PTRACER wrote: ↑3 years ago
I am presuming that is the 2019 Williams and not the 2020 car? Otherwise I really cannot tell the difference, even looking in photos side by side.
The FW43 (2020 car) is what the team describe as an “evolution” of its predecessor, as they look to efficiently use their modest budget.
This is how they described the upgrades at the launch of the car at pre season testing. To me it basically says we have done very little, especially when you read between the lines of the sentence I have put in bold. Basically says we were to broke to do anything major despite last years car being crap.
“We have paid significant attention to understanding the problem areas of the FW42 and we have carefully chosen parts of the car to develop, those that would give us the most performance for the resources we have,” said Design Director Doug McKiernan.
“The main concept behind the FW43 is that it is a continuous development of the FW42, with no fundamental concept changes to the layout. The most important indicator that we are on the right path will be the level of correlation we have between the tool kit we use to design the car and what the track data is telling us.“There has been a healthy development rate in the wind tunnel, and we have found reasonable improvements in the cooling efficiency. The team has addressed the mechanical issues that affected it in 2019, these include the brakes and the overall weight of the car. We have made some good progress across these areas and will continue to focus on them during the season.”
Chief Engineer Adam Carter added: “The initiatives that we put in place to drive performance across all disciplines within the engineering department are evident in the design and development of the FW43. It’s been great to see the hard work starting to pay off.
“The decision to retain some of the core architecture of the FW42 means there has been less resource invested in developing new concepts, which in turn has rewarded the design team with greater bandwidth to optimise their work, evident in both packaging and component detail.
“By preserving some key parameters, it has allowed for an uninterrupted development programme within aerodynamics in order to maximise the efficiency of the resources. As we head towards the pre-season tests and then onto the race season, the most important measure will be the progress relative to our peers, along with our intention of continuing our recent record of reliability.”
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
XcraigX wrote: ↑3 years ago
I'm actually kind of shocked that F1 is the slowest. Not surprized that Indy is the fastest (since it's mostly ovals), but that F1 is slower than LeMans cars. (Or is this only the 24 hours and not the entire season?)
That is an artefact of LM and Indy being single races, which are fast tracks, I also hadn't found a good source for Indycar/CART/USAC/CART to derive an average from. While F1 takes every championship round and averages them. So each year includes Monaco and Monza for example with the slow tracks bringing the average down. If you notice the last GP season before WW1 is considerably faster than the previous ones which is due to my source listing only American oval races for that year, hence the jump in speed. For a better comparison between sportscars, see the Can Am I and II averages. CAI is pretty much as unfeathered as sports cars get they hold their own against the F1s of the era, CAII are faired F5000 cars and it shows in the speeds.
Comparing a single road circuit style track from Indy and LM would be a better comparison. The choice to use the LeMans track and the Indianapolis oval is throwing this graph off.
XcraigX wrote: ↑3 years ago
I'm actually kind of shocked that F1 is the slowest. Not surprized that Indy is the fastest (since it's mostly ovals), but that F1 is slower than LeMans cars. (Or is this only the 24 hours and not the entire season?)
That is an artefact of LM and Indy being single races, which are fast tracks, I also hadn't found a good source for Indycar/CART/USAC/CART to derive an average from. While F1 takes every championship round and averages them. So each year includes Monaco and Monza for example with the slow tracks bringing the average down. If you notice the last GP season before WW1 is considerably faster than the previous ones which is due to my source listing only American oval races for that year, hence the jump in speed. For a better comparison between sportscars, see the Can Am I and II averages. CAI is pretty much as unfeathered as sports cars get they hold their own against the F1s of the era, CAII are faired F5000 cars and it shows in the speeds.
Comparing a single road circuit style track from Indy and LM would be a better comparison. The choice to use the LeMans track and the Indianapolis oval is throwing this graph off.
You're completely right, I just grabbed the graph I had without editing it much. The graph started off as an evolution of Indy Q and Race speeds and morphed into one including F1 and the prewar GP races. If you are interested I can upload one with only a selection of the lines.
Michkov wrote: ↑3 years ago
You're completely right, I just grabbed the graph I had without editing it much. The graph started off as an evolution of Indy Q and Race speeds and morphed into one including F1 and the prewar GP races. If you are interested I can upload one with only a selection of the lines.
Hey, I appreciate that you posted it! It's interesting and obviouly generating much discussion. I don't want to come off as just complaining. So you don't have to if it's going to cause you to work for it.