F1technical.net . Development

New front wing for Lotus E20

Tomba — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:50:00 +0200

Lotus continues its intensive development programme at Barcelona by introducing a new floor, along with this updated front wing. Compared to last year, where Lotus found many updates not working on its car, it seems the team is back on the right track by pushing developments at every venue so far this season. Part of this is thanks to some testing in the Windshear facility in the USA, which Eric Bouillier dubbed as a certain improvement in the development process of the car.

The updates introduced at Barcelona are the first results of that programme.

The front wing itself features some interesting changes, again most of them aimed at controlling airflow ahead of the front wheels, rather than create frontal downforce. The outer edges of the front wing have been crucial ever since the wide front wings were re-introduced in 2009, and Ross Brawn repeatedly declared that controlling the outwash due to the particular design of endplates was one of the most important elements of the success of the BrawnGP BGP001 car.

To better manage this, Lotus' new front wing features a stacked element that reaches onto the most out element of the endplate, while immediately ahead of the front tyre it is clear the downforce generating elements on the front wing are curved down to be part of the endplate itself.

McLaren focuses on front end development

Tomba — Sat, 12 May 2012 11:46:00 +0200

Since their dismal Bahrain GP where the team only caught a mere few points, McLaren have introduced several new parts on its car, mainly on the front end. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh commented earlier this week that regulations are now so strict that there is often more to gain by optimizing the front in order to get more quality air to the rear of the car, rather than actually developing the rear.

Already on Friday at Barcelona, the team's car featured a new, raised nose after seeing all other teams run noses that are close to the maximum allowed height. As the monocoque itself remained unchanged - anything behing the front bulkhead remained unchanged, McLaren still don't have an optimal solution for airflow towards the car's floor, but with the advantage of nose having a step on the upper side of the nose.

Further small changes include the removal of the slit in the front wing stacked element, while 2 fins were added on top of the sidepod. McLaren have here carefully copied Lotus' solution. A final new item is a small outlet on top of the sidepods, similar to the Red Bull RB8.

Ferrari introduces another new exhaust layout

Tomba — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:08:00 +0200

As was widely anticipated, Ferrari today debuted another version of its exhausts in an attempt to resolve some of the car's issues that have hampered its drivers to fight at the front during the first 4 races. The change, although quite dramatic compared to what the Ferrari had so far, shows that the Scuderia continues to follow its very own path in this area.

After relentless experimentation with exhausts inside the well known acer ducts, the new design blows the exhaust gases out of the car on the upper side of the sidepod. This design iteration puts the exit location in a similar position to the Sauber C31 and the Red Bull RB8, but without the subsequent ramp on the sidepods. As a result, exhaust gases are likely to flow much higher above the diffuser. It does however not exclude the possibility that part of the exhaust gases will bleed around the outside of the acer duct and end up close to the car's floor.

To ensure that the exhaust flow no longer overheats the tyres as much as the first design used to, Ferrari changed the surrounding bodywork as well. First of all, the acer duct itself remains, but its exit is now solely a hot air exit, allowing the team to drastically reduce the dimensions of the central tail funnel which became the general rule. In addition to that, the bodywork was tightened up - you can see bumps or internal components around the FIAT trademark and the engine cover design was reworked at the top.

In addition to that, the car also debuted rear brake ducts Wiliams style. This allows the brake ducts to get air from a layer close to the inner tyre wall, and prevents it from inhaling too much hot exhaust gases which would eventually reduce braking performance.

Finally, also note the three small openings ahead of the rear wheel in the car's floor, a feature copied from Sauber. This attempts to get additional high energy airflow under the car's floor and into the suction area of the diffuser, generating a tiny bit of extra downforce.

Force India repositions nose cameras

Tomba — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:59:00 +0200

Force India have today tested their VJM05 with a different nose, altering only the position of the mandatory nose cameras. Where previously the cameras were position on each side of the tip of the nose, the new nose is now nicely rounded. Instead, the cameras are now ahead and below of the steering arms.

While experimenting with camera positions, the team is likely to try out positioning the cameras in between the front wing pillars, similar to what McLaren, Ferrari and Marussia were running at the first day of testing at Mugello.

Ferrari adds aerodynamic tweaks on rear wing

Tomba — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:01:00 +0200

Although Ferrari is now mainly concentrating on redesigning the exhaust layout, other car updates are also still being developed according a development plan set out before the season. One of these updates includes a changed rear wing, used as of the Chinese GP.

The wing elements themselves have been slightly modified around the new gap separators. The Melbourne spec rear wing only had a single gap separator, visible by a single vertical edge running all around the lower and upper panel of the rear wing. The FIA mandates such fin to make sure a minimal gap between the lower and upper wing element is maintained, even at high speeds. Ferrari have now chosen to use two of them. Along those elements, the leading edge of the lower element now has somewhat of a W-shape, while the upper element has two V-cuts on the trailing edge.

Additionally, the endplates were changed to include 4 slits in an attempt to reduce the vortex coming off of the outer extremities of the rear wing.

A closer look at Williams' brake ducts

Tomba — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:13:00 +0200

Williams have been running all winter with front brake ducts that seemingly contain no inlet duct. The same sort of duct was seen at Melbourne, although, as visible in the inset, Williams added a flow conditioner on the lower part of the upright compared to the most recent winter test at Barcelona.

As marked in the main image, the trick is to have the inlet in between the tyre wall and the duct's vertical element. The few centimeters of clearance between the tyre wall and the carbon fiber blade are apparently enough to provide enough air to cool the brakes.

It is also clearly visible that on the upper and lower edge of the inlet, there are small sub-ducts. One of these channels air to the inside of the brake caliper, while the other directs air through the duct passing above the brake disc to the outer side of the caliper.

Compare this for instance to the ducts the team ran just 2 years ago: http://www.f1technical.net/development/319

Red Bull modifies exhaust exit once again

Tomba — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:12:00 +0200

Red Bull Racing have once again come up with an exhaust and sidepod update after its drastically changed layout only debuted on the penultimate day of winter testing. This time around, the change is far less radical and a clear evolution of what was seen in the final two days at Barcelona.

As Red Bull primarily changed the exhausts to get the exhaust flow down to the car's floor and immediately on top of the diffuser, it is vital for the team that they can do this as smoothly as possible in order to not lose too much blowing energy from the exhaust gases.

Therefore, to further improve their design, the exhausts are now covered deeper in the bodywork, relying more on exhaust channeling from the carbon fibre bodywork that sits behind it. With the channel now longer and deeper, exhaust gases can be kept together longer, and especially better directed towards the diffuser and floor.

It is clear from burn marks that the exhaust is flowing primarily over the tapering edge of the sidepod, but exact flow is likely to be vastly different in relation to the traveling speed of the car itself. Either way, the benefit of exhaust gases aside and above the diffuser as of such importance, that more updates are likely to appear in the next few races as well.

Side by side: Red Bull RB8 and McLaren MP4-27

Tomba — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:27:00 +0200

At the final day of testing, with cars now approaching they race specifications for Australia, it was time to have a look against what are likely to be two of the strong teams at the beginning of the season.

Hence, we compared them with images from f1zoom, aligning the cars on lines A, B and C. Although we should be careful from drawing too many conclusions from image comparisons due to their slightly different perspectives, there are a few interesting bits we can notice.

First of all it is clearly noticeable that the driver is positioned more forward in the Red Bull chassis compared to the McLaren. This feature allows for longer and narrower sidepods, creating more freedom for the aerodynamicists working at the rear of the car. It is also likely moving the centre of gravity of the car forward, although this can be re-adjusted with ballast.

Secondly, it also appears that the Red Bull is slightly shorter than the McLaren (note markers G and H).

Marker D finally shows how much forward Red Bull have moved the exhausts, allowing the gases to be pulled down onto the diffuser. The latter is apparently considered crucial for performance by both teams.

A highres version is available in the gallery at http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/2012 ... /rb8-mp427

Sauber adds sidepod wings to straighten airflow

Tomba — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 15:32:00 +0200

Sauber have added small wings above the sidepod's leading edge, connecting the sidepod panels to the sides of the cockpit. Essentially these are flow straighteners that help to condition the somewhat turbulent airflow from behind the front wheels.

The aim is likely to get a cleaner flow over the sidepods, an area that has now become crucial with the introduction of the downwash exhaust.

Note however that the wings are made extremely thin, requiring the team to retain the - aerodynamically shaped - existing connection between the sidepod panel and the sidepod itself.

Red Bull adds sidepod duct to blow diffuser

Tomba — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:29:00 +0200

Apart from the changed exhaust position, the Red Bull RB8 now features something that no other team has thought of yet. Not only did the team create a nice slope on the upper side of the sidepods to get the exhaust down onto the top of the diffuser, it also has a duct underneath.

The duct simple pulls air towards the inside of the car, just like is usually the case with a narrowing sidepod. The airflow in the central part of the diffuser is particularly interesting, as teams are allowed there to have a small opening into the diffuser so that the starter can be fitted when the car stalled in the pitlane.

It is crucial that as much air as possible is fed into this, albeit small, opening, as it basically provides the same effect as a double diffuser. As this central airflow would potentially be lost by the change of sidepod shape, a ducted sidepod like this both retains central airflow and allows for a downwash on the exhaust gases, gaining diffuser efficiency both on the central part as well as on the outer extremities because of the powerful exhaust flow.