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Williams
#21
(17-Aug-2020, 16:35)f1eng Wrote: I have always been a music lover but I only discovered the existance of "hifi" when I left home in 1968. We had a radiogram at home, my Mum was a music lover and good pianist, my Dad had no interest at all in music.
I hadn't realised how varied and expensive the stuff was.
I did noise and vibration research before I entered F1 full time, including a period at Garrard looking at how unwanted vibration, and hence spurious signal, got to the cartridge (It gets to both sides).
I had to design my own transducers in the early days since suitable ones were either not available at all or very expensive and made to order.
I was interested in electronics even though I trained in Mechanical Engineering and used it a lot for measuring what was going wrong when fault finding.
I was the first person to use a computer in F1 also a digital data logger (analogue isn't accurate enough), CAD and CAE.
Now everybody is at it.
When I joined Williams we were 23 people with a limited budget and the most important thing I did was to work out the most beneficial place to apply engineering effort. Nowadays teams have 700-1200 people and sufficient budget to do anything they can think of.
It will change.
At Williams I did all the aerodynamics, ran the tests and the No1 car at half the races, Patrick did the other half. At its peak I had 2 model makers and a tunnel technician. Later I developed an active suspension system from concept to win its first race. It was massive fun.
My friend who is head of aero at Ferrari has 120 people doing only that. They don't seem to have mush fun at all.
I have friends throughout the teams so keep up to date a bit still but I retired over 10 years ago.

Thank you for the insight, Frank.
I find it staggering that it takes 120 people to do the aero at Ferrari. I’m aware of the importance of aero engineering, but has it really come on that much further since your day?
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South Coast England
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#22
A Williams (at its heyday) F1 Engineer, and a person with the legendary Goldmund Reference TT!

We have some heavy weight company here!
Kondo Overture PM-2i, Weiss DAC502, LP12 Haben, Aro, Keel, Radikal, Urika, EMT JSD6, Phasemation PP-300/T-300, Linn Krystal, Penaudio Serenade Signature

Kondo Operia SPs 2.7, KSL-VzII, Acz-Avocado, etc.


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#23
(18-Aug-2020, 07:48)Axel Wrote:
(17-Aug-2020, 16:35)f1eng Wrote: I have always been a music lover but I only discovered the existance of "hifi" when I left home in 1968. We had a radiogram at home, my Mum was a music lover and good pianist, my Dad had no interest at all in music.
I hadn't realised how varied and expensive the stuff was.
I did noise and vibration research before I entered F1 full time, including a period at Garrard looking at how unwanted vibration, and hence spurious signal, got to the cartridge (It gets to both sides).
I had to design my own transducers in the early days since suitable ones were either not available at all or very expensive and made to order.
I was interested in electronics even though I trained in Mechanical Engineering and used it a lot for measuring what was going wrong when fault finding.
I was the first person to use a computer in F1 also a digital data logger (analogue isn't accurate enough), CAD and CAE.
Now everybody is at it.
When I joined Williams we were 23 people with a limited budget and the most important thing I did was to work out the most beneficial place to apply engineering effort. Nowadays teams have 700-1200 people and sufficient budget to do anything they can think of.
It will change.
At Williams I did all the aerodynamics, ran the tests and the No1 car at half the races, Patrick did the other half. At its peak I had 2 model makers and a tunnel technician. Later I developed an active suspension system from concept to win its first race. It was massive fun.
My friend who is head of aero at Ferrari has 120 people doing only that. They don't seem to have mush fun at all.
I have friends throughout the teams so keep up to date a bit still but I retired over 10 years ago.

Thank you for the insight, Frank.
I find it staggering that it takes 120 people to do the aero at Ferrari. I’m aware of the importance of aero engineering, but has it really come on that much further since your day?

Aero has always been important, and particularly made a big gain at a time when not even all the teams, never mind the press, realised it! I discovered it was the biggest effect in the mid 1970s when I was actually working on suspension geometry. I dropped geometry (apart from red-herring comments to journalists) and concentrated on aero after that.
It does tend to be over exagerated in importance by the press now that they have discovered it, it is at least as important to keep all 4 tyres in their optimum temperature range for as much of the grip limited part of the corner as possible.
Ever since the ill advised decision to make the car have a "flat" rather than shaped underside they have been hideously height sensitive. From 1983, when it started, to 1994 when Senna died as a result of it they were all but impossible to get universally stable.
The measures to address this after Imola 1994 have made it better but still, any team which can achieve high but stable aero figures over the whole range of heights the car may be from the ground has a big benefit. The gains are small compared to how they were, I sometimes made a gain which was worth 1 sec per lap in a week in the wind tunnel, nowadays 100+ people may make that much in a year of effort but if you have the money you do it.
Usually the best funded teams win. We did buck this trend at Williams for a while but it is rare.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire

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#24
Wow, Frank, what an honour! I guess we should organise a Zoom call with you just to hear anecdotes and stories from that time... Here in Argentina the whole saga with Reutemann, Alan Jones, and then losing the 81 or 82 world championship in the last race still is a matter of debate and discussion... but what a car that was, really something else.

Congratulations, and, as someone here already said, Respect!

L


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#25
(26-Aug-2020, 22:15)LBameule Wrote: Wow, Frank, what an honour! I guess we should organise a Zoom call with you just to hear anecdotes and stories from that time... Here in Argentina the whole saga with Reutemann, Alan Jones, and then losing the 81 or 82 world championship in the last race still is a matter of debate and discussion... but what a car that was, really something else.

Congratulations, and, as someone here already said, Respect!

L


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I love Carlos. His performance at Las Vegas in 1981 is as big a mystery to me as anybody else.
He is a very superstitious man and had had a very pessimistic tea-leaf reading in mid season and started saying things like "its no good for mr this year" mid season but I so wish he had won in 1981.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire

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#26
Yeah, in small meetings I had a chance to be in, in which he felt comfortable because we were talking classic sports cars (and not politics, another of his passions), he didn’t say as much but definitely something like that transpired to the rest. Something strange, we will probably never know.

Anyway, he has had some health issues lately and stays mostly at home. As a race commentator (he was for a time for local F1 transmissions) he was unbeaten, he anticipated issues, explained with inside knowledge what would happen, and knowing many in the pits he made the whole race a lot clearer for us.

Again, an honour, Frank, thanks a lot!

L


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