F1- Williams FW33 gearbox
Discussion
my friend who follows F1 technical details and news with great interest has just sent me this link. Looks like a clever design..
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/williams-...
Williams said their new car would be aggressive, but at first look the FW33 seemed quite conventional. Until the area above the gearbox is looked at. In order to gain the maximum flow towards the lower beam wing, Williams have removed a large part of the gearbox case (as described in the below illustration shaded yellow) ,lowered the differential and reworked the rear suspension.
In fact Williams Design team have completely rethought the rear suspension and gear case. By going to a Pullrod set up, the rockers, torsion bars and dampers that normally occupy the space above the gearbox are sited low down at the side of the gearbox (see http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/red-bull-... Without this hardware mounted so high up, the area above the gearbox is just a void. So although it serves a structural purpose the stiffen the suspension mounting points. If they can be sufficiently stiff, then this area can be removed. Thus with the Williams the air flows over the upper body and around the engine cover, the bodywork then curves in behind the engine and airbox in a sharp “V”. There is then no structure to hinder the airflow, until the air passes around the rear wing support, which now doubles up as the top rear wishbone mounting.
To remove other elements in the air steam, Williams have removed the toe link from behind the driveshaft and replaced it with a “Z” link upper wishbone. The slim carbon fibre moulding acting as both suspension members.
Further lowering the rear end the differential is lowered as far as possible. The differential is driven from the cross shaft between the diff and the main gear cluster. The differential can effectively be at any angle pivoted around the centreline of the cross shaft. What Williams have done is to lower it as far as possible while still allowing the CV joints some consideration and the starter shaft to be accessed. This does effectively make the gearbox slightly longer.
One fear from the outsiders point of view would be the structural efficiency of such a waisted design, especially the vertical spar, that supports the wishbones leg above the differential. Williams would either have to compromise weight or stiffness to make the design efficient. So despite the loss of a large proportion of the gear case, the gain may be offset by the penalty of added weight to make the remaining structure stiff enough.
This gearbox has been a long lead time project, Sam Michael told me the new case was planned as early as March last year and the hard worked CV joints and driveshafts are designed and made by Pankl. They have no worries about the set ups reliability, although the joints are installed with such an extreme angularity, that they would either rob power or reliability with a normal design joint.
So complex is this set up, it would be near impossible to copy during the season. As this would require new rear crash structures which are now homologated. Not to mention the lead time and cost involved in developing a new gearcase and driveshaft solution.
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/williams-...
scarbsf1 blog said:
Williams said their new car would be aggressive, but at first look the FW33 seemed quite conventional. Until the area above the gearbox is looked at. In order to gain the maximum flow towards the lower beam wing, Williams have removed a large part of the gearbox case (as described in the below illustration shaded yellow) ,lowered the differential and reworked the rear suspension.
In fact Williams Design team have completely rethought the rear suspension and gear case. By going to a Pullrod set up, the rockers, torsion bars and dampers that normally occupy the space above the gearbox are sited low down at the side of the gearbox (see http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/red-bull-... Without this hardware mounted so high up, the area above the gearbox is just a void. So although it serves a structural purpose the stiffen the suspension mounting points. If they can be sufficiently stiff, then this area can be removed. Thus with the Williams the air flows over the upper body and around the engine cover, the bodywork then curves in behind the engine and airbox in a sharp “V”. There is then no structure to hinder the airflow, until the air passes around the rear wing support, which now doubles up as the top rear wishbone mounting.
To remove other elements in the air steam, Williams have removed the toe link from behind the driveshaft and replaced it with a “Z” link upper wishbone. The slim carbon fibre moulding acting as both suspension members.
Further lowering the rear end the differential is lowered as far as possible. The differential is driven from the cross shaft between the diff and the main gear cluster. The differential can effectively be at any angle pivoted around the centreline of the cross shaft. What Williams have done is to lower it as far as possible while still allowing the CV joints some consideration and the starter shaft to be accessed. This does effectively make the gearbox slightly longer.
One fear from the outsiders point of view would be the structural efficiency of such a waisted design, especially the vertical spar, that supports the wishbones leg above the differential. Williams would either have to compromise weight or stiffness to make the design efficient. So despite the loss of a large proportion of the gear case, the gain may be offset by the penalty of added weight to make the remaining structure stiff enough.
This gearbox has been a long lead time project, Sam Michael told me the new case was planned as early as March last year and the hard worked CV joints and driveshafts are designed and made by Pankl. They have no worries about the set ups reliability, although the joints are installed with such an extreme angularity, that they would either rob power or reliability with a normal design joint.
So complex is this set up, it would be near impossible to copy during the season. As this would require new rear crash structures which are now homologated. Not to mention the lead time and cost involved in developing a new gearcase and driveshaft solution.
Great article in Autosport this week on that car. Other teams are dissing it already - lack of torsional stiffness in rear wing...easily fixed....bloody clever work and the top teams, with the exception (currently) of Ferrari all seem to have either optimised what they had last year (Red Bull) or come up with some innovative designs. I particularly like the McLaren approach to sidepods and want to see what else they will be introducing on the car - am hoping that when I visit MTC in April they might just leave a car in one of the bays 
as a long term Williams fan (come on Nige) I really hope this is somehting which works. The Autosport article quoted one driver as saying the rear wing was moving all over the place- might be to rubbish it, or try to get the stewards very interested in the idea....
I hope it does well, and isnt the same as their Walrus design from a while back
I hope it does well, and isnt the same as their Walrus design from a while back
I am a huge williams fan as a kid I was at Silverstone when clay won their 1st GP. Alan Jones is one of my all time favourites and I class Nigel as one of the top 10 all time greats. I was very lucky to go on a Williams factory tour in 1981 and 1983 which forged my love of the team. For me 1975 through to 1995 was the best 20 years of GP.
I would therefore love it if they have finally got a clever concept that puts them back towards the front.
It leaves a huge clean area at the rear of the car even if it makes the car look fragile at the rear. I hope they can use this efficiently to gain an advantage similar to Brawn's double diffuser. I see Gary Anderson said in Autosport that he liked the look of the car and felt that it was innovative but was unsure how they would maximise the clear space.
I do not know why but I always thought that they would not come back to the front while Sam Michaels is in charge. I sincerely hope to be wrong.
I would therefore love it if they have finally got a clever concept that puts them back towards the front.
It leaves a huge clean area at the rear of the car even if it makes the car look fragile at the rear. I hope they can use this efficiently to gain an advantage similar to Brawn's double diffuser. I see Gary Anderson said in Autosport that he liked the look of the car and felt that it was innovative but was unsure how they would maximise the clear space.
I do not know why but I always thought that they would not come back to the front while Sam Michaels is in charge. I sincerely hope to be wrong.
I hope to see Williams fighting further up the field this year. Will take a lot more than a clever gearbox design though.
They revealed their 2011 livery today, reminisent of the 90's Rothmans colours. Shame they couldn't launch it with half decent photos
http://www.attwilliams.com/gallery/fw33-livery-rev...
They revealed their 2011 livery today, reminisent of the 90's Rothmans colours. Shame they couldn't launch it with half decent photos
http://www.attwilliams.com/gallery/fw33-livery-rev...
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