This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Williams Re-examine Aerodynamics BAR Under Pressure

Williams Re-examine Aerodynamics

Even as their race team heads to Brazil, the Williams development team in Grove are paused from their normal work, to consider something unexpected from the Malaysian GP: the pace of Michael Schumacher on his way back to the pits, after losing his front wing.

Over the course of that lap, Schumacher was able to maintain a pace that, Williams think, simply ought not to have been possible; the missing front wing should have made braking into corners, and running through medium or fast corners a real trial. In making his run back to the pits, Schumacher still appeared to be faster than the backmarkers.

Looking back at the race, the Williams developers have been working on the implications, attempting to establish how Schumacher could live without the front wing at that pace; and that has led to conclusions that have left them reconsidering their Ferrari rivals. Malaysia is a medium downforce circuit, requiring compromise between outright speed on the straight, and good cornering speed. Accordingly, most teams require use of a fairly high downforce setup, which means, to keep the car balanced, a significant part of that comes from the front wing. However, Williams are now considering a new thought - that the Ferrari front wing is not producing quite as much downforce as previously estimated: so more must be coming from under the car and side-pods than previously believed.

This area, generally well hidden from digital cameras and the analysis of other teams, is critical. Williams's diffuser alone is responsible for a quarter of the cars' total downforce; that is excluding any other effects from the under-car in front of the diffuser; and it is this area that is under investigation, to identify Ferrari's advantage: significant aerodynamic downforce in front of the centre of gravity of the car.

There is any number of reasons why this is an important place to find downforce, but the one that matters most is drag: using wings increases drag, as a direct side effect, and proportionally to, the downforce they provide, so they have a significant speed penalty on the straight in usage. Downforce from controlling air movement under the car comes with practically no drag penalty - representing something close to the holy grail of aerodynamics: dragless downforce.

Furthermore, the knock-on advantages mean that a small improvement, based on airflow under the car, can offer a significant gain all round. Increasing overall front downforce means that the cars can run less wing at the front: going from a solid baseline, between moving the ballast and trimming the wings, balancing the car becomes significantly easier, rather than a case of simply getting as much downforce as possible on to the front of the car to dial out understeer! As a happy coincidence, the reduced reliance on the front wing for downforce means that the car is inherently less sensitive to losing airflow over the wing from trailing the car in front, and so, less likely to pitch whilst cornering. Reduced pitch sensitivity means that the under-car aerodynamics are less likely to be disturbed, so the driver has even greater confidence in the car on fast corners.

Of course, it's not as if any of this is unknown to the teams, particularly Williams, who are about as savvy as it gets: however, with Ferrari introducing numerous new wings last year, it seemed they were keen to work on improving downforce as the rest of the grid. If the latest hunch is correct, then those wings were more about fine tuning the airflow around the front of the car, and less about absolute downforce than anyone realised - now, all Williams have to do, is either work out how Ferrari have managed it, or put it all down to an inspired lap by the reigning World Champion.

BAR Under Pressure

Just when moral at Brackley looked like it had hit a low point following a poor Malaysian Grand Prix, news that fifteen percent of the workforce would be served notice has set a new record low for the company.

Ever since the team started, there has been a strange culture about BAR. When Craig Pollock and Adrian Reynard were first getting the ball rolling, they infected their new workers with a huge buzz from the concept of putting together an outfit that was supposed to produce a Malcolm Oastler car that could win its first race. Every member of that team was paid top dollar, for a quality job, as Craig Pollock hired the best people he could lay his hands on for the project. Needless to say, that first Australian Grand Prix brought everyone down with a thump that, frankly, still reverberates through the team now.

News of Dave Richards joining the team was initially considered something of a mixed blessing by insiders. There is no doubting that the man really knows how to run a serious organisation, and, even though he failed to turn Benetton around, it was well recognised that the Benetton family tied his hands, preventing him from completing the job. However, during the time he spent with that outfit, he was clearly seen to have earned the strong management reputation that he now brings to BAR.

That he is cutting out Oastler and chief designer Andy Green should have come as no surprise, particularly since Pollock's departure was a clear indication that everything has changed at the top. Adding to which, it's not as though either Oastler or Green had managed to contribute to putting a decent car on to the grid since BAR formed. However, their departure does seem to have had a real impact on the rank and file, who are all too aware of the message the departures have delivered: no-one is sacrosanct, and from now on, continuing as part of the team is to be considered a privilege, with every place having to be worked for. Failing is not a luxury the team can afford, so dead wood will be excised with all haste.

It's no surprise then, that moral has taken a hit. There's nothing like losing one in six of your colleagues to introduce a general feeling of unease, vulnerability, and insecurity in the workplace. However, Richards knows what he is doing, and is risking short term unease and poor moral against the potential for significant gains. The cull is intended to open the way for a more efficient way of working, and provide the breeding ground for a new culture. This, in turn, given good direction from above, will provide the kernel of a new team, that can rise to the challenge of building a car that really does stand a chance of challenging for the grand prize: the Constructors' Championship.