Jaguar boosted by windtunnel upgrade
At a time when the parent Ford Motor Company has tightened the purse strings after heavy losses, the granting of a $20 million budget to update the former DERA wind tunnel at Bedford is being seen as a highly positive signal for the Jaguar Racing Formula 1 programme
A year ago at Indianapolis, the very future of the three-year-old F1 project was the subject of much speculation and long-term confidence has not been helped by heavy Ford losses this year.
The windtunnel project is believed to be the only discretionary spending authorised by the Ford board this year and is a highly positive development for the team.
Once updated, the DERA tunnel, formerly used by the Ministry of Defence for aircraft development, should be one of the very best anywhere. The lack of a high-quality, local tunnel has been the Achilles Heel of the Jag F1 programme since day one of the programme.
The work on the DERA tunnel is scheduled to take between 18 months and two years to complete.
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