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).
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 16th and 17th, 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 9th 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 4th 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.
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