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.
No comments:
Post a Comment