality.

Lewis Hamilton holds the key to a driver market that will unravel when he puts pen to paper and why shouldn't he hold all the cards? Afterall he is a once in a generation driver who transcended the need to start his F1 career at a lower tier team and won a title in his second year (He should really have clinched the title in his maiden year too, although we'll let him have that one) 
You have to wonder if his desire to win races and titles can be matched by the Mercedes team. Their only win in 3 years came at a time when almost any team from 7/8 could have won a race as they all battled over understanding the Pirelli tyres. 
Lewis' decision needs to be one made from the heart of a racer and not one from the brain of a branding house.
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12 Jul 2012
Red Bull Exhaust Resonator / Expansion Chamber


 Above: The original picture from AMuS showing the Resonator/Expansion Chamber

 Above: The image adjusted to show the exhaust and the resonator chamber more clearly

Silverstone saw yet another twist in the application of Red Bull's exhaust package as they added a resonator chamber to the collector.  From the picture above trace the path the exhaust takes from the primaries toward the collector (single point where the 4 runners meet) you will see there are two pipes, the one that goes left is the exhaust outlet and the one that continues vertically is the resonator/expansion chamber. 
Tied in with Red Bull Off Throttle blowing using a chamber like this could smooth the transition from On throttle to totally Off Throttle.

When the engine is on throttle the exhaust gas moves through the pipes to the collector at which point it will split to the resonator/expansion chamber and the exhaust outlet. This process continues up until the point whereby the chamber is full and the air inside the chamber at full compression, this then allows the air to move freely to the exhaust outlet. When the drivers comes off the throttle the exhaust gas dissipates and so the air compressed in the chamber flows out through the exhaust outlet. This helps to smooth the transition from on to off throttle minimizing the aerodynamic losses which in turn allows the driver to pick up the throttle earlier as more downforce is available during cornering.

The usage of such a pipe is obviously not something that has been done in haste and will have been tuned to the exact requirements of the Renault engine. Due to the packaging required for the RB8 exhaust ramp exit the tuning length of the exhaust has been compromised, this would lead to a decline in performance during a set rev range. (This is not exclusive to just the RB8's packaging) The use of the resonance chamber allows both an airflow and sound shift further down the exhaust mimicking the effect of larger/longer exhaust runners.

Timing the Inlet and Exhaust events could also bore an advantage in terms of scavenging more airflow back into the engine cylinder giving a larger reaction during the engines power cycle. Technically you would leave the exhaust valve open for slightly longer than usual on overrun in order to recapture some of the air from the resonance chamber, this can be reused in the Intake and Compression strokes to give a larger power and exhuast stroke.

It is also plausible that the chamber offers further benefits in the shape of the Kadenacy Effect . The Kadenacy Effect is the sound wave created by combustion. As the air leaves the combustion chamber through the exhaust valve a sound wave is part of the airflow (positive wave) when it reaches its outlet a negative wave returns as the exhaust valve closes. Due to the resonance chamber the frequencies involved will be altered and help with the extraction of the gas that would normally be held in the exhaust awaiting the next engine cycle, extracting more airflow than an exhaust the same size but without the resonance chamber.

The effectiveness of a well tuned resonance chamber in combination with the now limited off throttle blowing will obviously have a larger effect on the Off Throttle effect than without the chamber.

Ferrari have already been using a Resonator / Expansion Chamber this season but I feel theirs is primarily focused at tuning the exhaust length rather than utilising the benefits that can be gained under off throttle events.

Above: Ferrari's Resonator / Expansion Chamber via FormulaOne.com / Sutton Images
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