Analysis: AM-RB 001

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I don’t know about you but since the news that Red Bull’s F1 design guru Adrian Newey was teaming up with Aston Martin for a ‘new project’, I’ve been waiting with baited breath as to what kind of machine the two could produce together. Despite the lengthy wait, nothing could quite prepare any of us for what we saw when the AM-RB 001 prototype was showcased in early July.

AM-RB 001

Once launched the codename will be changed to something more elegant (and probably beginning with a ‘V’) but no doubt the bold body shapes that make it the eye catching will remain. It’s a little Marmite (personally I love it) however every carbon fibre-formed surface has been meticulously sculpted on CAE software to produce a car that meets Newey’s intense focus on aerodynamics.

Whilst most of the technical details haven’t been revealed, this blog post aims to cover some of the aerodynamic features of the car’s body, shrink-wrapped around the mid-mounted naturally aspirated V12 engine at its core. Although Swedish car company Koenigsegg have already achieved this, Aston Martin and Newey also target a 1:1 ratio for the 2018 launch – that is one bhp per one kilo of weight.

The aerodynamic features of this car – even compared to existing hypercars such as the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari – are remarkable. Unlike a conventional hypercar car where the driver sits virtually on the ground, the core of the AM-RB has been removed to create a venturi tunnel for air to pass right through. The advantages of doing this were explored when Nissan entered Le Mans last year, see my analysis of their car entry here.

The front splitter resembles more of a wing than anything else, with each of its two elements arcing to meet the footplate at its extremities. This is almost identical to what the Red Bull F1 team have been doing for some time as a way to generate vortices around the front tyre. However, the wing on the AM-RB sits within the front wheel track so the vortex generated will instead offset turbulence generated by the front tyre away from the completely smooth underbody to produce a greater venturi effect.

Both the edges of the splitter and the sides of the car feature the arched footplate geometry that we see frequently in motorsport. As the air progresses along the ‘tunnel’ it speeds up, creating a pressure difference that causes airflow to migrate from the top of the plate to the lower edge. This in turn generates vortices that are aimed at controlling tyre wake, hence why this bodywork is seen ahead of both the front and rear wheels of the car.

Air intakes sprout from the elegant doors, the flow that feeds them passing through the inside of the car via large turning vanes – the kind you see hanging beneath the chassis of an F1 car but much bigger – behind the front wheels.

At the rear, the centre of the car has been pulled out and upwards to complete the venturi tunnel, with curved end fences concealing the inside face of the rear tyres and carbon bodywork covering the half shafts and differential for maximum efficiency. A minimal twin element rear wing lies along the top, lipped at the middle, to further entice airflow out from beneath.

Quite how many of these features will exist on the road going version of the car is unclear but I sincerely hope it’s all of them.

Goodwood FoS tech blog!

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Time to kick this blog back into life a little now that I’m free for summer, and what better a way of doing so than looking at some of the great tech on display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This year’s festival was probably the best one I’ve been to out of the four or five times I’ve visited, not least because we had a great spot on the hillclimb to view the cars – on the inside of Molecomb corner along the braking zone right by the hay bales. Mercedes brought the W05 F1 car too, making them the first team to use a new hybrid-era car for demo purposes.

First stop was the FIA stand, which was filled with some interesting information about motorsport in general as well as a few desirable racing cars.

I knew what was going to be on display there, too – the halo concept that F1 wants to introduce next season was the first thing that caught my attention as I approached. Unfortunately, rather than putting in the effort of actually integrating the halo with the car, the structure had clearly been pinched from Ferrari (they tested it pre-season) and quite literally been stuck to an old monocoque.

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Tech Highlights: Mercedes S-duct

Why working in F1 is not my dream job…

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MOTORSPORT – CORPORATE 2010 – RENAULT F1 – PRISES DE VUES – VIRY (FRA) – 28/09/2010 – PHOTO : FREDERIC LE FLOC H / DPPI

If you came up to me a couple of years ago and asked where I wanted to be working in the future there was only one answer: a design engineer in Formula 1. I wanted to graduate from university, dive straight into the design office of an F1 team and get stuck in – the idea of climbing the ladder and reaching the top ranks of a top team such as Ferrari or McLaren was exciting, even if I knew the dream would take years to achieve.

I admire those who are already at the top of the engineering pyramid in the sport. Adrian Newey, Paddy Lowe, James Allison and Ross Brawn to name a few who have cut it at the top of the pinnacle of motorsport. I wanted to replicate their success and have a profound impact on F1 and motor racing in general. You could argue that I, or anyone else who has the same ambition and drive, can still do exactly that. However I have been slowly taking backwards steps to see the bigger picture and I am realising that perhaps this is not possible in the way the engineers above have achieved.

Hundreds of people make up F1 teams in this era. Take Mercedes as an example: Over 500 people work on the power units alone, plus a further 500 on the chassis. Rewind 30 years ago and this number was perhaps 50, budget depending. This naturally means that anyone walking into the sport now will have a tougher time making a name for themselves than they would have done previously. Yes, F1 is a team sport, but who doesn’t want to be at the heart of it, driving development forward and leading a team into the history books? Continue reading →

Tech Highlights: Mercedes’s complex bodywork

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With just two weeks of pre-season testing the teams have had an incredibly tough time making sure not only that their new cars run reliably and that they correlate with what the data has shown back at the factory, but also assessing new components ahead of the first race.

Mercedes covered over 3,500 miles across both tests in Barcelona, putting one of the sport’s biggest outfits in the prime position to try out some aggressive concepts well before the season opener in Melbourne. During the second week the W07 was clad with plenty of complex devices, particularly around the sidepod area.

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