The Temple of VTEC - Honda and Acura Enthusiasts Online - Articles - Rules and regulation: Honda's new F1 challenger

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floundericiousMI

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Honda F1, News, Testing, BAR Specific, Other, TOV World, Motorsports

Create Date

January 25, 2006 11:05

Last Update

January 27, 2006 21:28

Honda's new F1 challenger

Aerodynamics The new RA106 car features the return of the "Ice Cream Scoop" front wing dip. It has the inward slanted front wing endplates that channel/accelerate the flow. It has adopted the cooling chimneys and louvres as seen on Sauber/Renault. It also has enhanced shoulder wings and flip-up parts. Overall, the car is much smaller around the rear end and should generate more downforce. Interestingly, it is nowhere near the degree of "wasp-y sidepod" undercutting as seen on the McLaren/Sauber/Renault.

It is entirely possible that the front end aero package on the car is a dummy being thrown out there to be replaced for the season...the front wing, in particular, has none of the secondary flaps (a la Renault/Sauber/Everyone) and has the same dip as last year's car.

Chassis

The new car also has a "zero keel" setup. This is the latest fad amongst teams on the F1 circuit. Renault first started this trend about 1-2 years ago with their "twin keel/truss" system that used SMALL keel attachments and a cross car linkage that stiffened the keels. I'm waiting to see a photo of the car sans nosecone to see how Honda's done their monocoque in that region.

The other change is the newest evolution of the carbon fiber gearbox. Taking advantage of the much smaller V8 engine for this year, the gearbox has grown slightly longer, which should allow more internal space for electronics/channels/sensors/suspension mounts/etc. I'd expect the car's rear end chassis to be much stiffer with the shortening of the engine!

Engine

There's very little good info out there for engines right now. The V8s have yet to get their revs up to 19k or 20k. The new FIA engine design rules are likely to blame for that! What with engine materials, engine bore size, cylinder spacing, etc. being regulated and the switch from variable length trumpets to fixed trumpets, we may be seeing teams give up on the 20000 rpm dream and focus on tuning for max mid-range...given how "point and squirt" race tracks are, good mid-range flexibility is going to be crucial.

The outgoing V10 engine weighed about 92kg, the new engine regs have changed the formula back to V8 engines with a minimum engine weight of 95kg. The engines have had certain materials banned for this year. This is similar in nature to the changes back in 2002 when Beryllium and other exotic materials were banned.

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