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
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