Haas will proceed to work in Ferrari’s System 1 wind tunnel regardless of signing a high-profile technical partnership with Toyota final yr.
Though Toyota’s F1 workforce got here and went expensively throughout the 2000s with out securing a single victory, its wind tunnel in Cologne was as soon as thought-about so innovative that different F1 outfits used it in place of their very own.
Nevertheless, Haas has determined to stay to the identical Ferrari tunnel that it has used since its entry into F1 in 2016.
The choice is a strategic one which includes Haas’s seek for a brand new HQ by which it is going to be in a position to rationalise efficiency work presently cut up between the US, the UK and Italy. This may also embody the combination of a brand new driver-in-loop simulator Haas will construct as a part of Toyota’s funding.
To ascertain an aerodynamics group positioned in Cologne, or have one commuting there, would add prices and make logistics extra somewhat than simpler. The Toyota tunnel additionally has a particular shortcoming which immediately impacts analysis into floor impact.
“By no means is a robust phrase,” workforce boss Ayao Komatsu advised Motorsport.com and a choose group of media throughout a pre-season briefing, “however for the foreseeable future, we’ve no plans to maneuver out of the Maranello wind tunnel.”
Wind tunnel
Picture by: McLaren
Following Toyota’s withdrawal from F1 on the finish of 2009, a number of groups – together with McLaren, Williams, Power India (now Aston Martin) and even Ferrari – shifted analysis into Toyota’s tunnel, though in Ferrari’s case it was a short lived measure whereas it refitted its personal tunnel, which is housed inside a spectacular Renzo Piano-designed construction close to the rear entrance to the Maranello manufacturing facility. At present solely the Cadillac workforce is working in Cologne.
On the time, Toyota’s tunnel loved a major benefit over others as a result of it supplied Particle Picture Velocimetry (PIV), a way by which tiny particles illuminated by a laser sheet are used as a substitute of smoke to present a visible illustration of the circulation discipline round a automobile. PIV is taken into account extra correct as a result of the tracer particles exert much less of an affect over airflow than smoke particles.
Now, although, most groups have upgraded their amenities to incorporate PIV and a focus has shifted to the type of the rolling highway. Within the new ground-effect period, the place the automobiles run nearer to the bottom, the interplay between the automobile ground and monitor floor has grow to be a key efficiency differentiator.
Final summer season Ferrari shut down its F1 wind tunnel to put in a brand new ‘rubberised’ rolling highway which, whereas much less sturdy than the standard metal belt, extra precisely displays the feel of a monitor floor. Haas is now having fun with the advantages of Ferrari’s work, whereas Toyota must undertake the identical analysis and funding programme to supply the identical aggressive customary.
It has not escaped the eye of anybody in F1 that the groups main the way in which within the 2024 constructors’ championship and seemingly encountering the fewest vital aerodynamic issues by the season – McLaren and Ferrari – each have lately upgraded wind tunnel amenities.
“For me, it’s a win-win state of affairs, as a result of us and Ferrari are after all preventing in the identical championship, so no matter particular challenge you could have in your wind tunnel {hardware}, which is said to the specifics of the [ground effect] laws on this era, Ferrari is doing the analysis, they’re addressing it, so we take the profit with out us doing the analysis,” mentioned Komatsu.
“I don’t see any level in us transferring out of the Maranello simulator to go to the Toyota wind tunnel which presently doesn’t have [a ‘rubberised’ floor]. OK, Andretti is utilizing it, however they’re not competing in F1 but.
“So for the foreseeable future, I don’t see any level in transferring out of the Maranello wind tunnel.”
Apart from potential efficiency benefits – although Haas’s 2025 automobile will characteristic fewer parts purchased in from Ferrari’s 2025 bundle, notably the entrance suspension – sustaining a presence in Maranello affords a component of logistical continuity as Haas appears to be like to do extra efficiency analysis ‘below one roof’. It’s understood that plenty of choices for a brand new UK HQ have been introduced to workforce proprietor Gene Haas on the finish of January.
This facility will home the brand new driver-in-loop simulator coming as a part of Toyota’s funding. At present if Haas needs to make use of Ferrari’s simulator, personnel should journey from the UK.
“If you happen to take a look at the simulator, final yr we did undoubtedly no more than 15 days,” mentioned Komatsu. “What different groups solely do 15 days of simulator working?
“Through the race weekend, we don’t do any simulator working in any respect. Once more, I feel everyone else does.
“So all of these capabilities, we haven’t bought. And if we’ve bought the simulator in Maranello, that’s the solely simulator that we’ve entry to. We merely can not do it.
“We’ve to ship folks from right here as a result of the Maranello workplace is basically designed for circuitously operational efficiency folks. So that’s the reason having the simulator right here by way of effectivity can be evening and day.”
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On this article
Stuart Codling
System 1
Haas F1 Staff
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