New front wing for McLaren at USA
McLaren have made a fairly major change in front wing design with their newest iteration introduced at the American GP in Austin. The new design drops a few McLaren-only styling elements, such as the sharp steps in the wing's main plane, as well as removing the r-winglet.
Generally speaking, the new design, and particularly the items that were changed appear to be inspired on Lotus F1's front wing. Therefore, the new wing features curves in the main plane, leading to a very different connection of the wing's elements to the endplate. There, the seperate downforce generating panels now curve down onto the floor plate of the endplate as seen with several others teams as well. The change will help manage airflow around the front wheels, and hopefully gain downforce that was dropped at the front by removing the r-winglet in favour of the new vertical flow conditioner - which will obviously create no downforce for the front wing itself.
Comments
This enhanced front wing definitely did its job well. Lewis aced the race when this front wing was in service. Wonder if other competitors like Mercedes, BMW and others will implement any enhancements to their front wing too or improvise other elements to shed off those few seconds.
http://www.pmwltd.co.uk
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That race was one of my favorites in the season. Lewis was unstoppable and this new wing did its job. Now I wait for improvements in Mercedes and still Lewis is my #1 Formula 1 driver)