Virgin’s all-digital racing car
Virgin Racing launched their 2010 Formula One car – the VR-01 – today. They had originally intended to go with the current trend of launching online but technical difficulties prevented a live online launch.
The VR-01 is the first Formula One car to be designed entirely in the digital domain using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Other teams make use of CFD technology but Virigin is the first team to design and build a car without using any scale models or wind tunnel tests.
Technical Director Nick Wirth admits they won’t know whether the computer got it right until the car takes to the track:
We fully expect to encounter issues along the way; CFD is an approximation – as is scale-model testing. In both cases, it is only when you hit the track that you can really appreciate the effect of factors that are tricky to model with any technology such as the effect that the real stiffness of all bodywork components and joints has on the airflow for example.
It will be fascinating to see how the car performs in real life when it takes part in the test at Jerez next week.
Images: Virgin
