Okay, here's the moment you've all been waiting for: more pictures of the HRT HRT (yes, that's really it's name)!

Okay, the first thing I can say is that this car is going to be able to outbrake anything on the planet.  Look at the size of those brake ducts!  Merciful Monza, those things are huge!  They'd be able to ingest a watermelon!

Then there's that front wing.  Yesterday I called it "simple", and now I'm going to go a little bit farther and call it "really simple."  I can make a more complex curve with a sheet of 3/4" plywood... and a plain sheet of plywood would probably create more downforce.

Let's look more, shall we?

more...

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The last team to join the F1 ranks has finally dragged its car into the spotlight.  Hispania Racing Team, once known as Campos Meta, gave a more-or-less rollout for their vehicle this afternoon.  And here it is:

Um.  Well.  I have to say that I'm not exactly enamored of the color scheme but as someone once said, "paint doesn't win races."  This is currently the only picture of the chassis floating around out there, so let us try and figure out what we can from it. 

The first thing I notice is the front wing, which could charitably be called "simple."  No complex curves, no movable elements surely, just a basic downforce-producing design.  The nose, and indeed much of the rest of the car, reminds me very much of Virgin's VR-1.  Considering the Dallara influence on that chassis (Nick Wirth, Virgin's technical designer, worked with the manufacturer on their IRL cars), and that Dallara built this one, it's not surprising.

Not much else really stands out in this picture, though.  Hopefully we'll see more soon, because we sure won't be seeing much of it during the races.  With the end of the final test session in Barcelona last week, F1's testing ban is now in place... so the first time this car will turn a wheel will be in Bahrain's 1st Friday Practice session! 

More when it becomes available.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:01 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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