Virgin F1 vs the Wind Tunnel
Discussion
It is widely publicised that Virgin/Manor have designed their car enitrely without the use of a wind tunnel.
What is the PH consensus? Do we believe them or do we not?
The reason I ask is that in recent days I have heard on my local F1 grapevine that they have in fact done wind tunnel testing, not sure if this is a full size or model in a smaller one.
If they have I am not too bothered as it is after all a useful tool for the job in hand, but why make a big thing in the press about not using one
What is the PH consensus? Do we believe them or do we not?
The reason I ask is that in recent days I have heard on my local F1 grapevine that they have in fact done wind tunnel testing, not sure if this is a full size or model in a smaller one.
If they have I am not too bothered as it is after all a useful tool for the job in hand, but why make a big thing in the press about not using one
I was reading an article by Frank Dernie (think that was the chap?) saying that CFD isn’t advanced enough to be relied upon for the entire process, but it should be used alongside wind tunnel...
I imagine that the reason they made a big thing about it in the press is exactly that...it’s the press, they need as much interest in them as possible.
I imagine that the reason they made a big thing about it in the press is exactly that...it’s the press, they need as much interest in them as possible.
Mazda Baiter said:
Altrezia said:
Munter said:
None of them are allowed full size testing. So I doubt they did that....unless being very naughty.
Is that true? I thought Honda/Brawn/MercGP had a fullsizeun?It doesn't mean they use it.
Munter said:
Mazda Baiter said:
Altrezia said:
Munter said:
None of them are allowed full size testing. So I doubt they did that....unless being very naughty.
Is that true? I thought Honda/Brawn/MercGP had a fullsizeun?It doesn't mean they use it.
The teams have a maximum of 15,000km track testing during the calendar year, and cannot do any test running after the previous week before the first race, so if USF1 haven't run their car before the first race, they cant do any testing, except for one days run to familiarise a new driver, this must take place before the second race.
DangerousMike said:
the reason is its very expensive to get all of the full sized air molecules you need for a full size wind tunnel, so they have banned them.
I've got a few pallets of that in my back garden. I might get in contact with a few F1 teams and see if they want them on the cheap.I reckon Mike Gascoyne would buy it.
DangerousMike said:
the reason is its very expensive to get all of the full sized air molecules you need for a full size wind tunnel, so they have banned them.
Very droll 
An excellent point though - why scale models which must be more expensive compared to testing the real things if any parts are to be put into production? However if you try 1000's of full scale parts vs 1000's of scaled parts the costs would escalate. I think as CFD is 'tuned / dialled in' better the former may be more applicable in the future?
hondafanatic said:
I was reading an article by Frank Dernie (think that was the chap?) saying that CFD isn’t advanced enough to be relied upon for the entire process, but it should be used alongside wind tunnel...
You need a feedback loop to varify the results of the wind tunnel, if you don't have that then CFD is fairly useless as you have no idea how accurate any of the results are or how well you are prgramming the flow models.My lecturer used to say about CFD and FEA: 'If you put s
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