Formula One car development blog

Red Bull design new diffuser for RB5

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Red Bull Racing have brought another aerodynamic step to its car at Singapore, and most notably that includes a new diffuser. The new design has changed mostly in the centre part of the car, around the double decked area. Where the older version focused on speeding up air on the lower channel, the new iteration has a bigger central channel around the crash structure to profit more of the DDD design. The central part is now very similar to the Renault or Brawn diffusers.

One detail m... Read more

They finally made it, a real front wing endplate

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Ever since the beginning of the season, actually even during winter testing, BMW Sauber have been running extremely bulky and simple front wing endplates. At first we thought they were just for testing purposes, but the items stayed there far too long, until the Singapore GP.

There, the F1.09 was raced with a far more complex endplate, much resembling the Brawn GP and Force India versions. The combination of two panels with a separate vertical element to support the stacked elements... Read more

A particular shark fin on the Force India

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Force India is clearly not standing still after their recent successes at Spa and Monza. At Singapore, the team introduced a shark fin, replacing the car's conventional engine cover used throughout the season so far.

The new fin connects to the rear wing, just like at Red Bull, although Force India's version features a large opening ahead of the rear wing to control its unfluence when the car is under yaw. The change immediately appears to have made the stacked centre of the rear wi... Read more

McLaren continue use of extended sidepod panel

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Already used in Belgium, McLaren have continued the use of their new extended sidepod panel at Monza. Before the event at Spa-Francorchamps, McLaren were basically the only team who did have a sidepod panel that was not attached to the car's floor.

Brawn also recently switched to this design type as it offers better rear end stability of the car. Since they have used it also at higher downforce circuits, it is expected that McLaren's design is not only for low downforce configuratio... Read more

Force India revise sidepod panel

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Along with their aerodynamic update at the European GP in Valencia, Force India introduced an updated version of their sidepod panel. More specifically at the top end of the panel, airflow is now possible in between the fence and the sidepod's shell. Previously, this area was part shaped as a splitter to divert air around it.

The new version helps Force India to reduce the car's drag, while the little winglet lower down on the panel still helps downforce at the rear by creating a hi... Read more

Brawn GP experimenting with shark fin

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Brawn GP have brought a shark fin engine cover to Spa, resembling much to Renault's version. Jenson Button drove it on Friday for quite a few laps, but the team eventually decided not to race it. We may however see it again on future tracks this year.

Another point of interest in this image is the rear wing adjustment possibility. As earlier posted, Williams opted to have the trailing edge lower than the maximum rear wing height. Brawn on the other hand always have the maximum heigh... Read more

New stacked panel on Red Bull front wing

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Despite its medium downforce setup that the circuit of Spa-Francorchamp requires, the high speed corners still demand a fair amount of front downforce. Red Bull have taken this quite literally and have introduced a new front wing, or at least a new upper element on the wing.

While it as previously one continuous element, a small vertical fence now seperates the inward side - still unchanged - and the outward side which has a much larger angle of attack than before. The modification ... Read more

Williams use lower rear wing at Spa

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Spa-Francorchamps is the first medium downforce track on the 2009 calendar, so teams are coming up with smaller rear and front wings to reduce drag and increase top speeds. Williams for one is special, as it didn't only make its rear wing smaller, it is now also lower.

The arrow in the image clearly shows that the main flap is not extending to the maximum height - which is the upside of the end plate - by a few centimeters below. The solution puts the wing slightly more behind the c... Read more

New diffuser does wonders for McLaren

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Ever since McLaren have introduced their new diffuser, the car can again match itself with the best of the field, allowing Hamilton to take 18 points in the latest two races.

Their completely new design built upon the foundations of the double deck diffuser idea. At the same time, the team abandoned its cutout floor after it found out that its effect was far from what was expected after wind tunnel simulations.

At Valencia, the car had additional updates in this area. Notably the ex... Read more

Brawn GP add sidepod panel to BGP001

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It has taken them a while, but Brawn GP have developed their own version of a sidepod panel to smoothen airflow around the sidepod. Arguably, the front end of the Brawn's sidepods are the cleanest of any current car, and hence the need to add these panels may have been less, but any little bit helps.

During the winter testing season and the first half of the year, most of the teams developed similar devices as they proved to be useful in earlier seasons. Brawn however decided to con... Read more