Aerodynamic mastermind Adrian Newey argues that everyone should have seen porpoising coming.
Adrian Newey is widely known as one of the greatest aerodynamic thinkers in the world of Formula 1. The best man has a whole mountain of titles to his name and even managed to make men like Damon Hill and Sjaak Nieuwstad world champions. That last one is a bit bland towards both gentlemen, but still, Newey is known as a kingmaker.
Ferrari reportedly once offered Newey a blank check to make the switch to Maranello. However, the somewhat eccentric Briton did not like it that way. He preferred to continue working and living in Old Blighty. Newey hardly has any competition colleagues with equal success. Only Aldo Costa can measure up to the number of titles won, but he is much less known to the general public.
While there is, of course, a whole team behind Adrian at the moment, the master designer proved his worth again this year, through the problem of porposing to be identified early. Where most other teams suffered from bouncing, the Red Bull RB18 was largely devoid of that. Bee Auto-Motor-und-Sport explains the best boy in the class Newey that the others should have known it all too. He himself knew it in any case since 1980:
I got it in college ground effect studied and wrote my thesis on it. In 1980 I wrote to the F1 teams to work there. Most didn’t respond, but Harvey Postlethwaite did. He then worked for Fittipaldi. Then I came to work in the aerodynamics department. I immediately turned out to be the head of the department, because there was no one else working there.
Adrian Newey, Workshop Chef
Newey saw through his experience with the cars of that time the problem of porposing arriving from a kilometer away:
Because of my experience with the cars of that time, I was already familiar with the phenomenon of porpoising. It’s in the genes with these cars. In fact, everyone should have seen it coming. It is only the extent to which the problem occurred that surprised me.
Adrian Newey, gives his peers a sneer
There is an ‘excuse’ that Newey is willing to admit to his colleagues. In a wind tunnel, porpoising is difficult to grasp. But, for people who work in the highest class of motorsport, it is of course still moderate that they have not realized this. Whose deed.
This article Newey: “Everyone should have seen porpoising coming” appeared first on Autoblog.nl.
#Newey #porpoising #coming