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.