Williams FW30
The Williams FW30 is a Formula One racing car, designed by Williams [Grand Prix Engineering|Williams] for the 2008 Formula [One World Championship|2008 Formula One season]. The car is largely an evolution of its predecessor, the FW29. As with its predecessor, the FW30 is powered by engines manufactured by Toyota. The FW30 was unveiled to the public on 21 January 2008 at the Circuit de Valencia, Spain, and made its race debut at the Australian Grand Prix and was driven by Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima.
Design
In comparison to the preceding Williams FW29 car, Williams Technical Director Sam Michael described the aim of the FW30's construction as being "refining our package and weight distribution" rather than being a radical redesign. Although not confirmed by Williams, weight distribution was likely moved forward somewhat, to better utilise the traction characteristics of the single-supply Bridgestone tyres.Chassis and suspension
In common with all contemporary Formula One designs, the FW30's basic architecture is built around a carbon fibre, aramid and honeycomb composite material monocoque. The design carries over the FW29's zero keel, double wishbone suspension arrangement, along with the twin-pillar rear wing. The FW30's front wing is one area in which the design of the FW29 was not followed. In place of the older car's two-element wing a three-element design was introduced, similar to that used on the 2007 McLaren MP4-22. As with the McLaren design the Williams wing's upper element features a central section that is raised up and passes over the tip of the car's, slightly lower, nose cone. However, unlike the McLaren, the FW30's front wing is suspended from the nose cone using the forward element.Around the drivers, in accordance with new FIA regulations, the cockpit sides are significantly raised in comparison to previous years. The exhaust chimneys were altered from the FW29's side-exit design, to a slimmer, vertical-exit one. Other, less obvious, chassis alterations include an increase in the number of cooling louvres in the upper surfaces of the side pods, made in response to a change in the orientation of the main radiators within the pods, and an increase in the backward sweep of the roll bar-mounted mid wing.
Aerodynamic development during the 2008 season
During the season various additions and modifications were made to the FW30's aerodynamic appendages. The design of the front wing bridge was tweaked slightly from the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix onward. The bridge element gained two small airflow "fences" that allowed the Williams aerodynamic team to extend the depth of the wing profile. This resulted in an increase in the aerodynamic downforce generated by the wing, without a concomitant increase in drag. Later in the season, prior to the 2008 German Grand Prix, Williams also altered the lower front wing elements, offering their drivers a choice of drag-reducing flap tweaks to the rearmost element. The bumps expected at the new Marina [Bay Street Circuit], used for the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, prompted Williams to tweak the design of the front wing yet again. On this occasion the central "spoon profile" was given a more rounded aspect, in place of the rather more squared-off design used to this point. The change in profile reduced downforce slightly, but resulted in the FW30 being significantly less sensitive to the changes in ride height expected as the cars negotiated the bumpy surface. For the final race of the season, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, Williams again tweaked the profile of the main and middle elements of the front wing. Small curved steps were added to the outer extremities of these elements to increase the speed of airflow through the wing tip, increasing downforce without increasing drag.Small sidepod winglets were significantly altered prior to the 2008 French Grand Prix, providing twin turning vanes to better control airflow over the rear of the car. At the Canadian Grand Prix tweaks were also made to the flip-up flaps in front of the rear wheels, to reduce drag. For the Italian Grand Prix, at the low-downforce Monza circuit, Williams tweaked the design of the FW30's bodywork, and front and rear wings. Sporting only a single element, with its outer edges turned upward, the rear wing was designed to reduce drag on Monza's long, fast straights, while still providing sufficient downforce during cornering. Final adjustments were made to the FW30's rear aerodynamics prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix. Here, the small winglets in front of the rear wheels were augmented by the addition of a small flap beneath their main elements, in order to better deflect airflow around the wheels and reduce the aerodynamic disruption caused by the wheels' rotation. In a later documentary, William stated that the front wing of the FW30 generated 800kg of downforce and accounted for 25% of the car's total downforce of 3200kg at 300 kilometres per hour.
For the Monaco Grand Prix, a race that traditionally demands a high-downforce set-up, Williams experimented with a "shark fin" engine cover, similar to that run by Renault and Red Bull. A modification was made to the front brakes' cooling ducting specifically for the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, enlarging them to better cope with high brake loads commonly experienced when racing on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.