2 replies to this topic

[pbukovca]

Does anybody have any information from old books or magazines on what specifically made the FW16 such a difficult car to drive ? What made the car pitch sensitive ? What was the issue with suspension and the aerodynamics ?

I'm was fairly young back then, so I don't have much archive material on what the real problems with the car were. I guess the only other thing is what did they do to fix the car by end of the season ?

It would cool if somebody could scan in old articles from Race Car Engineering Magazine or Race Tech magazine from way back then. Autosport issues from 94 may have stuff........but I don't know where to find these .

Many thanks.

Best regards.

[FerrariV12]

While I couldn't give a detailed reason, I think the banning of active suspension and the like may have had a role to play. While a lot of the field had the technology by the end of 1993, Williams had been at the forefront of it and for longer (not including Lotus's attempts in the 80s), so other teams had less to lose in that regard, and less re-adjustment back to passive cars.

Don't have any articles or any specifics to hand I'm afraid though.

[midgrid]

From Autocourse 1994-95, p. 42:

"To be honest," admits Newey, "we made a bloody awful cock-up. The rear-end grip problem was purely a set-up problem. We were learning about springs and dampers all over again after concentrating on active suspension for two years, whereas most people had been away for only one. We also had a rather silly aerodynamic problem - basically the front wing was too low - but that was raised for Imola by which time I think we were looking in pretty good shape."