Everything comes together very, very quickly towards the end. Chassis release, for instance, was some time in the autumn with final components not released until middle of February. The STR12’s chassis was finalised in the autumn of 2016 and produced in house by STR.įrom a planning perspective, we knew what our lead times were. We now have an excellent production capability in-house. Of course, we had to leave enough time for everything to be manufactured. By the summer break we had a well defined view of the car layout, however this still required significant engineering work and it was around this time that the design office switched from performing individual studies on the new car, to really delving into the detail to ensure the car concept was realised as effectively as possible. Moving back to the design aspects, in the initial stages the design was prepared by the concept group, trying to optimize the layout of the car to maximize performance. The use of wider Pirelli tyres was only confirmed during pre-season testing in 2016, and the exact sizes were still not fully finalised when Pirelli revealed the new look rubber in Monaco. With each iteration of simulation we moved a step closer in terms of accuracy of the aero performance, mechanical behaviour and tyre performance, so that now we are reasonably confident we can predict how the car will respond when we start testing in Barcelona. The tyre information we use has been slowly maturing from our own internal estimates of how a wider version of the 2016 tyre would behave, through to a final set of data measured by Pirelli on a 2017 race spec tyre in December. Possibly the biggest unknown of the entire regulation change concerns the tyres. This process evolved each iteration a refinement and closer to what we have on track now, as more information became available or was better understood. Similarly, the lap simulations determine an optimum aerodynamic efficiency for each circuit and for the season as a whole, which can shift the aero development targets and likewise for the tyres.Īs more understanding was obtained and our knowledge increased, so the targets were refined and as a team we were then working towards a more focused goal. As a consequence, the process is iterative and the output of the simulation work very much feeds into the design concept.ĭesign work on the STR12’s transmission began before data on the loads that the casing would have to withstand was available.įor example the increased performance leads to increased loads, which must then be considered in the concept we adopt for the gearbox or suspension design. Other design factors, such as load cases, also have major implications on the structural requirements. Some of this work was independent of the revised regulations, but factors such as considering the additional weight and aero preferences had a very strong influence. In parallel to these initial studies the first car concept schemes were laid out by the Concept Group. These results then fed into other groups to define their processes, as well as going back into the Aero and Vehicle Performance groups to refine their own work. As there were many unknowns we intentionally scanned a range of any individual parameter to derive a number of different permutations and “what if” scenarios. We began by preparing best estimates of the extra grip/downforce/drag that the new regulations would bring and started to estimate the performance envelope of the new cars using our simulation tools. At this early stage the focus was on the Aero and Vehicle Performance groups to understand the sensitivities of these factors. However, it was clear the cars would be wider, the mechanical grip from the tyres would increase and that the cars would have significantly more downforce and drag. Starting at the end of 2015, before STR11 was even completed, we were in a situation where the regulations were not clear and there were many unknowns. So this was integrated into our plan from the start. We also recognized that with the major changes we had to ensure that by the time the season started we were as prepared as possible and had done our homework, meaning all rig testing and component sign-offs were completed. We set out to make it the best STR engineered car to date, as we knew we had to adopt a back to basics approach to apply our existing knowledge of what makes a fast race car to a new set of regulations and constraints. The STR12 Project was kicked off very early in November 2015.
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