Japan Tech Corner: Updated STR Nose

For the Japanese GP Toro Rosso have implemented a new nose design in an attempt to get valuable points to jump up the Constructor's championship.

The new nose is similar to the Red Bull style, hardly surprising considering the links between the team, with a defined 'keel' the notable similarity - which keeps the nose obeying the 2014 Technical Regulations. Obviously there is an aesthetic upside to a keel design, but it will also improve performance in yaw (sideways movement of the car) due to the high pressure difference created between the nose tip and keel.

While it's obvious RBR have the 'S' duct system (see Mid-Season Tech Review Part 3 for a more detailed explanation), it remains to be seen if their sister team Toro Rosso have also gone down this route.


Image: AMS

First image of Honda Power Unit released

McLaren's 2015 Power Unit, made by Honda, has been shown for the first time to the public.

Honda's Chief of Motorsport, Yasuhisa Arai, has confirmed that the company's new base in Milton Keynes has been completed, but their engine is still under development - amid rumours they are behind schedule.

Arai said: "In addition to conducting simulations, we have moved onto the next stage where we conduct full-fledged bench tests of the engine while connecting the turbocharger and energy recovery systems."

"In the meantime, our racing operation base in Milton Keynes has become fully operational. At this time, we are unveiling an image of our power unit that is under development, getting ready for the forthcoming start of F1 participation in 6 months. Stay tuned for further updates."

Looking at the initial image the Honda PU has a similar layout to their Renault counterparts, but we'll have to wait for further images for more  technogical comments to be made. Honda will share a preview of the engine's sound this weekend in their home Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Singapore Tech Corner: Modified Red Bull Nose

Despite arguably having the best chassis on the grid, Red Bull have implemented new upgrades on their RB10 for this weekend's night race.

The car now features a deeper underbelly below the nose (going back from the nose tip) which creates a low pressure region below the nose, speeding up the airflow as it moves under the chassis and toward the floor.

Photo: @cmail_sport

Singapore Tech Corner: Reintroduction of the Wishbone Wing

This weekend McLaren have brought back the upper tier of their Wishbone Wing, after a few races with just the single tier.

This iteration has been implemented to increase downforce on the Singaporian street circuit. It does this by, similar to the beam wing in previous years, interacting with the outlet gases and making the diffuser & rear wing more efficient at producing rear downforce - due to more consistent airflow at the crash support section of the car.

Singapore Tech Corner: Front Wing Endplate Vanes

Some teams have implemented a vane on the FW endplate, commonly refered to as a canard. This canard creates a vortex, causing a pressure difference that directs incoming airflow up, over and around the front tyre. The canard is very front wing dependent, so each teams' solution wouldn't necassary work for other teams, as seen in the photos (Force India have a higher, shorter canard, whereas Sauber have a longer canard situated in the middle of the endplate).

Images: @ams_sport

Singapore Tech Corner: Partly paint-less Sauber

Sauber are struggling financially at the moment, but the lack of grey paint at the rear of the car and the lower edge of the sidepods you may have noticed has actually been done intentionally. Layers of paint provides insulation - great for your walls at home, but not for covering an extemely hot powerunit in a race car.

So this weekend at the hot Singaporian circuit, the C33 just has that trademark carbon fibre pattern shown off in areas of the car, to reduce heat retention and improve cooling. Why don't all teams do this though, you may ask? Well obviously sponsorship on their livery is a very crucial source of income and the 'paint-less' areas are in places where there are no logos or sponsorship anyway. 

Image: @ams_sport

Singapore Tech Corner: Revised Mercedes Y100 Winglet

Even though Mercedes are massively ahead in the Constructors' Championship, they refuse to rest on their laurels, bringing to Singapore a new revised 'Monkey Seat' in a bid to add even more downforce to their car. This winglet doesn't actually generate a lot of downforce, but it does help the diffuser and rear wing perform more efficiently by using the exhaust gases to reduce the effect of airflow separation (this gives a loss of downforce). The winglets are tailored to a specific rear wing configuration, so you can't really compare them between teams. Mercedes' version this weekend features a second horizontal vane at the top of the winglet, further influencing the exhaust airflow, for this tight and tricky street circuit.

Image: @ams_sport

Singapore Tech Corner: Sauber Rear Bodywork

Sauber have brought a host of rear bodywork upgrades as they look to get their first points of the season at the high-downforce Marina Bay circuit. Most visably notable is that they've largely increased the outlets around the exhaust. Even though the Singapore GP is a night race, high temperatures are still an issue, so the C33 now features a larger cooling area at the rear of the car.

The team have also implemented a new Y100 winglet (commonly referred to as a 'Monkey Seat'). This is hardly a surprise as the last race (Monza) was a drag-dependent circuit and this is a downforce centered track, meaning this winglet is needed to use the exhaust plumes to generate extra downforce at the rear of the car.

Image: @Gianlu_DAle

Title-winning Tech: Renault R26 2006

Previous Seasons

In March 2000, Renault bought the Benneton team, who at the turn of the millenium has now become an underfunded midfield team - a big fall from grace considering their dominance in the mid-90's. The team finished just 7th in their first year as Renault F1 but improved to finish 4th in the next two seasons - culminating in their 1st win (and also a young Fernando Alonso's maiden victory) in mid-2003.

The 2003 season proved to be a turning point for the Enstone-based team, as they made a number of key off-track decisions that set them up with great foundations. Firstly, they opted to run a third car on fridays instead of testing between races. This option was introduced by the FIA for smaller and more financially restricted teams, so it was a surprise that the Renault team chose to do this. The advantage to the team was that this did help them out massively in terms of using this data to aid setup and strategy in the future.

In the run-up to the 2004 season, the long standing rumour of Technical Director Mike Gascoigne leaving for Toyota had been confirmed. This left Renault with a tricky decision - recruit from within or replace with a high profile, experienced household name. They bravely chose the former, promoting Gascoigne's deputy Bob Bell to the role. It would prove to be an inspired choice.


R25

The 2005 season featured some new technical regulations which aimed to reduce the downforce available at the teams' disposal. In response to this, Renault halted development of their R24 near the end of 2004, to focus solely on the R25. This boardroom decision did lose them a sizeable financial bonus, as they lost 2nd in the 2004 constructors' championship to BAR, but would ultimately enhance their title chances in the future years.

The R25 featured a new electronic control system (ECS), called 'Step 11', developed by Renault and Magneti Marelli. The system was very innovative, combining both the engine and transmission control units, a first for a Formula One team. Apart from having much larger processing power, 'Step 11' overall was a smaller package than other teams', meaning the addition weight and volume saved was used to put the ballast where they wanted - a big advantage when trying to keep the car balanced.


Winning both the Drivers' and Constructors' championships was a major achievement, but they actually didn't have the fastest car (due to their engine power, more on that later) over the whole season. What they did have, however, was the most reliable and consistent car on all types of track - only had three DNFs due to reliability over the whole, 19 circuit-long, season (Both Renault cars didn't start the infamous 2005 US Grand Prix, due to fears over safety of the Michelin tyre).

R26

After becoming double world champions, the pressure was on Renault as favourites, even with the introduction of V8s instead of V10s. This engine change helped the French company, meaning all teams had to rebuild and package their engines, due to the cylinders lost. This levelled the playing field as all engines were found to be within a 10 horse power bracket, reducing the effect the engine has on speed - making aerodynamics even more important.

Renault introduced a v keel suspension for their R25 with great success, so developed the concept more into 2006. Due to higher ride heights being implemented in 2001, teams connected the lower wishbones to the nose using a keel concept. This involved having a triangular shaped add-on below the nose (As shown in red below) which also helped divert airflow under the car (same concept as a nautical keel, used on ships and boats). Renault's keel suspension in 2005 was different though, using a hollow 'V' shaped keel (in black below the blue/yellow nose in image) to connect wishbone to nose. Obviously this meant that it was more structurally stable, meaning a lighter keel, but also allowed more airflow under the car, more fluid mass under the car means less drag, and the added benefit of more airflow reaching the diffuser in less time (giving more downforce).

Despite having a much lower budget than Ferrari, McLaren, etc, Renault had a very good wind tunnel as there was a strong correlation between the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the data from physical car testing on the track - which seems simple but it's a very key step in producing an aerodynamically efficient car. Since taking over the team in 2001, Renault worked very hard back at Enstone to improve efficiency of their wind tunnel, adding fuel to the fire of 'quality not quantity'. With the new V8s implemented, Renault separated their water and oil radiators (and massively reducing their size) allowing a much more aggressive bodywork shape, resulting in tighter sidepods and a small 'coke bottle' section at the rear.

Rotary suspension dampers were the common damper solution in the early 2000's, but Renault had put their effort into a newer technology, looking at the chassis rather than suspension dampers. Mike Gascoigne, while at Tyrrell, was involved in hydraulically linking all four wheels using an experimental damper system. The knowledge gained from this led Gsacoigne to implementing Micheljn's Optimised Conact Patch (OCP) suspension system at Renault. OCP basically used extra suspension linkages to keep the tyre orientated with the track surface. However this system was declared illegal by the FIA before it could be raced, it Bob Bell did learn some interesting things from the concept and designed the R26 around a 'mass damper' system, which above all assisted balance and stability under braking. The FIA did ban the system midway through 2006, but this didn't halt their championship aspirations.

Game Changer: Engine Packaging

Between 2001 and 2003, Renault used a radical V10 engine design, having an abnormally large bank angle, θ (angle between opposite cylinders). Their θ was in excess of 100 degrees, normally it would be 90, which brought them countless reliability problems when testing it. The major upside to a large θ is that the it lowers the centre of gravity (COG) of the car. For 2004 the team abandoned the large θ engine, this time going the opposite way, utilising a 72 degrees bank angle. This was actually as radical as the wide-angle version used previously, as all other teams now had a 90 degrees θ. The new Renault V10 was a lot higher and heavier than their competition, but they still stuck with the design.

With a full season of testing under its belt, the 2005 72-degree V10 had been made significantly lighter, to try to get back the low COG advantage of the wide-angle engine they had used previously. This allowed them a larger variation of where to put the extra ballast, a substantial advantage when setting up their car. After a promising 2004 with an engine they knew was too heavy, 2005 proved that they had a well packaged, aero efficient car. 

For 2006, the shorter 2.4L V8 engine was introduced into Formula 1. Theoretically, this would mean a shorter wheelbase, to accommodate for the two cylinders lost from 2005, however Renault decided to keep their larger wheelbase (and fuel tank), after consultation between the departments back at Enstone. This meant the engine was moved back slightly and also the gearbox was lengthened (due to the change from six to seven-speed gearboxes). Keeping the same wheelbase means that Renault could stick to what they knew worked well (the R25) but with the added bonus that engine power had been regulated into a very tight horsepower bracket. 

The iconic blue/yellow liveried Renault R25/R26 cars showed that with innovative thinking and risk-taking it's possible to have a great amount of success on a relatively low budget.

 Images: F1Fanatic, F1Technical, FavCars.

 

Prodromou back at McLaren

 

 

McLaren announced today that Peter Prodromou has rejoined the team, after previously working with them 8 years ago. The long standing saga between Red Bull Racing and McLaren over Prodromou seems to have been quelled for now, as he takes the role of chief engineer as the Woking-based outfit look to rebuild themselves as title contenders.

He said:

“It’s fantastic to return to McLaren, and to see a mixture of faces old and new. Of course, I have first-hand experience of just what a passionate, focused and capable race team exists within these walls, and I’ve already seen the enthusiasm and positivity that exists to return McLaren to world championship-winning glory.”

It’s been a miserable past 18 months for the team, with no wins and just a single podium, after they majorly redesigned their car at the end of 2012. Switching from push-rod to pull-rod suspension massively effected the cars’ dynamics, a key mistake from McLaren – especially as they actually had the fastest car at the end of 2012, but had already changed the design.

The re-introduction of Peter is another piece in the jigsaw as they restructure their design department, along with the arrival of Honda engines in 2015, but it remains to be seen if this significant overhaul will bring the team the success they’ve enjoyed in the past.

Photo: McLaren.com

FIA impose team radio limitations

A new Technical Directive, issued by Charlie Whiting, has confirmed the recent rumour that the FIA is outlawing radio messages about driver performance from team personnel.

“In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 Sporting Regulations is respected at all times we intend to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.”

“We should also remind you that data transmission from pit to car is specifically prohibited by Article 8.5.2 of the F1 Technical Regulations.”

So what is and what isn't allowed to be said by team personnel? 

Race engineers can still tell drivers about team orders, safety warnings about on-track incidents and when to stop for tyres.

They cannot however tell the driver how and where to improve laptime, what their tyre condition is like, help them with fuel consumption or tell them which settings to change in an attempt to help car performance.

What do you think of these sanctions by the FIA, right move? 

Formula E: How does it work?

Being an electricity powered series, the powertrain is the most crucial and important part to the Formula E teams and McLaren Electronic Systems have been entrusted sole responsibility for this task.

On a basic level, an electric motor works by effectively just spinning magnets. A magnet has a north and south pole and when you introduce a second magnet the north pole of one will attract to the south of the other (opposites attract), so the magnet introduced will be spun to make the pair attract. This is the basis of an electric motor - the magnetic attractive and repulsive forces of the magnets.

If you had a full circle of fixed magnets (we’ll call them the FMs) surrounding a central magnet (the CM), much like a compass, the CM will rotate so that its north pole is facing one of the FM’s southern poles. However, this obviously won’t work as a motor because the CM will just stop when its poles have found an attraction.

To solve this problem the poles of the FMs are electronically switched, by applying a current, between north and south (almost instantaneously) over and over again continuously spinning the CM – as it tries to catch the magnetic attraction from the individual FMs – and then spinning a shaft connected to the gearbox.

A major advantage with electric powered cars is that the motor can be used as a generator (for extra power) when the car is under braking, just like the ERS system in Formula 1.

When the car brakes, instead of the motor driving the gearbox, the moving wheels drive the electric motor – harvesting electricity and putting this generated energy back in the battery. So put yourself in a Formula E drivers’ shoes, you put your foot on the throttle, which sends an instantaneous ‘message’ to turn the motor current on, driving the gearbox and wheels – speeding the car up. Then, as you take your foot of the pedal for the oncoming corner, the rolling wheels generate the motor, harvesting the electricity for extra power later on.

Italy Tech Corner: Monza-specific Red Bull Front Wing

As Red Bull have arguably the best chassis on the grid, even more so than the Mighty Mercedes, it's hardly surprising that the team are willing to sacrifice some of their downforce for their Achilles Heel, raw speed.

Red Bull, Total and Renault have made huge strides with their powerunit this season as seen with the contrast of pre-season testing and last time out, where they won at a notoriously power heavy circuit, albeit with a little help from a certain lap 2 collision.

Not satisfied with resting on their laurels, the RB10 features a cascade-less front wing this weekend, heavily reducing drag (proportional to the speed squared), but also losing a small amount of front grip available to Ricciardo and Vettel. This downforce loss will be almost negligible at Monza, due to the track being made up of long straights broken up by chicanes.

Image: @ams_sport

Italy Tech Corner: Partly Symmetric Lotus Rear End

Lotus seem to have finally scrapped their previous rear wing pylon and exhaust, going for the traditional symmetric central layout. The bodywork outlets however are still asymmetric, due to their powerunit layout requiring a larger outlet on the left hand side (as seen above).

The Enstone-based team also have an incredibly small rear wing which while obviously reducing drag it remains to be seen whether it'll have a detrimental effect on the E22. The car already has a very unstable rear end, so taking more downforce away from the rear isn't going to fill he drivers with great confidence this weekend in the fastest track in F1.

Images: @techF1LES 

Italy Tech Corner: Force India Delta Wing

Force India have a new mainplane on their incredibly slim rear wing for the Monza race. The new delta wing shaped element will produce more downforce (larger planform area), in an attempt to counter the DF lost due to the wing having a lower Angle of Attack this weekend (in a bid to reduce drag).

The VJM07 has lost its endplates louvres, also decreasing the rear downforce, to stop vorticies building up at the rear of the car – creating drag.


Image: @ScarbsF1

Italy Tech Corner: Toro Rosso Changes

In a bid for an upturn in fortunes, Toro Rosso have removed the vertical strakes from the rear wing endplates. This will obviously mean a decrease in drag, but will also affect the rear grip available to the drivers, as the strakes interact with the diffuser to produce more downforce. It’s a risk worth taking on the drag dependent Italian circuit.

The slight endplate change is one of only a few tweaks made by the Red Bull sister team, another being a minor reduction on their front wing top element, stripping it down to improve straight line speed. The new element (bottom wing in the photo, inset) has been cut down to the 'B' of their signature sponsor, making it very clear the changes they've made. 

Images: @ams_sport

Italy Tech Corner: Altered Ferrari Front Wing

Salt and Pepper, Black and White, Senna and Prost. Just like these famous pairings, you can’t have Ferrari and Monza without the other. The Tifosi are an expectant bunch though, and Ferrari are just not delivering at the moment.

The Italian GP offers the perfect place for an upturn in fortunes, so Ferrari have altered their front wing in an attempt to be closer in performance to the dominant Mercedes and the resurgent Red Bull teams.

The aim of the game at Monza is to reduce drag and the Italian giants have, after testing the wing at Spa, removed the cascade from the front wing endplates. This has been replaced by two vertical strakes on the lower tier, which are used to aid the airflow around the front tyre, just as the original cascade would’ve done.

Removing the cascade reduces the downforce available to the F14T but, at a track with average speeds of around 240kph, this isn’t the main requirement at Monza – pure speed is.

Image: @TomClarksonF1

Italy Tech Corner: Revised Mercedes Rear Wing

Mercedes have brought a new rear wing design to Monza in a bid to keep their sizeable advantage over the field, including the somewhat resurgent Red Bull.

Considering their advantage over the field (just not capitalised on by the drivers last time out) it’s a surprise that Mercedes haven’t just kept their Spa-spec rear wing, a testament to the improvement that Red Bull, Total and Renault have made in concern to their power unit – making Mercedes feel the need to keep heavily developing on a race by race basis. They do have both iterations in Monza though, so be sure to see them both ‘competing’ against each other.

The new wing features a shorter mainplane (at a lower angle of attack) and a curved top flap leading edge, in relation to their previous straight configuration. This curved edge interacts with the incoming airflow around the two wing supports. This also increases the splitting of the wing wake into smaller vortices when the DRS is active, giving a lower pressure and crucially less drag – ideal for the fastest circuit of the season.

The trailing edge has also been altered, with deeper cuts (above the R and N in their PETRONAS sponsoring) reducing drag but also guiding the exhaust fumes over the top of the wing. They have however, because of the lower Angle of Attack, taken away the curved top-flap edges in this configuration. Leaving the curved edges would decrease the downforce too much from the wing stalling too early, as the tip vortices are negligible at such a low Angle of Attack.

Image: @ams_sport

Title-winning Tech: Brawn GP 2009

Previous season

Honda had invested heavily in the BAR team, before purchasing them in 2006 and renaming them Honda Racing F1. The engine freeze in the mid-noughties hit the Japanese company hardest though, and both Honda Racing F1 and their feeder team Super Aguri struggled financially, with the latter leaving F1 in mid-2008.   

The engineers and senior personnel, including Ross Brawn and Nick Fry tried to persuade Honda management to continue their ownership of the team, saying that they would have an extremely competitive car for 2009. A poor 2008 car meant that their 2009 challenger was prioritised very early on, obviously meaning the team would have more time to make a competitive car, especially with the new technical regulations coming into play for that year. However, they couldn’t convince the owners and therefore were in need of investment to keep the team – and their 700 personnel – in F1.

In December 2008, as a result of the ‘credit crunch’, confirmation came in that Honda had pulled out of F1 – leaving their ‘Honda Racing’ team desperately looking for investment. Step up Ross Brawn who, along with the other senior members at their Brackley base, took control of the team on the 6^th of March 2009 – retaining Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

The BGP 001

The BGP 001 featured a refined front wing, much more so than any of their rivals. It had a conventional two-element flap, but the endplates were very different – with the front wing tips curling down to form the lower half of the endplate – rather than a separate vertical piece added to the wingtip. Having, in essence, no endplate means drag from the front wheels is reduced – as the (high pressure) airflow from above the wing is diverted around the front wheel.

The car had a very traditional shaped nose cone, a testament to lower formula single seater cars in its simplistic design – gradually declining toward the tip at the base of the front wing (miniscule wing supports), as low as the rules permit. Only Brawn GP took this approach - opposing to, for example, the RB5 which featured a high aggressive mid-section dropping down only slightly, allowing more air under the car but increasing drag.

Their splitter (commonly referred to as the ‘tea tray’) on the other hand was very detailed and featured a double plate arrangement, helping the splitter to condition the incoming airflow as it moves toward the floor and onto their innovative diffuser (more on that later).

With Brawn’s Ferrari connections, the team did try to get the Italian manufacturer to supply them with an engine for the 2009 season, however they eventually chose Mercedes power. They went with a similar sidepod style to McLaren, also Mercedes powered, with a wide high inlet giving maximum space to send incoming airflow around the sidepod undercut of the BGP 001. Their sidepods narrow away to a very tight bottleneck at the rear of the car, making the car incredibly streamlined.

Intriguingly the team had already decided to not have KERS while Honda were still in charge, which obviously had the disadvantage of not have that extra horsepower each lap, but did mean that the 25-30kg saved could be used to help the weight distribution of the car – a significant advantage when looking at specific set ups for different tracks.  

Game changer: Double Diffuser

In Formula 1, the key to success is downforce, which pushes the car down into the road, increasing the grip available to the driver.  A Diffuser acts as a vacuum at the back of the car, producing high levels of downforce, with minimal drag. High velocity, low pressure air between the floor and ground ‘diffuses’ into an expansion chamber, slowing the air down, increasing the pressure and producing downforce. This is known as the Venturi effect.

The greater the expansion chamber, the greater the pressure difference – giving more downforce and therefore more grip. Strakes are added to stop the air becoming turbulent and to balance the downforce evenly across the rear of the car. The expansion chamber is curved so that it rapidly expands the air flow, in comparison to a simple incline.  A Diffuser is very important for the aerodynamics of a car as it contributes to around half of the total downforce.

The infamous ‘Double Deck’ Diffuser was first used by Williams, Toyota but most successfully Brawn GP in 2009. In effect it provides more downforce because it has a larger expansion area. The concept involves a normal diffuser and then a secondary diffuser which is fed by air from holes either side of the plank. The air from these holes is then fed up between the diffuser wall and crash structure – acting as a Venturi ‘pipe’. The crash structure has to be aerodynamically shaped (with a normal diffuser the crash structure has no aero effect at all, so is just a simple, normally square, shape). So in essence there are two diffusers, giving a greater expansion area and resulting in much more downforce.

The Double Diffuser was the result of a loophole in the 2009 F1 Technical Regulations, which all the teams knew about, but only the three teams mentioned above actually acted on it – due to fear of it being illegal. This meant, after the FIA ruled it legal, all the other teams were playing catch up and it wouldn’t prove an easy task. It took until after Brawn GP had won 6 out of the first 7 races for Red Bull to mount a serious title challenge. Adrian Newey said "It was a huge amount of work as the car wasn't designed to work with a double diffuser and, in particular, it wasn't an easy marriage with the pull rod rear suspension". Red Bull dominated the rest of the season but Brawn GP held on to win both championships, with Jenson Button the lead driver. 

The incredible story of Brawn GP will go down in history after their incredible turnaround from being in financial disarray at the end of 2008 to winning both championships just a year later.

Would like to massively thank Matthew Somers (@SomersF1) for allowing me to use his Brawn GP Photographs.

Red Bull to have 'Infiniti' engines?

Renault engines could be rebranded in an intriguing proposal involving Infiniti and RBR.

RenaultSportF1 and Infiniti are both involved in the Renault-Nissan Alliance, so from a Red Bull point of view they would prefer a re-brand of their Renault engine to an ‘Infiniti’ name because it would make more marketing sense, as they are RBR’s title sponsor.

The engine would still be built at Renault’s Viry base in southern France, which would appear to break the homologation regulations imposed by the FIA previously, meaning a re-brand would be contested by rival teams. A way of getting around the regulations, as proposed by Matt Somerfield (@SomersF1) could be to retain the Renault name but agree a restructure & investment plan by all 3 parties – Renault, Infiniti and Red Bull.

If there were a rebrand, it would leave the other Renault powered teams (Lotus, Toro Rosso and Caterham) all looking for a new engine supplier but, with Lotus heavily rumoured to be moving to Mercedes power next year, it could mean Caterham could be intrinsically linked to Red Bull – as seen in the rumours that RBR development driver Carlos Sainz Jnr could drive for Caterham in a race weekend this season.

Red Bull do have a clear interest in Viry, with staff & resources definitely in the pipeline should any re-brand come into fruition. Expect these rumours to run, even though Renault are claimed to not want a re-brand.   

Belgium Tech Corner: Ferrari Exhaust Blanketing

At the Silverstone test earlier in the season Marussia, with their Ferrari powered MR03, tested a new heat-containing exhaust cover, in an attempt to rival the Mercedes system, introduced at the start of the season. This exhaust blanket has been very beneficial to Mercedes, making the turbo more efficient and meaning the engine requires less cooling. Marussia have been ‘guinea pigging’ this concept since around April and Ferrari have implemented it for the first time, this weekend in Spa, using a carbon covered exhaust in a heat-resistant material. 

Image from AMS Online

Belgium Tech Corner: McLaren Rear End

On the return from the summer break, McLaren have brought a number of key upgrades in a bid to give an upturn in fortunes for their MP4-29 challenger. They’ve concentrated on the rear of the car, but with the gradual shift away from their ‘Wishbone Wings’ (see Mid-season Tech Report: Part 2), the Spa-spec car featured just two of these ‘wings’ (circled in red), blanketing the lower rear suspension parts. This will certainly provide a decrease in drag, as a Diffuser’s drag is usually proportional to lift, so take away the downforce inducing ‘Wishbone Wings’ and reduce the drag the rear end creates. They’ve also introduced a U-shaped bend in the middle of the Diffuser (highlighted in yellow, inset), in a similar style to the one Mercedes introduced at the start of the season. This relatively simple inclusion yields not only an aerodynamic gain, as it allows airflow from the top of the floor to interact with the diffuser, but also gives access to the starting motor at the rear of the car. 

Belgium Tech Corner: New Caterham Nose

Caterham have delivered on their promise this weekend in Spa by implementing a new, easier on the eye, nose cone. The extended ‘finger’ is identical to the previous iteration, but the vanity panel has been refined considerably, resulting in a sleeker and, for viewers, stylish design. The old version is a very aggressive and clear attempt at driving air under the nose to the floor, and then directed for the Diffuser. However, the new nose is a less drastic attempt at forcing air below the chassis, but it does offer a higher level of aerodynamic performance further downstream due to its sleeker drop off toward the cockpit.

Another photo of the new nose here 

Belgium Tech Corner: New Rear Wings

Mercedes have brought a new, streamlined edition of their rear wing this weekend in Spa. The wing features 3 curved sections, used to separate the airflow as it leaves the trailing edge at the top of the wing. The split wake provides a smaller vorticies, reducing pressure at the rear of the car and creating less drag – a necessity for a track like Spa.

Ferrari, like a few other teams, have also implemented a top flap with only slight curves. The slimmer F14T rear wing features less ‘gills’ in their endplates, once again resulting in less turbulent airflow overall  amounting from the endplates in yaw and therefore less drag. However, reducing the number of gills decreases the amount of downforce available to the car, and with Spa’s twisting sector 2, the engineers really make their money deciding on the balance between aerodynamic grip and a streamlined car.

The difference in rear wing since last time out, in the comparably slow circuit in Hungary, is most notably apparent in Red Bull’s RB10. There’s a distinct difference in the angle of attack of the mainplane and top flap, with the older spec most suited to a high downforce track and therefore not optimal for this weekend in Spa. A reduced angle of attack provides less downforce but less drag, an almost prerequisite for the Belgian track – and the next race too, at Monza.

See Ferrari Wing Gills here (@SomersF1)
See Mercedes Wing Curves here: (@SomersF1)

Image (RBR Belgium) from Autosport

Hungary Tech Corner: Williams Roll-Hoop Winglet

After their recent success, Williams would be naïve to rest on their laurels and they've brought a host of updates to the Hungaroring to keep their success going. The circuit in Budapest has the second lowest average speed (behind Monaco) therefore a high downforce set up is needed.

The Williams car is very efficient but doesn't have the same amount of downforce as their competitors at the top end of the grid, so their updates this weekend have been centred on increasing the cars’ downforce.

They've added a winglet to the roll hoop on the top of the car, giving that extra bit of downforce for the slow Hungarian circuit. The downside is the drag this extra wing provides, but around the slow twisty Hungaroring, top speed (proportional to drag) isn't as key as aerodynamic grip.

This update is Hungary-specific though, as it provides too much drag to be used in Spa or Monza (speed dependent circuits) and therefore likely won’t be a permanent feature on the FW-36. 

Germany Tech Corner: McLaren Rear Wing

There’s an interesting addition on the endplates of the new rear wing, where there are now two rows of ‘fins’ (called canards, circled in red). Each canard produces a vortex and these vortices create a lower pressure at the back of the car, contributing to more downforce. These canards also lead to a higher quality diffuser too – due to the canards being directed upwards, creating upwash.

The most eye-catching addition is the serrated gap between the mainplane and the flap of the rear wing (circled in yellow). These ‘bumps’ are called Tubercles, and are seen in nature on a humpback whale, which is where the idea has originated from. Scientists were baffled at how a whale that weighed over 30 tonnes could have such incredible agility, this was down to the Tubercles - as a smooth surface was originally taken for granted that it was optimal. However, after researching the concept, airfoils with Tubercles bumps are much more efficient at producing lift and better at resisting stalling. So after developing the concept, this has now found its way onto an F1 car. The sinusoidal pattern creates breaks in the airflow – splitting the wing wake into smaller vortices, giving a lower pressure and crucially less drag.

Germany Tech Corner: FRIC

FRIC dominated the headlines this weekend, with the system being declared illegal by Charlie Whiting after the last race in Silverstone, and most of the talk was how it would affect the teams up and down the grid – with Mercedes assumed to be hit the hardest by the lack of FRIC.

The current drivers’ and constructors’ championship leaders quelled the talk though, finishing 1st and 3rd, although Mercedes were said to have the most advanced system on the grid, so it may have been a surprised that they still had a huge pace advantage on the rest of the field. This implies that the team had enough pace in the bag to compensate for no FRIC.

The aim of the system is to help keep the ride height of a car as stable as possible during a corner. When going around a corner, downforce is lost due to the car pitching under braking and rolling as it turns, this changes the ride height significantly throughout the turn. This lost downforce can be reduced with a more stable ride height, this is where FRIC comes in. As the name suggests, the front and rear suspension of the car is linked using hydraulics, this helps to keep the ride height of each of the 4 corners constant.

Another team that were helped by the no FRIC ruling were McLaren, who publically have been known to have struggled to develop a good system over the last few years. This meant that removing it didn’t harm the pace of the McLaren, as they hadn’t built the car around it – unlike Mercedes or Lotus.

Speaking of Lotus, another disastrous weekend for the Enstone-based team, with Romain Grosjean retiring with an engine problem and Pastor Maldonado, on a high after signing a new contract till the end of 2015, was brought down to Earth after finishing a disappointing 12th. Lotus were the first team to start developing FRIC, and it’s been central to their success in the last few years, so removing it showed to be a big setback, with resulting mistakes in practice costing the team valuable time when preparing for the race.

Red Bull seemed to be affected the most by the loss of FRIC. Their initial long race pace was very good - rather than looking back at a resurgent Williams, they were looking ahead at the Mercedes duo. However they had a disappointing qualifying, with both cars on the third row of the grid, and this continued in the race where they were fighting with Alonso’s Ferrari and Button’s McLaren, and couldn’t even keep up with Bottas in the Williams. A poor weekend for Red Bull.

So after all the fuss about FRIC this weekend, the order wasn’t actually changed much at all, if anything it just bunched up the midfield even more, with Mercedes still out on their own in front.

Mid-season Tech Review: Part 3

Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes

Ferrari

Pre-season

Ferrari went in a slightly different direction concerning the new regulations going for a flat wide section at the tip of the nose, rather than the ‘finger’ we’ve seen in most of the other teams. An advantage of this is that the nose uses the Venturi effect to generate downforce, speeding up the incoming airflow and reducing its pressure.

Looking further down the nose, the F14T retained the front pull rod suspension from previous seasons due to their high monocoque, which sloped down slightly to comply with this year’s regulations. Having the same suspension obviously brings the advantage of taking one less variable into account when looking at aerodynamic performance.

The Ferrari featured very small cooling inlets, almost the same size as their 2013 car, which is rather incredible given the bulky nature of this year’s power unit in comparison to the V8. The most interesting thing is the reason behind the F14T’s sleek sidepods. Since the 80’s the oil tank has been situated between the fuel tank and the front of the engine, mainly due to the convenience of this position. However in 2014, Ferrari moved the oil tank within the gearbox casing behind the engine and are the only car to do so. This means that their gearbox is bigger than the rest of the field but the reasoning behind this is down to an apparent aerodynamic benefit. With the oil tank in the gearbox, the engine can be moved closer to the fuel tank, meaning the sidepods can be more tightly packaged. However this innovative idea hasn’t actually helped; it has brought a balance shift to the car and rendered the aerodynamic benefit of the tighter sidepods almost non-existent.

Development

Being one of the wealthiest teams in the sport Ferrari have brought a host of upgrades to their car this year, including bringing back the ‘blown wheelnut’ concept of early 2013. Williams were the first to test the concept, which involved directing the incoming airflow through the wheel hub and out through the open wheelnut, going from a high to a low pressure area and benefitting in dealing with the wake from the front tyres.  However, after the tyre controversy at Silverstone last year, Williams abandoned the blown wheelnut due to the new compounds that Pirelli introduced. Ferrari first raced the new wheelnut in the Chinese GP after testing it in Bahrain the event before.

For the Spanish GP the Italian team implemented a new rear wing support with just the single pylon, as opposed to the double-pylon arrangement they’d started the season with. From an aerodynamic point of view, the double-pylon layout wasn’t an issue in a straight line but when going around a corner (the car is in yaw) the pylons blocked the incoming air, creating a turbulent airflow and decreasing downforce. The new single pylon from a side view looks like a small swan neck and has a reduced chord, thus not blocking the airflow as much in yaw.

Ferrari seem to have a habit of using practice sessions to confirm CFD data, with the team seemingly unable to trust their designers back at the factory. This is most notable when looking back at the history of their single and double pylon’d iterations of their rear wing supports as, since the Spanish GP in May, they’ve switched between the two supports apparently still unsure which is the most viable and effective solution for their 2014 car. It’s very likely that the team will go back to their double-pylon iteration for Spa & Monza, due to this solution providing less drag – a key aspect on these two high speed tracks.

These correlation issues once again points the finger at the management at Maranello, with the wind tunnel data, CFD data and the results from out on track not being consistent with one another. There have been high profile casualties with the team this year, notably Team Principle Stefano Domenicalli and Engine Director Luca Marmorini.  The Italian giants need to sort out their off the track problems if they’re going to get anywhere competitive on it.

Red Bull

Pre-season

Adrian Newey described the RB10’s nose as a ‘keel nose’, because of a fairly thin tip with a bulge underneath included to meet the crash structure needs and of course this year’s new regulations concerning nose tip cross section. From as aesthetic point of view, few could argue that this interpretation of the rules is one of the best looking noses on the grid but also includes an innovation used by the Austrian team for the last few years.

Once again Red Bull have included an ‘S’ Duct to manipulate the airflow going over the top of the nose. The ‘S’ Duct is made up of an inlet below the nose feeding the incoming air into the nose and through a rear facing outlet above the nose. This helps smooth out the airflow from the nose over the chassis.

Looking still at their front of the car, the Milton Keyes based team are known to bend the rules as much as legally possible under the guidance of Adrian Newey. Doing this they have caused some controversy with their nose camera mounting. The technical regulations fail to state the distance the camera has to be from the centreline of the car, thus meaning they can be placed within the nose, legally. The camera hole could be said to infringe the regulations concerning vanity panels, but there is a slight bulge in front of the hole, thus once again keeping the innovation legal. Later in the season though, Monaco to be precise, the FIA forced the Austrian team to change their design going for a similar design to Mercedes with a ‘handlebar’ type layout.

Development

The slow Monaco street circuit requires the setup with the most downforce, as opposed to raw top line speed, so the team introduced a new ‘monkey’ seat. This small ‘wing’ is just above the exhaust exit and uses its gases to produce more downforce, working better at low speeds - a key characteristic of the track in Monaco.

The Canadian Grand Prix marked the teams’ first win of the season, with Daniel Ricciardo grabbing his maiden victory in F1 and was down to two main things: a Mercedes problem and some key updates to the RB10. Looking at the front of the car, they implemented a slimmer nosecone which reduced downforce and drag – an advantage at the speed-dependent Gilles Villeneuve circuit. Another big change included revising the cooling exits at the rear of the car with much smaller and sleeker outlets, once again resulting in less drag. The monkey seat from Monaco was removed, with a smaller wing support added just below the exhaust instead. Finally, their rear wing was updated too, with the removal of some of the ‘gills’ to once again make the car as streamlined as possible.

Most of Red Bull’s recent success has been down to how they ‘seal’ the diffuser, resulting in consistent downforce along the rear of the car. However with the new regulations they can’t blow the diffuser to seal it – due to the central placement of the exhaust this year. In Austria the RB10 featured new vertical strakes in front of the rear tyres, to vorticise the incoming air and reduce the tyre ‘squirt’. Reducing the ‘squirt’ from the tyres means that less of this dirty airflow is directed into the path of the diffuser – which would give differing intensities of downforce. They also brought back small bulges, used as vortex generators at the diffuser entry. As the name suggests, they disturb the incoming air giving a more consistent level of downforce at a range of speeds. The bulges do provide drag, but this is outweighed by the increase in grip the driver would have.

Throughout the season we’ve seen that the Renault engine is nowhere near as competitive as the Mercedes version, which means the Red Bull will always be playing catch-up to the Mercedes team. What the Red Bull lacks in power, it certainly makes up in aero efficiency as the RB10 has arguably the most aerodynamic chassis of any on the grid. In theory, if the car had the Mercedes power unit, it would be the most competitive on the grid. This begs further questions about the Red Bull-Renault partnership and whether, even after 4 consecutive double-championships, they’ll keep their affiliation going with the underperforming French engine manufacturer.

Mercedes

Pre-season

The W05’s nose cone was similar to Ferrari in the way it stemmed from a high chassis and then gradually declines to the tip. To enhance airflow under the nose, they included two unequal pylons (similar to Lotus’ twin tusk arrangement) to meet the regulations concerning the nose tip. The shorter pylon was covered by a vanity panel.

Where Mercedes were in a league of their own was with their incredibly sleek sidepods, even in comparison to the other Mercedes powered teams, which yielded a massive aerodynamic advantage. This is testament to the amount of time they’ve spent with the power unit and how they’ve refined the bodywork to enhance performance. The Mercedes power unit is the most efficient at producing power, thus making it the best on the grid. It differs from the Renault & Ferrari engines by having the MGU-H situated inside the turbo - between the hot and cold sections (highlighted in red and blue respectively on the diagram, below). This reduces the heat transfer between these two sections, meaning less cooling is required to give a low air temperature at the cold section of the turbo – a cooler temperature means greater efficiency and therefore more power produced by the engine. The main upside to the positioning of the MGU-H is that it only has to drive the cooler side, meaning it ‘concentrates’ on increasing power and reducing the effects of turbo lag – rather than driving the MGU-K. The exhaust gases, from the hotter side of the turbo, drive both the cooler side and the MGU-H, directly drawing electrical power and feeding it straight to the MGU-K. This process is near on impossible to replicate by the other engine manufactures during the season, so this is why the Mercedes powered teams have such an advantage and because the factory team have had over 2 years to build their car around the concept, they’ve benefitted the most.

Looking at the rear of the car, Mercedes went with a double pylon to support the rear wing rather than strengthen the endplates to reduce the effect of the beam wing being outlawed from 2014. The advantage of going down the pylon route is it improves aero, but strengthening the endplates makes the rear wing more rigid and structurally more intact.  Innovatively, the W05 featured a U-shaped bend in the middle of the Diffuser, allowing airflow from the top of the floor to interact with the diffuser and also giving access to the starting motor at the rear of the car. This concept isn’t fundamental to the Mercedes’ rear bodywork, so it would be relatively easy to copy by other teams- if it were found to yield a substantial aero advantage.

Development

In Part 2 of my mid-season review I explained how McLaren had introduced a serrated DRS flap, to improve aero performance, but Mercedes introduced this concept at the start of the season, albeit using it in a different way. The W05 featured endplates with a serrated leading edge, creating breaks in the airflow (when the car is in yaw) and producing smaller vortices, giving a lower pressure and advantageously less drag. A simple concept, but another ‘cog’ in the championship winning machine.

Mercedes AMG introduced a new higher nose cone in China, to aid balancing and also making it easier to set up the car. The newer nose iteration was originally scheduled for the season opener in Australia, however the Brackley-based team initially struggled to pass the mandatory FIA front impact test, so instead used the lower ‘simple’ version at the start of the season. The new nose meant a higher mass flow of air could enter under the nosecone and therefore more air would travel along the floor on toward the diffuser, but also wasn’t too high that it meant the increased airflow advantage didn’t outweigh the drag increase.

The W05 features an intercooler in the top of the chassis, just below the roll hoop (highlighted in green, in the power unit diagram above), which cools the turbocharged air. The air comes in through the roll hoop air inlet, passing over the intercooler and reducing the temperature of the air – the cooler the better, as it will mean the engine will generate more horsepower. This is another key aspect of the dominant Mercedes, and one that has proved impossible for over teams to copy. Mercedes have kept on developing all throughout the year, keeping an almost 1 second gap over their nearest challenger in every race so far, a testament to the German powerhouses and how they’ve prepared brilliantly for the 2014 season.