10/04/2015
NEWS STORY
Technical veteran Pat Symonds has rubbished Bob Fernley's suggestion that windtunnel technology is out-dated.
As part of his desire to see costs cut, the Force India deputy team principal recently said that along with being out-dated, wind tunnels were highly expensive and should be replaced by computer technology.
Speaking in Shanghai, Symonds, who has produced title winning cars for Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, and has spearheaded Williams revival, rubbished the suggestion.
"I think it's a clearly ridiculous provocative statement," said the Briton. "Our wind tunnels are anything but dinosaurs. Just because a technology has been around for a while doesn't mean that it joins those reptiles of old. Cars have been around for a long while. Are cars dinosaur technology?
"Maybe Bob ought to come and have a look at a decent wind tunnel and just see how technically advanced they are," he added.
"If anyone were to come and see inside any of our teams, I don't think they would regard the aerodynamics department - which is a mixture of CFD and wind tunnel - is in any way not forward looking," added James Allison. "The techniques we develop in both those spheres, in both wind tunnel and CFD, are impressive by any measure. We, as an industry, have caused the CFD tools for low speed aerodynamics to be pushed forward very nicely to the benefit of more than just Formula One so I don't think there's any need to worry about us using dinosaur technology. I just think it is the right combination of tools with technology as it stands today."
"I think Bob was trying to provoke a debate and he's done that, for sure," said Andy Green, appearing to defend his Force India colleague. "It's difficult for me to comment any further than that we'll work around or work within the regulations as they're written. If it means that it's a CFD-based development, then we'll work to it."
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