Hello everyone, let me introduce myself as an ex member of the Marussia design team.
I thought as I am no longer under contract with Marussia or Manor I would reply to some of the questions posed on this forum. Im not going to spill all the bean, just correct some of the rumours as many of the staff were quite proud of the windtunnel model and the design direction the car was heading in.
The incomplete Marussia 2015 Formula 1 car design has been revealed after the teams financial collapse. Shown here as an incomplete wind tunnel model the car which would have been called the Manor MNR1-Ferrari carries over much of the 2014 design.
This car is almost complete, the wheels and a small section under the nose are removed ready to place the car in its transport box to McLaren's wind tunnel.
New rules being introduced for the 2015 season mean that the nose structures of the cars have to be reworked and the Manor-Marussia solution is clear to see on this scale model. Compared to the 2014 MR03 the front of the chassis is lower and as a result the front suspension pushrod mountings have created blisters on the upper surface of the tub. A new front wing endplate design is also evident.
The blisters on the chassis are only for the model and is a compromise due to packaging constraints of a 50% model and stuffing it full of sensors and motors to drive the steering, the real car would not have had these.
Manor MNR1At the rear of the car the 2014 concept has largely carried over with the much copied Y-Lon rear wing support. The wing itself is updated compared to the last version seen on a Marussia MR03 (in Sochi), the endplate now features Ferrari style strakes on its outer edge and twin vents on the leading edge instead of the single vent seen at Sochi.
The Y-Lon and monkey wing is actually the same as MR03 as this stage of testing, new designs of rear wing supports and monkey wings were designed and due for testing including a "Yuan-Lon".
"It is conceivable that Marussia had intended to modify its MR03 chassis to meet the new for 2015 rules in an attempt to reduce costs, which highlights the amount of similarity seen with the new design, but also its likely that the Marussia engineers were utilising the same model used for the 2014 design for the 2015 work."
The chassis was going to be all new and was in early production, the surfaces on the upper and lower sections of the nose are very different to MR03. Also the new chassis (known internally as MR04) was several hundred mm shorter than MR03, this was accomplished using a shorter and taller "fuel tank" area of the monocoque. This area of the chassis was quite neatly packaged as above it sloping off on each side were 2 rhomboid shaped heat exchangers feeding from the roll hoop via a Y shaped duct.
"Is it a 50% wind tunnel model?
Or smaller?"
Correct the model is 50% scale.
The second section of the nose seems to have a 'T' shape, (not a simple rectangle because it looks too thin to me).
But it seems they kept the same dimension as the 2014 finger nose for the first section.
Correct there is a keel running under the nose.
Question that may raise then
is, was Marussia effectively over before Japan already or did the test results / windtunnel results for this 2015 prototype
made them decide they've invested and spent money to no luck and it's better to stop effective immidiately?
I like to see varying designs on the 2015 noses, this one is interesting though - but is it practical and effective?
Development of the MR04 started long long before Japan. The wind tunnel model was running in the tunnel back in the early summer, initial design work done back in the spring. MR04 was quite far ahead in terms Cl than MR03 you've seen on track and still a fair bit ahead of the best wind tunnel development of MR03. There was a large update package designed for MR03 that looks like a cross between the car you've seen on track and this wind tunnel model.
That said, am I wrong or the lower part of the chassis below the suspensions is completely missing?
Correct a piece of chassis is missing ahead of the mid barge boards. This section need to be removed for transport within its travel box so a structural piece of the spine of the chassis can be supported, also hence no wheels. The MR04 model was scheduled to be transported to McLarens wind tunnel the day the vast majority were made redundant by the administrator.
I see the little air intake on the airbox is gone.
Yup, that intake was for cooling on the MR03 and quite a late edition. Not for any funky aero like a F-ducts etc.
It seems to me, or the car is shorter?
Yes, see above.
Thats about as far as I want to explain things right now, still seems slightly odd talking about it on here but as i've mentioned myself and the rest of the people involved with the team were really proud of MR04 and the direction it was heading, we felt for sure we would continue our advance up the grid.
Also if anyone from McLaren is reading this i would get in contact with the administrators currently running Marussia/Manor about retrieving the leased equipment (if you've not already) such as the over head model strut and control systems that can be seen in these photos, i would really hate to see that get weighed in for scrap.
And finally i'd like to thank all the forum users here for scouring the internet for photos every GP and digging up all the little easy to over see aero details changes, we do read what you write! Keep up the good work!
