err... NOjasonliddell wrote:Williams and Toyota also had double diffuser at start of season (the latter team also having vast budget)... Which proved there was more to it than just bolting on a DD. Always intrigued me that coincidental discovery of same loophole.robin wrote:I think the diffuser was the magic sauce that made the car dominant - by mid season everyone had copied it and the car was middling. Whether it was random or the result of applied budget, it was just one thing. I agree random chance is not a big chance and is certainly no substitute for spending money!ryallm wrote: Not sure Brawn stumbled on a magic formula though - was it not more the result of a massive development budget from Honda?
Mark
Cheers,
Robin
Brawn/Honda spent a vast budget through 2008 exclusively developing what was to be branded the Brawn. Another part of the magic formula was bolting on the merc engine, which showed to the team how underpowered and heavy a dog the Honda mill had become.
the championship winning Brawn car was actually designed outside of Honda, it was a Super Aguri F1 Team product from 2007, a further year of design work at Honda in Brackley and Tochigi during 2008, and additional work at the Dome base in Maibara, Japan, (rumour had it they had 6 full sized wind-tunnels, in several countries, working on this car).
the reason it was so dominant in the first half of the season was Brawn had spotted the hole in the regs about double diffusers etc, this had been brought up at the FIA meetings the previous year, but nobody took any interest in it, so the loop hole stayed, he then used it.
Yes, the Honda engine was not spectaculer, but it was hardly a dog, and good as the Merc engine was, it was very much a bodge to make it fit.
