Q&A WITH PETER PRODROMOU, CHIEF AERODYNAMICIST AT McLAREN
RACING
As Team McLaren Mercedes returns to the test track in Jerez
today with Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett at the wheel
of the interim MP4-20s, Peter Prodromou, Chief Aerodynamicist
at McLaren Racing, discusses his department's ongoing development
schedule of the MP4-21.
What is your technical background and how would you describe
your role and responsibilities as Chief Aerodynamicist?
I studied Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College in
London for three years, before spending an additional twelve
months on a Masters. I then joined McLaren to introduce and
begin to develop Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) within
the company. My role progressed to looking after the wind
tunnel testing and in 2000 I became Head of Aerodynamics.
As Chief Aerodynamicist at McLaren Racing, I lead a team
of aerodynamicists and CFD engineers, whose responsibility
and goal is to effectively advance the aerodynamic design
of the car to improve aerodynamic performance, using the various
tools available to us, which are CAD, CFD, and the wind tunnel.
It is also vital to continue developing the tools that are
available to us to help us to do that job.
What is your specific role within the MP4-21 project?
The chief aerodynamicist role, which means that I am responsible
for the shape of the car.
When did work begin with MP4-21 and what did the
initial stage comprise?
From the aerodynamic side, work began on MP4-21 around the
beginning of April 2005. Of course other work on the car started
well before that, such as engines and gearbox.
The start of the process focused on defining areas of MP4-21
that we wanted to research, which were potentially going to
affect the fundamentals of the car. Areas such as a new front
suspension layout, front and rear axle positions and different
chassis designs were explored and then specified at around
this time. Then there was a period when the research list
was worked on, in terms of actually designing the various
components that would be required for the wind tunnel or for
CFD, and then making those components.
When did wind tunnel work begin with MP4-21?
We hit the tunnel with MP4-21 at the beginning of July 2005,
and since then we have completed thousands of hours of wind
tunnel testing. At this time of year, the operational hours
for the wind tunnel at the McLaren Technology Centre are extensive,
running seven days a week.
How is the design process going?
It is going reasonably well, we are at the stage where we
have defined the initial package and now we are working on
finding performance steps to continue to improve it through
the winter and into this coming season.
How have the regulation changes for 2006 affected
the aerodynamic design of MP4-21?
For 2006 the regulation changes are not as significant as
for 2005. There are some, but not at the level of last year.
For the aerodynamics team there were two implications of the
regulation changes for 2006.
The first is how we could exploit the change to the new Mercedes-Benz
V8 engine, which opened up opportunities for the repackaging
of the rear of the car. A lot of effort has been put into
this area, and it was an early focus to establish what has
become available to us at the back end.
The second major regulation change was to the forward deflector
area, which has been raised by regulation 50mm. Even though
technically you can devise a solution relatively easily, for
example take what we had last year and raise it, the consequences
of doing that were significant and they were complex enough
that we had to address that whole area of the car quite comprehensively.
Is MP4-21 an evolution or a new car?
It is a new car, but in terms of its basic concept it is
evolved (with less than 10% carry-over parts) from the MP4-20
fundamentals.
What is the current focus of the design programme?
I’m afraid I cannot be specific for competitive reasons,
but the basic car is now defined and fully spec'ed and the
focus has now turned to what we can do between now and the
first race, whilst also looking at what we can do for the
various upgrade packages during the season. McLaren has always
pushed hard to bring continual lap time improvements right
up to the last race. The research and development pressure
is relentless, because that’s what it takes to win in
a modern Formula One team.
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