Adelaide: Hansen DW58

Hansen's 2012 challenger, the DW58 is almost a new concept to last year's car. They have a new chassis, and completely different bodywork. Despite a similar wing configuration to last year, there isn't much that has gone unchanged. The DW58 is a relatively simple car, at first glance it appears to have no tricks, its just the performance of simplicity.


Front Wing
The front wing, has a similar concept to last year. It appears to have no changes, although they have slightly revised their upper cascades, to get a better balance between front and rear downforce.


Nose
Strangely, Hansen have a cockpit that is at a 550mm maximum height. Despite this, they have opted for a very clear step in their nose, perhaps conforming to what others expect, rather than what is more viable aerodynamically. I am sure we may see a revised cockpit and nose concept during the coming season.


Bodywork
Last year, Hansen had a very chunky design, but overall had very good flow to the rear, which gave them the performance they had last year. This year they have completely revised the whole bodywork, with the exhausts incorporated into the sidepod-engine cover transition. The overall design seems rather BGP-01-esque, with the triangular airbox and sidepod intake shape. Many teams seems to have sidepods that are even tighter than Hansen's, so we'll see how they perform come Melbourne.


Rear End
The diffuser of the DW58, is somewhat of a disappointment. There appears to be a lack of rear downforce there, with no strakes, and a very simple shape to it. As expected though, I am confident there will be several upgrades of the diffuser area throughout the year. They remain with a similar wing to last season, generating maximum downforce, rather than optimizing their DRS with their larger rear wing flap chord length.


Innovations
From what has been seen, there appears to be very little, if not no innovation. The secret to this car appears, to simply be the simplicity, and conditioning of the flow.


Overall Review
From what has been seen so far, it looks as if Hansen have taken a step backwards in their design philosophy from last season's car. The balance appears off, and may take some time for them to get the car up to pace. The exit of Ben Hansen from the team, seems to have affected them greatly, but thanks to Tom Martin joining the team, we may see a much better car in the coming races. During the pre-season tests, they appear to have been running low-fuel to hide some of the errors in the cars design, however with great drivers like Raikkonen and Klien, I'm sure anything is possible.