The Official 2012 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

[Ragin Rabbi]

Originally Posted by Clem Kevin

What are you drinking?

Which part? Some is sarcasm, some opinion...

[g®eg]

clean up or he'll get benched....

Lotus says it's up to Grosjean to change


October 08 2012

Lotus boss Eric Boullier says Romain Grosjean needs to shoulder the responsibility for getting himself out of his first-lap problems.
Grosjean was accused by rival Mark Webber of being a "first-lap nutcase" after the pair collided at the second turn in Japan. The latest incident was Grosjean's eighth early race crash of the season, and comes shortly after he was suspended for one race (the Italian Grand Prix) for his part in causing a first corner pile-up in Belgium.
Amid calls for Lotus to take action against Grosjean to get him under control, Boullier has insisted that he can only do so much – and it is up to the Frenchman to deal with the situation himself.
"I have spoken a lot with him," Boullier said. "We changed the routine, we tried to make it not more comfortable because I needed a tougher environment for him, and I needed to push him, but he is the only one who can fix this. Nobody else.
"He needs to find for himself what he needs to get, to be good, and relaxed, and on the right focus. He has to find the balance. He can do that, not anybody else."
Boullier is convinced that Grosjean has the talent to become a success in F1, but admits there are aspects of his driving that need to be addressed.
"I think Romain has the privilege to be talented, and he has a car fast enough to qualify at the front of his grid," he added. "If you look at his career he was a bit of a hot-headed driver until he got some confidence, but F1 is not as patient as a junior category. As we saw in Spa, it was a spectacular accident and it could have been dramatic – and you cannot accept this.
"Here in Japan, it is not about fixing the car setup. It is about trying to make the kid self confident enough to cool down and control the race start, and this is what we are trying to do since the beginning of the year. We have accelerated that program since Spa, and timing-wise it is unfortunate that an incident happened again."
Boullier also suspects Grosjean's rivals are trying to take advantage of the situation the Frenchman has found himself in.
"If you look at the start [in Japan], he doesn't change [his line], and it is something we decided that if you start on the right side on the track you stay there," he explained. "In Singapore he experienced quite a hot start, not from him, but other drivers because they knew he was under pressure, so expected him to back off.
"So here I said, 'Don't do the same, just keep your line and don't go to try and contact or get too close.' And that is what he did. He saw [Sergio] Perez next to him and he tried to keep far from him, but maybe misjudged a little bit with Webber because there was a difference of speed, as both were faster than Webber."

[g®eg]

Lotus to stop development on the "device" for now & work on their version of the coanda exhaust.

Lotus in Korea : DRS-Trick Raus, Coanda-Auspuff rein


After Mercedes now Lotus has developed a so-called Coanda exhaust. In Korea, the new tailpipe version was first tested. Ensure the development of the special DRS system is placed only once on ice. It only comes back at the Young Drivers Test is used.


Lotus is on the defensive. The competition has been passed by the summer break clear in the black car. The development came to a halt last noticeable. Kimi Raikkonen, the long time promising the world title fight was, has lost contact with the tip in the championship now.


But in Korea, the team wants from Enstone venture a new attack. As the last field of the car from the front is equipped with a so-called E20 Coanda exhaust. The tail pipe flows thereby against a curved channel which forces the hot exhaust gases to the lower floor.
Lotus needs to introduce Coanda exhaust

"We stood with our performance-maximizing traditional exhaust a bit out on a limb" to have Lotus technical director James Allison. "Since the launch of the E20 but we have the wind tunnel always worked in parallel on a Coanda exhaust. As we have seen that the benefits of the Coanda exhaust is greater than our current system, it was clear that we need to implement it."
Least Mercedes in Singapore had abandoned his traditional exhaust in favor of a Coanda version. So far without much success. Just as with the silver arrows to plan long term for the development of the new exhaust system. "It brings both benefits for the season last quarter of this year and for the next season," said Allison.
Lotus in the rear with Kompettumbau

With the new exhaust tail pipe diameter must be reduced in order to bring the flow specifically to the desired location. The cost performance. The system works, there are in turn more downforce at the rear and better traction. However, it usually takes a few races to the exhaust through small fins arrive exactly at the desired locations.
"It's not as bad as with the direct-blown diffusers in the past year," said Allison engineer. "But you have to rebuild quite what the stern. New panels, the new exhaust, the outlets and some heat protective underbody" If the new parts do not work, you can prepare quickly back again.
Test of the DRS system stopped

Lotus distractions can not allow for the development of the Coanda exhaust. Therefore, first of all you want to do without testing of specific double-DRS system to bring more top speed on the straights.
At Suzuka, the engineers had recently hoped for a breakthrough, but the system reduced the output even in places where it did not need the driver. "The launch was not easy. It was harder than expected, the switch to get right with the short testing time. We will put aside now, once again think about it and it just bring the Young Drivers Test in Abu Dhabi again," said Allison .
In our photo gallery we show you again the various tailpipe variants of the twelve Formula 1 teams.

gallery link HERE showing the different approaches to exhaust
I know.. i could have posted the huge pictures & made it all easy....

[g®eg]

two main sponsors pull out of Korean GP

news story LINK

[Shocktower]

Another fine weekend of F1 Go Seb

[g®eg]

shake it Kimi

[papaduc]

CRAP!!!
Now I'm going to be singing that all day...

[g®eg]

[g®eg]

new Lotus exhaust

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Different mirrors & fins for Ferrari, may be they are to try the Sauber style flap over the sidepod?



Caterham have the option of two wings with very different flap and endplate treatments



Mercedes have the option of the same wing with or without the cascade winglets



McLaren on its Set up wheels, look under the chassis and you can make out the hatch where the KERS units sit

[g®eg]

Mercedes with gills on one side, but not the other side....

[g®eg]

Caterham Korea GP briefing.. pretty good

[Ace100]

I'm currently in a hotel in Hanoi. During my trip through Vietnam, I've been able to find Star Sports so I was able to see F1 coverage while here. However, my hotel in Hanoi does not have Star Sports but has the most international collection of channels I've ever seen anywhere.

I have ABC (OZ), TV5 and France 24, TVE (Spain), YTN and KDS (Korea), Trace Sport, True Sports 1 & 4, VTV 1 thru 4 plus 9, Hanoi TV1.

How the hell am I going to see qualifying and the race this weekend? Every time I try to find a bar with the race when I'm traveling, it ends up being a stressful misadventure.

Help?

[g®eg]

Red Bulls DDRS note the large plate on the end of the flap opening the duct. where the duct exits is still not proven



A lovely clear shot shows how the hydraulic RAM opens DRS, the spring helps it to return to a closed position



McLarens DRS hydraulic pod is about the largest and most streamlined on the grid.



Ferrari, the black area and holes are where the wing can be adjusted for less downfroce, not DDRS

[g®eg]

FIF1 have two wing options (neither new) the smaller cascade wing is made in a SLS rapid prototype material



Red bull continue to use Helmholtz chambers attached the exhaust (above the radiator) to improve engine drivabiity



Mercedes again tried their Drag Reduction Device (DRD) similar to the lotus system



Williams are also testing their coanda exhaust, which has been tested since mid season but is yet to race



Williams also painted 'flow viz' on the floor to test with their conventional exhaust