You are hereFeed aggregator / Sources / F1 Technical.net Developments
F1 Technical.net Developments
Renault bring high downforce wing to Hungary
Sat, 07/31/2010 - 09:31The Hungaroring is one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar regarding downforce, and hence many teams introduce new components to improve the car's handling around the twisty track.
Renault have one of the most obvious changes as it introduces a new rear wing, adding quite a bit of downforce to the car. The new device builds on the drop in the wing's centre and extends on that idea, now adding a small slot underneath the main wing. The most interesting bit of this configuration may well be the non-straight slot between the two main panels, which now are basically just one element with carefully design slot gap. As Renault still do not have an F-duct and while their plans on this are unclear, this is surely an attempt to fight back on the ever improving blown rear wings.
Categories: Formula 1
McLaren in the dark on flexing front wing
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 21:10McLaren have been running a new front wing design since Silverstone, in many ways quite different to its opponents. The new wing - in the lower half of the image - has a slightly revised endplate but also includes a more elaborate vertical support ahead of the inner front tyre wall. While it supports the stacked element, it has now become an important element to manage the airflow over the wing and onto the front tyres.
Meanwhile though they have discovered the performance advantages Red Bull's flexing front wing might bring, and the team are desperately trying to understand the system, which so far they have failed to do. At the same time the team acknowledged that they are running somewhat behind in the blown diffuser area. At least they know what to do next...
Categories: Formula 1
Force India debut pitlight system
Fri, 07/23/2010 - 21:05Force India have brought a new pit light system to the German GP. After extensive testing in the factory, the new system will replace the lollipop and should improve average pitstop times for the team. The lead technician will now press a button to switch the light to green.
A similar system was introduced by Ferrari in 2008 but abandoned after Felipe Massa's early exit from the box at the 2008 Singapore GP tore up a refuelling hose. The Scuderia is however again using the system this year, along with several other teams.
Categories: Formula 1
McLaren playing catch up with diffuser
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 09:41After many teams surprised McLaren by coming up with a blown diffuser at the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Woking had its blown diffuser ready at Silverstone, only to find though that it didn't work as expected. Diffusers and exhausts around them are an especially difficult area to model, and it is in this area that teams are suffering most of the in-season testing ban.
McLaren added shark gills on both sides in FP2 but finally decided against the system. Another new attempt will be done at the German GP in Hockenheim after the team has learned the system better thanks to the on-track data in Silverstone.
Categories: Formula 1
Williams move forward with blown rear end
Mon, 07/12/2010 - 01:31Williams have introduced yet another major car update at Silverstone after introducing an effective F-duct at the previous Grand Prix, held at Valencia. The car already showed much improved pace in Spain, but at Silverstone both drivers could confirm their performances thanks to a new blown diffuser.
The change will obviously benefit the FW32 a lot as it previously featured high exhausts that appeared to disturb upper sidepod airflow quite a lot. The new sidepod slopes down much steeper, resembling much the design of the Red Bull. With this change, exhaust gases are now pushed onto the diffuser, allowing it to work more efficiently while drag will certainly have reduced above the sidepod.
Categories: Formula 1
Ferrari copy Red Bull exhaust system
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 21:27Just as rumours suggested in recent days and weeks, Ferrari's aerodynamic update at Valencia includes a revised exhaust system that mimicks the Red Bull's design. Rather than exiting the exhaust gases through the upper side of the sidepods, the pipes are now relocated to push gases out just above the car's flow, ahead of the rear diffuser.
At the same time, Ferrari also shielded its lower wishbones to protect them from the heat while strips are added to measure the exact temperature of the suspension arms. The team also revised the rear brake ducts to make sure they don't fetch too much of the hot exhaust gases.
The change marks the departure of the high exhausts, introduced by Ferrari and quickly followed by its competitors. The last time a low exhaust was tried was on the McLaren MP4-18, again a Newey designed car. That one however had its exhausts exit into the diffuser, causing troubled pressure differences. The MP4-18 eventually got revised with high exhausts before it was first raced.
Categories: Formula 1
Brake duct development at Renault
Mon, 06/14/2010 - 07:14With Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve being particularly hard on the brakes, all teams have modified their braking systems to cope with the additional demand. On a full lap, the cars are for 16% of the time under braking, more than any other track on the calendar.
Renault for instance clearly increased the brake duct aperture, catching more air to provide more cooling to the brake discs and pads (notice the difference with the Turkish configuration in the inset). Renault also ran a new front wing, removing the stacked elements of the wing. The rear wing was also modified, retaining the unique W-shape, but extending its curves and reducing the frontal surface of the wing.
Categories: Formula 1
Force India's F-duct helps season best qualifying
Sun, 06/13/2010 - 22:53Force India has secured their year best qualifying session of the year with Liuzzi in 6th and Sutil in 9th position. The F-duct that was introduced in Turkey but only raced by Liuzzi is now on both cars and certainly helped them to make a step forward at Montreal, where low drag on the long straights is vital for good laptimes. The team's system is very similar to that of Ferrari, with inlets on each side of the airbox and a channel going into the rear wing through the shark fin.
Meanwhile the team also brought a smaller rear wing and changed the setting of its front wing to lower the angle of attack of the upper panel.
Categories: Formula 1
McLaren revise sidepod panel
Tue, 06/01/2010 - 21:15In its own series of "updates at every race", McLaren have revised the sidepod panel. Attached to the car's floor and to the sidepod itself, all connections also fulfil an aerodynamic purpose. The panel itself is now more curvy at the bottom, while the section where it is closest to the sidepod now has a leading edge leaning inwards, aiming to direct more air around the outside of the panel.
The panel, although apparently simple, is extremely important for the car's rear end efficiency. It attempts to overcome the turbulence behind the front wheels and guide air smoothly along the sidepod. Eventually it influences the diffuser, rear wheel drag and the rear wing.
Categories: Formula 1
And again a new front wing for Renault
Tue, 06/01/2010 - 07:19It's been said before, but the French team keep on confirming that they are convinced much time is to be found in the front wing. Unsurprisingly though, as the front wing hits the airflow first greatly influences the diffuser's efficiency, as well as airflow around the front wheels or into the brake ducts.
Just one race after its newest wing, the R30 is again equipped with a new version. The curvy stacked panel that was present since the the beginning of the season has made way for a 2-panel winglet similar to Brawn GP's last year. The part of the old stacked item outward of the endplate was however retained, making the wing more complex than ever.
Categories: Formula 1
Randy Mandy shows Newey's F-duct
Sun, 05/30/2010 - 21:22Red Bull have taken their time to thoroughly develop their own F-duct for the RB6, a car which is already a masterpiece. They are the latest top team to introduce it, but it certainly is one of the most interesting system yet seen.
Pictures taken on Friday afternoon show the RB6 with an uncovered F-duct, consisting of two channels through the sharkfin and onto the rear wing. Both channels start in a closed box, seemingly connected to the airbox. From there, the upper channel feeds air to the rear of the upper rear wing flap, like any conventional F-duct system. Most interesting is however the second channel which leads into an aperture under the lower end of the rear wing. One plausible solution is that the driver can choose where to route the air, but how the airbox connection comes in is so far unclear.
Categories: Formula 1
Where do we put the obligatory cameras?
Tue, 05/18/2010 - 08:17Year after year teams are trying out new positions for the cameras. Be it the nose cameras or those on the engine cover, since they have an aerodynamic influence they are deemed interesting to optimize. As the shape is defined as a neutral wing, the only thing that's left is try to position it where it can be used as a flow straightener.
Mercedes have therefore followed McLaren's example and are now running nose cameras located low above the front wing. And if that wasn't enough, the cameras are moved as far back as possible while still attaching on the front wing supports.
Categories: Formula 1
Renault introduce another new front wing
Tue, 05/18/2010 - 07:33Renault was apparently not joking when they claimed to update their in every race. The team did not introduce a major update in Spain but has brought new updates at every single Grand Prix, each of them effectively used as they were all found to be consistent with windtunnel data. Together, Renault's car has already improved 0.75s since the first Grand Prix.
This time around, the team had another new front wing development, an area where they admitted to be lacking last year. The new version features a turning vane below the stacked element to help manage flow together with the endplates. More important however is the change in profile of the major planes. Stepping away from the steep drop the elements features towards the centre of the wing, the new wing shows an upward leading edge of the middle element, whereas the base plane is now split in two, inward of the front wing adjuster.
Categories: Formula 1
Turning vanes extract extra speed of RB6
Wed, 05/12/2010 - 07:06The constant quest for cleaner airflow around and below the car made Red Bull to adopt a small set of turning vanes under the nose at China to optimize the airflow towards the lower part of the car. The vanes are positioned in between the front wheels, ahead of the wheel axle.
The new turning vanes are similar to Ferrari's items and of course triggered a series of other changes to the car.
The front wing was modified with a new inner flap profile, simplifying its shape. The area where the principle flap meets the endplate has been revised having now less volume and a new shape in an attempt to separate better the flow of air entering the two venturi channels (pointed by a and b notes) under the wing.
Meeting the air first, the simpler front wing inner flap shape may still offer a similar amount of downforce but now causes significantly less vortices behind it. The less disrupted flow of air from the plane is then guided outwards by the outer surface of the turning vanes. At the same time a clean and undisturbed airflow enters under the wide and thin nose cone the channel created by the mentioned before set, is sped up and finally split by the car’s floor extension. One part of air goes under the car’s floor and another one over the sidepod bottom sides. To decrease drag , because of the sped up airflow, the team reduced the sidepod panels width to let more air “bleed” freely through the inner panel-sidepod zone.
Image and elaboration by bar555
Categories: Formula 1
Virgin test shark fin on updated car
Mon, 05/10/2010 - 20:42Virgin Racing have brought a number of updates on its only modified car, the one of Timo Glock. Due to the delays in air traffic in recent weeks, the team were unable to complete the second extended wheelbase chassis in time, which is why Lucas Di Grassi will race it for the first time at Turkey.
Glock however tried a new shark fin cover on Friday morning, but eventually opted against it for the race. Also note, as marked by the arrow, that the rear wing features an additional slot in the middle part of the wing to create additional downforce.
Categories: Formula 1
Back to inboard mirrors, but are they any better?
Sat, 05/08/2010 - 09:29As of the Spanish GP, outboard mirrors attached to the sidepod panels are banned by the FIA. The design was introduced by Ferrari year back but have eventually found unsafe. It was argued that with the wide position, drivers had to rotate their head to get a clear look, while the position of the mirrors themselves could reduce visibility and increase the blind spot, an important cause for collisions.
The sudden ban however raises questions as to why the governing body have not acted sooner. It was obvious that as soon as teams started to copy Ferrari, some incidents could have been avoided with the traditional, inboard mirror positions. And since they could have known, why not ban them before the start of the season, when regulations are still being set up.
Anyway, we're back to good old regular mirrors, but the image taken from the rear of this year's Renault shows there may still be issues to resolve. Even though there is a mandatory test to check if drivers can see behind their car, Renault's current mirror position somehow voids the minimum dimension specification of mirrors. Nearly half of the sight area is shaded by the car's shoulder bodywork.
As discussions are now well underway to set rules for next year, it could be a good time to improve the rear visibility test.
Categories: Formula 1
Lotus introduce simplified front wing
Sat, 05/08/2010 - 09:04Sometimes in Formula One it doesn't have to be complicated. For many it appeared like the Lotus T127 was an underdeveloped car with only the front wing having enjoyed some thorough development. In their Spanish update however, the team are running a much simpler front wing, which apparently proves useful for the drivers.
While the previous front wing endplate had several vertical panels attached to each other with small winglets, the new version is a basic endplate, a flat floor panel in yellow and a small guiding vane fixed on top of that. The wing itself is a more fluent design as the vertical separator was removed. The stacked panel is now smaller and resembles a Williams design as it is held up solely by its connection on the end plate. It lacks any other support pillar.
Categories: Formula 1
Mercedes reposition airbox behind driver's helmet
Fri, 05/07/2010 - 21:55Mercedes' W01 features considerable updates at Spain, including an all new airbox. The team is taking a completely different route in this area compared to its rivals by lowering the height of the air inlet to just behind the driver's helmet. The vertical crash structure is now completely decoupled from that aerodynamic function. In the first 4 races of the season, the W01 already featured this vertical crash protection running through the airbox.
The new design attempt to improve the airflow onto the rear wing by reducing as much elements as possible from the upper air stream. Mercedes is also still running its passive blown rear wing system, contrary to other teams attempting to make an active one through a shark fin engine cover.
Image by F1fanatic
Categories: Formula 1
Mercedes experiment with blown rear wing
Mon, 04/19/2010 - 07:16Mercedes have also brought a new rear wing to try out the advantages of McLaren's blown rear wing. Both drivers initially tested the new design, but only Nico Rosberg chose to use it during the race, a move which Schumacher dubbed as 'probably a better choice than my opinion' after he found his teammate 0.6 tenths quicker during qualifying.
The new design is still experimental and features a small channel in the middle of the wing. Two small openings in the low deck of the rear wing feed the channel that exits again on the rear end of the upper deck.
Categories: Formula 1
Ferrari try their own blown rear wing
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 21:04Although not exactly an F-duct, Ferrari are testing their version of a blown rear wing at Chinese free practices. The F10 sees the addition of a channel up in the shark fin that runs through into the rear wing, with the known rearward slots in the upper deck.
While the shark fin element is now considerably thicker than it previously was, there is at this time no evidence that the driver has any input in this, contrary to McLaren's F-duct design. Air is fetched just behind the airbox and then channeled towards the rear wing.
One interesting addition however is a channel exiting under a tiny winglet atop of the rear impact crash structure. While still secretive, it's not unthinkable that this is a diversion for air that is not needed as a stall inducer on the rear wing.
Categories: Formula 1