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. 

Mid-season Tech Review: Part 2

Toro Rosso, McLaren, Force India and Williams

Toro Rosso

Pre-season

Toro Rosso usually go under the radar during car launches, but they have included some interesting notions in their STR9. Their version of the ‘finger’ nose is less aggressive than Sauber, for example, but they developed a concave section (before the ‘finger’) throughout the pre-season tests, that helps keep the airflow from diverting to the side, providing a more stable flow above the nose. As a result of this, the curved pylons are therefore taller and extend the air towards the floor more efficiently.

The STR9 features a larger inlet than their competitors, possibly due to cooling issues with the Renault engine – of which the team are using for the first time, after switching from Ferrari power. This means they’re using the same engine as Red Bull for the first time. Highly rated James Key has brought the design impetus to the team, culminating in a very tight coke bottle section at the rear of the car. The Red Bull/Toro Rosso ‘partnership’ means it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Key eventually replace Adrian Newey at their sister team – this could in a way be an ‘audition’ for the current STR Technical Director.

Development

With the removal of the ‘beam wing’ for 2014, Toro Rosso went against the crowd in pre-season testing, strengthening the endplates by connecting them to a lower ‘wing’ rather than having a pylon attached to the mainplane of the rear wing - unlike their rivals.

Their solution was more aerodynamic, but was compromised by structural rigidity of the rear wing. In Australia they tested a rear wing pylon and in Malaysia they put it on the car indefinitely. Although the rear wing support didn’t work as effectively as they’d have liked, the concept was an innovative solution.

From the Chinese GP, Toro Rosso included ‘Vortex Generators’ on the sidepods of their STR09. These disrupt the flow of air going over the sidepod, invoking an increase in performance at different speeds.

In Austria the team brought a big bodywork update, resulting in a very different sidepod outlet (outlined in yellow, in comparison to the ‘launch’ spec outlined in red). This major redesign gives a cleaner route for the incoming air to travel around the ‘coke bottle’ section at the rear of the car. It also produces a zone of low pressure above the diffuser, further increasing the downforce of the car. 

McLaren

Pre-season

Last year was a disaster for the Woking-based team, with a highest finish of just 4^th, finishing 5^th overall in the constructors championship. This was mainly due to a major redesign of the car starting in mid-2012, a consequence of a lack-lustre run of results in the middle of the season.  However, in the second half of 2012 McLaren had the fastest car on the grid, but didn’t develop this car into 2013 and instead started from scratch almost – most notably changing from push to pull rod suspension, a major mechanical change.

They have switched back to push rod front suspension for 2014, but unfortunately for McLaren fans this year will once again be a transitional year, as they concentrate on their partnership with Honda again next year.

McLaren went with the standard ‘finger’ nose, with turning vanes bowing below the nose, moving the airflow to the floor earlier than usual – also aiding to manage the wake from the front tyres. They also have changed their sidepod intakes to a triangular shape, also including some ‘tyre squirt’ slots in front of the rear tyres. These slots offset the effect of ‘dirty’ air produced by the airflow around the tyre, improving the diffuser performance and therefore downforce.

Development

Arguably the most interesting concept at the start of the season were their ‘wishbone wings’ (below, circled in red), which creates an area of low pressure behind the suspension, thus increasing downforce – which has been McLaren’s downfall all season in comparison to the teams ahead of them, they can’t rely on having the best power unit if their car doesn’t have as much downforce as, for example, the Mercedes team.

However, while also creating a lot of drag, this concept requires forfeiting other aerodynamic gains at the rear of the car. This may be the reason that this idea hasn’t been copied by any other team on the grid – i.e. the advantages don’t outweigh the disadvantages.

Another eye-catching tech addition this year was this serrated gap between the mainplane and the flap of the McLaren rear wing (above, 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. After only being introduced in Germany, it remains to be seen if this development will bring performance gains.

Force India

Pre-season

Most notably, Force India went with arguably the most un-aesthetically pleasing ‘finger’ nose of 2014. This was made up of a very high nose, but then a sudden long ‘finger’ dropping down to meet the new regulations concerning noses. The height of the nose, being very similar to last year’s car, meant that the front suspension of the car is almost identical to their 2013 challenger – an advantage with regards to driver setup and meaning an evolution rather than revolution in that area of the car.

Similar to the concept Red Bull introduced last year, the VJM07 features a slight opening on the sides of the diffuser, to allow further expansion of the incoming airflow and also moving the air outwards toward the wake of the rear tyres.

The car featured relatively large cooling outlets early in pre-season, possibly just as an initial base to work with as they focussed heavily on reliability in the Jerez test, as this was the biggest regulation shake-up of modern F1 times. The sidepods do converge very tightly into the ‘coke bottle’ section at the rear of the car though, a testament to the impressively packaged Mercedes power unit. In Bahrain testing, Force India included a ‘cockpit wing’, just downstream of the mirror, acting as a vortex generator to even out the airflow moving across the Sidepod. The leading edge of the sidepod now has a vortex, generated by the ‘cockpit wing’.

Development

For the Chinese GP, Force India brought a new rear wing design including new incisions on the trailing edge of the endplates to affect the airflow downstream. These incisions generate vortices to create extra aerodynamic performance from wing using the upwash produced by the rear section of the car. Also, the drag induced by the wing has been altered by making the louvres now horizontal, rather than the original downward diagonal profile.

Looking once again at the sidepods, between the Canadian and Hungarian races, the VJM07 featured extensive development in the engine cover department. Over this period of time the Silverstone-based team refined and tightly packaged the exterior even more. In Germany Free Practice, Force India reduced so much bodywork in the ‘fin’ that it’s very clear to see this decrease, circled in orange, but unfortunately this update didn’t have the desired performance increase, so it wasn’t used for the race.

By Hungary they had shrink-wrapped the engine cover even tighter, as you can see by comparing the ‘Claro’ logos curving inwards slightly, circled in red. This development resulted in a significant reduction in the volume of bodywork, obviously giving an increase in aerodynamic performance, but this also led to greater efficiency of the Mercedes power unit and it’ll be interesting to see how the team does after the summer break, on the notoriously power-heavy circuits of Spa and Monza. 

Williams

Testing

Williams’ 2014 challenger featured a very similar front wing to the one used in the second half of last season, meaning that the wing had been used ready for this year and that they’d prepared well for this new challenging year of Formula 1. This is testament to the strides the team made in recruiting new personnel, including Rob Smedley and most notably Felipe Massa, which brought new optimism pre-season to the team.

Their nose is slightly different to the common ‘finger’ nose; rather than a long section attached to the main nose, the FW-36 features a reducing-in-width nose, with a ‘stub’ marking the start of the crash structure. This ‘stub’ is gradually shaped outward towards the main nose to maximise the space behind it, improving the oncoming airflow and directing it more efficiently en route to the floor, with the help of the two nose pylons also helping to condition the airflow.

In Formula 1 designers and engineers always look to push the regulations with innovative ideas and concepts, but in recent years the mirrors of the cars have been almost undevelopable, due to the strict guidelines limiting size and positioning. However, Williams introduced an interesting ‘double mounted’ mirror in Jerez which guides the airflow better towards the sidepods, just as a vortex generator would - meaning the absence of these on the car.

Development

Williams have had a brilliant year, utilising the raw pace of the Mercedes engine and developing an extremely aerodynamically efficient car, shown mostly in between Austria and Germany, where they obtained their first 1-2 in qualifying since 2003 and a total of 3 podiums in a row for Valtteri Bottas. Williams have had a ‘shark fin’ to make sure their car fits the minimum bodywork area regulation, which also poses a different way of cooling the car. Therefore, in Germany, the FW-36 featured ‘gills’ in the fin, as shown below. These gills affect the airflow in a different way in comparison to before, producing less turbulence compared to a single aperture.

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 they brought in some small upgrades in Hungary that centred on increasing the cars’ aerodynamic grip. They added a winglet to the roll hoop on the top of the car, giving that extra bit of downforce on the slow Hungarian circuit. The downside was the drag the extra wing provided, but around the slow twisty Hungaroring, top speed (proportional to drag) wasn't as key as the extra downforce. This update was Hungary-specific though, as it would provide too much drag to be used in Spa or Monza (speed dependent circuits) and therefore is likely not to be a permanent feature on the FW-36, as they aim for a top 3 finish in the constructors championship.

Mid-season Tech Review: Part 1

Caterham, Sauber, Marussia and Lotus

Caterham



Pre-season

When Caterham unveiled their CT05 challenger one thing was for certain, they’d made a statement with their radical nose design. A low profile nose with a striking vanity panel definitely made the car stand out, but also added fuel to the argument that the new noses in Formula 1 were ugly. From a technical viewpoint though, Caterham can be admired for pushing the regulations to the limit rather than going for the safer option (the ‘finger’ or ‘anteater’ nose).

A new front wing was also implemented, the primary aim to aid the airflow toward the outside of the front tyre. A surprising inclusion was their large side-pods, indicating they were suffering with their Renault power unit overheating – a large side-pod improves cooling but increases the drag the car produces, a major downside.

Caterham collaborated with Red Bull this season, using the same gearbox and rear wing profile as the 4 time double world champions, a definite coup for the Leafield-based team.

Development

Caterham’s main issue this season has been reliability, as seen in the fact they’ve had 9 retirements in the first 11 races (only Sauber, with 10, have fared worse in the first half of the season). The team have had 4 terminal issues concerning the Power Unit, more than any other Renault powered team, which means they’ve just not got the rest of the car in tune with the PU, and so they’re having to concentrate on fixing their reliability issues rather than making the car faster.

All the off-track talk has dominated any headlines concerning Caterham, and the lack of funding (even though their budget is much larger than their main rival Marussia) from their previous owners has hurt them massively when trying to develop their car – as seen with only a minor rear wing update in Canada to show any signs of improving the car.

Optimistically for Caterham fans, looking ahead to the rest of the season, the new Caterham owners have said that a major update package has been funded for, ready for the Belgian Grand Prix. Team chief Christijan Albers told Autosport: 

"I want some upgrades, yes, and as soon as possible. It won't be easy because they always cost a lot of money, but we are working on it now. We have to push. For me the priority is to get as many upgrades as possible at a reasonable cost." 

These reported upgrades will be vital if Caterham are to wrestle back a top 10 finish in the constructors - of which they obtained last in 2012 - and this securing around £20m in prize money, which worryingly could be critical to guarantee the long term future of the team.

Sauber

Pre-season

Sauber unveiled a very basic initial design in pre-season testing, indicating that the team were primarily focussing on understanding their 2014 Ferrari power unit. Their slim side-pods and triangular air box lead to comparisons to Ferrari’s challenger, a sign of the similarities that both teams possessed in incorporating the new power units – predominantly the cooling aspect.

Like most of their rivals, Sauber chose to have the ‘finger’ nose, but with inward angled pillars – helping to produce the Venturi effect (speeding up the incoming airflow as it passes through the central area of the car).

Over the course of testing the team started to bring in major upgrades, concentrating on the rear end in Bahrain. A Monkey seat was added to aerodynamically link the diffuser and rear wing, resulting in a more aggressive angle of attack available for the C33.

Development

Money issues delayed major development at the start of the season, with the drivers having to wait until the Spanish GP for key updates.

The most successful update was weight reduction, reducing the car weight by around 15kg – a large difference when the teams have two notably heavier drivers in Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez. The weight reduction coincided with repackaging the cooling system, with much smaller sidepods and a tighter coke bottle region at the rear of the car (seen below). Curved inlets were also added to the sidepods, in contrast to the initial square sections. A smaller addition was two vertical panels added just before the rear wheels, aimed to manage tyre squirt (airflow around the rear tyres creates ‘dirty’ air, reducing the effectiveness of the diffuser).

However, Sutil said after the GP, of which the team finished 16^th and 17^th, that these updates hadn’t made the car anymore driveable, with the only notable improvement the weight reduction. He said: 

"In Barcelona, you went from tricky-to-drive to undriveable and tyres locking up, front, rear, oversteer, understeer, you have everything." 

Once again due to their lack of funds there hasn't been a lot of development since Spain, in essence they're just trying to use what they've got to sort out their handling problems. Sauber will be the first to say that their initial design was too conservative, in comparison to the last couple of years where they've gone against the crowd with some innovative ideas. The summer break couldn't come soon enough for the Swiss team, and major upgrades will be needed for them to get points in the remaining races

Marussia

Pre-season

Surprisingly, considering the vast rule changes this year, the 2014 Marussia has kept a lot of design aspects from last year’s MR02 - primarily due to their low budget. This means their sidepods are much larger than the Ferrari or Sauber, other teams with same power unit, due to needing more cooling (provided by a bigger sidepod inlet).

A notable addition is a part, named a ‘Scroll’, added to the outskirts of the diffuser, a similar concept to the one Red Bull have used previously. A ‘Scroll’ focusses the airflow from the outside of the diffuser, creating a large vortex – thus more downforce.

Moving to Ferrari power from Cosworth has meant more time (and money) can be used towards mechanical part development, rather than for evolving the engine – of which last year only Marussia used the Cosworth, so had to do the R&D themselves, which isn’t the case with the Ferrari PU.

Development

Marussia started the season with a standard ‘finger’ extended from the nose (circled at yellow), but since the Spanish Grand Prix they’ve elongated the ‘finger’ so it extends all the way up towards the nose of the car (circled in purple). This allows a higher development peak in terms of rear downforce, even though with the extension there will of course be a lower mass flow accessible under the car. A more efficient performance at a greater range of speeds is attainable with the new nose, rather than a higher performance at a specific speed.

This is a key example of the Banbury-based team developing mechanical parts, rather than spending all their time working on the engine.

Not only have Ferrari helped out Marussia (with R&D in terms of the Power Unit), but now vice versa, after the Anglo-Russian team tested a new heat-containing exhaust cover at the Silverstone test. This concept has been one of Mercedes’ most successful pieces of kit, with less cooling required and making the turbo more efficient. Marussia have wrapped their carbon covered exhaust in a heat-resistant material to rival the Mercedes system. Ferrari are looking to implement this development in time for the Belgian GP.

Marussia will look to keep developing and improving over the last 8 races, hoping to keep ahead of Sauber and Caterham in the battle for 9^th in the constructors. 

Lotus

Pre-season

Lotus went for a different approach to the new regulations concerning the nose, with a ‘twin tusk’ design pushing those rules to the limit. The two ‘tusks’ are asymmetric though, to keep with the rules, with the longer one the compulsory nose tip and the shorter one is short enough to be considered not part of the nose tip. This means they did face some problems passing the crash testing.

This aggressive nose design directs airflow more centrally and allows more of the air mass flow under the chassis (and therefore onto the floor) – a significant advantage. However, due to the nose being asymmetric, there will be some problems in yaw keeping the airflow balanced but this was considered to be negligible in comparison to the higher mass flow gained by the ‘twin tusk’ arrangement.

The rear of the car also contains some asymmetric elements, notably the rear wing pylon. Normally the pylon would be vertical, however Lotus’ has a slight kink (marked in yellow) as a result of the exhaust placement (highlighted in blue). The curved exhaust could be this year’s version of the exhaust blown diffuser concept we’ve seen in the last few years. The exhaust bend is likely to increase the upwash created, resulting in a better link, aerodynamically, between the rear wing and diffuser.

This concept would be almost impossible to replicate, by other teams, in season because of the restrictions on CFD usage – so if Lotus can make this advantage work, and be reliable, then they’ll have a strong car.

Development

Lotus, with the aid of Maldonado’s Venezuelan sponsorship money, have brought a lot of upgrades to their E22 this season, not a surprise considering their success last year as they finished 4^th in the constructors with 14 podiums. A clever innovation they debuted in Bahrain was tweaking the brake ducts, adding 3 canards to increase aero performance. These canards induce a vortex that expands, pulling the incoming airflow from the front of the car to behind the tyre as it diffuses – making the airflow more manageable when directed to the floor/diffuser. 

Looking at the Power Unit, of which all of the Renault powered teams have struggled with reliability and straight line speed, Lotus sacrificed aerodynamic performance for cooling in Malaysia when they implemented an intercooler exit duct. Normally cooling ducts are placed in areas as to limit affecting the downforce available, however Lotus have had to put reliability ahead of performance. This is almost the story of their season, where most of their upgrades have been around trying to get the car reliable, rather than making it faster. The Enstone-based team have had 9 retirements this season – already more than the whole of 2013.