Willy Rampf: The F1.07 has a lot of potential
The BMW Sauber F1 Team started their 2007 pre-season testing with high expectations and from the beginning of January the team completed almost 12,500km on the test track. During this time, the F1.07 showed great potential, something that was witnessed in the opening race of the season, the Australian GP, just over a week ago.
However, while this was all positive, there was a downside, and that was the problems faced with their seamless gearbox. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be the F1.07’s Achilles heel, not only in testing but also in during racing as Robert Kubica was forced to retire down under when his car became stuck in 5th gear.
Meanwhile, the biggest advantage they have is the key factor to this years approach. With the tyre war behind us and homologation of engines with a 19,000rpm restriction, the aerodynamics is the most crucial factor to their design success. The F1.07 is the child of the most impressive state of the art windtunnel at Hinwill and has the tweaks created from the Europe’s fastest machine used in industry according to the current Top-500 list, the Albert2 Supercomputer.
“Albert2 has been running ‘full steam’ since December and has already contributed to the performance of the car”, stated Willy Rampf.
BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen stated at the time Albert2 was presented to the press:
“Aerodynamics has a crucial influence on the performance of modern Formula 1 cars, with experimental work in the wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics complementing each other. The launch of Albert2 means a decisive reinforcement of our CFD capacity. Unlike other teams, we are not planning to build a second wind tunnel but will continue to bank on the consistently expanding potential in this area. For the new season, we have set the goal of further reducing the gap to the top.”
How right he is.
One of the first surprises was the split flap in the front wing, which was spotted on the car right after the launch, and just what effect did this have on the car?
“The goal of the aerodynamicists is always to improve the efficiency of the car: more downforce, less drag combined with a low yaw sensitivity. With the F1.07 we launched a completely new front wing that consists of a number of different elements. The slotted flap is just one that contributes to the whole system,” Willy told us.
All of the teams have faced difficulty in adapting to the new Bridgestone rubber, mainly those that used Michelins tyres last year. Keeping this in mind Willy’s opinion on the difference between the 2006 and 2007 tyres is very interesting.
“The 2007 Bridgestone tyres are completely different from the Michelin tyres we used last year”, he said. “By request of the FIA, the new tyres must have approx. five percent less grip than last year’s. As a result, the construction is more conservative and the compounds are harder. The main difference with regard to the set-up is the weight distribution that needs to be moved more to the front”, he explained.
At the season opener in Melbourne the two BMW Sauber cars of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica started from 3rd and 5th position and what was noticeable was their amazing starts.
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