2008 European GP Technical Review

New to the calendar, the fast, open layout of the street circuit is unlike any of the other temporary circuits. Because the track is more flowing, and with a number of straights, downforce levels were lower than Monaco, for example. This placed an emphasis on engine power and efficient aerodynamics, again, in contrast to other street circuits.

However, the higher speeds attained required heavy braking for the several tight turns, thus brake cooling was a major consideration. Even with their larger inlet ducts, in the race Ferrari decided to remove the wheel fairings at their first stops to improve cooling.

Red Bull Racing

For the lower downforce demands of Valencia, and the upcoming race at Spa, Red Bull Racing had a new front wing and bridge wing.

To accommodate the new front wing shape, the nose cone's supports have been revised. These still support the three-element wing from the middle slap, but their shape is slightly more played.

Above this, where the previous bridge wing had a very deep chord, the new bridge wing is much shallower.

For Valencia new endplates appeared on the front wing and pod wings © Scarborough (Click to enlarge)

Due to its smaller surface area, Red Bull have probably aimed to direct less flow over the car with it. This creates less of an upwards load the central section. As this part is usually supported from beneath by the post-turkey support, Red Bull have also taken McLaren's idea of using a crescent shaped strut supporting the wing from above and behind. This clears up the harder working undersurface of the wing from obstruction.

Ferrari

Ferrari brought several small bodywork changes to Valencia. These consisted of a new front wing endplate and pod wing. The front wing endplate now has a squarer shape, with the bulge appearing ahead of the front wheel. Equally, the endplates lower lip now features a squarer shape to the channel it creates.

The pod wing retained their old shape, but lost the slot and gained a small flap spanning the from the sidepod's shoulder to the pod wing its self. The flap probably creates a similar effect to the slot in directing flow back along the car.

In the race, Ferrari suffered their second connecting rod failure in two races. Raikkonen's failure was related to the one that befell Massa in Hungary. As Raikkonen's engine was on its second race, it was of the same spec as Massa's Hungary engine. Both engines used the same batch of rods supplied by Pankl in Austria.

Making the most of a void in the bodywork rules Toyota have a tall winglet to aid the slot in the rear wing © Scarborough (Click to enlarge)

Most engine suppliers buy-in components made to their specification by third parties. Quality control is maintained both at the third party during manufacture and by the team upon receipt of the parts.

If the failures were due to a production fault, then the issue is unlikely to repeat itself. If Ferrari find the part has a design problem, then they are at liberty to ask the FIA for permission to redesign the part. Details of any change will be communicated to all the engine suppliers, so there is transparency in the process. However Ferrari may also find a performance gain by having to redevelop any parts, this is outside the scope of the FIA process, as no checks are completed to ensure the engine sees no increase in power from the changes.

Toyota

Allied to their slotted rear wing, Toyota brought the two-element tail winglet to Valencia. The tail winglet sits within the 15cm void in the rear wing rules, and quite high to work with the extra slot in the rear wing to drive the flow a bit harder over the middle span of the wing.

Most seamless shifts use two selector drums to engage alternating gears © XPB (Click to enlarge)

Force India

Finally, Force India were able to debut their new seamless shift gearbox in Valencia. As well as this mechanical change, a small bodywork change was also introduced.

Without the budget to develop the gearbox any quicker, Force India are over a year and a half behind the other teams in racing this technology. Seamless shifts offer both a faster shift to increase the time the engine is spent driving the wheels, but also make for a smoother transition between gears. This allows a driver to shift in a corner with less instability.

First introduced around 2004 by Honda and McLaren, seamless shift gearboxes are a much misunderstood technology. They do not allow full power upshifts as declared by many observers and, although Williams did race a double clutch gearbox in 2006, they don't use this set up nor a constantly variable transmission (CVT).

It is possible some teams use a clever dog ring set up to allow for quicker shifts, the evidence seen so far suggests teams use a far simpler solution to get the shift completed in a shorter time.

Similar in size and shape to the old ones, Force India had simpler nose fins for Valencia © Scarborough (Click to enlarge)

In a conventional gearbox, one selector drum rotates to move the forks to engage the gears. In a seamless shift two selector drums are used to control alternate gears. So as one gear is disengaging, the next gear is already engaging. This reduces the dead time for the fork to travel in between one gear and the next.

This sequence is only possible through accurate hydraulic and electronic control of the selector drums. One mis-timing sees both gears engaged simultaneously with destructive consequences.

Also new for Valencia were revised nose fins. These used to be a two-element fin, split to allow the rear section to remain on the car when the nose cone was taken off. The car now has a similar sized fin, but with a single element mounted solely to the chassis, negating the complexity of the two part design.