McLaren front wing (in comparison to the others)

[kilcoo316]

McLaren are driving in a very different design direction to all the other teams.

A 3 element wing of relatively small span, with huge end fences.




Compared to the Ferrari:




With the Renault being similar to the Ferrari.


Obviously McLaren feel the wing section upstream of the tyre doesn't work too well, and they'd be better served trying to control the (now larger through decreased aspect ratio) 'lift'-dependant vortices with a bigger endplate.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Well the upper surface of the front wing on both doesn't open out to the tyre, it doesn't do that on any front wing. The Ferrari front wing is more 'funnel' shaped than the McLaren's. Most interesting thing about the McLaren wing is the first element, it has an almost negative? angle of a attack at the points it joins the end plates.

[BreezyRacer]

McLaren appear to be just mildly evolving on their previous aero designs, from all the way back to the 18, which I believe never raced. That car really led the way for a lot of changes in the past couple of years.

While the McLaren quite different from any other F1 car it appears to be quite similar to what they've been doing. Note that they haven't attached wings to the leading sidepod curves. The air dams that tie into the chimneys are an interesting change but it's difficult to really see some of the surfaces due to the damn chrome paint.

The front wing span is shorter, which is interesting and the idea of the end plates seems to be to direct air inside the front wheel area, rather than around it. Most end plates have VGs aimed at the front tire to reduce drag ferom the front tires. McLaren still do that with the bottom of the end plate but other teams are creating multiple VGs along the end plate whereas McLaren doesn't APPEAR to be doing that. I say appearing because until you see the actual flows (Ron hasn't shared them with me yet ) uyou don't know for sure what's happening.

A friend with some inside knowledge told me that the aero focus is on drag these days so I guess down force is not a problem, like it was a few years ago. Still, I remember McLaren having to fight thru the seasons to increase front grip. It will be interesting to see if they have to do that again this year.

[Tom]

The first thing that struck me on the Mclaren was the endplate, it's very tall going far lower than the others, and look at the size of the lip at the bottom while the Ferrari appears to have none.

This is the frontal view of an the endplate of a wing I put up earlier, it's about the same dimensions as the 2000 Mclaren. Look how stout the lip is on this.



I'm also trying to design a spoiler for my friends car and I noticed this lip, surely this is just for directing airflow into the brakes or away from the sidepods or something and wouldn't be on a rear wing?

[BreezyRacer]

The first thing that struck me on the Mclaren was the endplate, it's very tall going far lower than the others, and look at the size of the lip at the bottom while the Ferrari appears to have none.

As with a lot of aero detail the truth is not always obvious. The big plate at the bottom is there to extend towards the center of the front tire. The end of that plate is curved out along the bottom to create a vortex aimed at the center of the front tire, which reduces the drag of the front tire. That's why all that is there.

If you look at a variety of end plates you'll see all kinds of "VG"s (vortex generators). Some teams have two or three of them, and all the saw tooths you see on barge borads are just more VGs. Actually the F1 crowd is really going crazy with Vgs these days. I think I saw the new Williams have a VG on the mirror mount .. not sure now as I've looked at all kinds of stuff in the last couple of days of new cars.

[ginsu]

As with a lot of aero detail the truth is not always obvious. The big plate at the bottom is there to extend towards the center of the front tire. The end of that plate is curved out along the bottom to create a vortex aimed at the center of the front tire, which reduces the drag of the front tire. That's why all that is there.

I have an interesting idea about the 'big plate' on the outside of the Front Wing Endplate. Because McLaren know that Fernando has a really different approach to corner entry (i.e. he jerks the wheel really hard and fast upon entry), I believe that they designed the front wing around Fernando's driving style. Primarily, the goal would be to reduce understeer (give more front end grip) upon corner entry.

That 'big plate' that I will call an FWEP splitter, would actually create significant downforce when the car is undergoing yaw (turning) because the airflow would now be at an angle to the centerline of the vehicle and the FWEP splitter is going to develop a higher pressure on the top than on the bottom during yaw. This would create downforce, but only when the car is turning, and primarily during corner entry when the airflow is suddenly changed. I think it's a great idea, let's see if it helps Fernando.

[BreezyRacer]

I have an interesting idea about the 'big plate' on the outside of the Front Wing Endplate. Because McLaren know that Fernando has a really different approach to corner entry (i.e. he jerks the wheel really hard and fast upon entry), I believe that they designed the front wing around Fernando's driving style. Primarily, the goal would be to reduce understeer (give more front end grip) upon corner entry.

That 'big plate' that I will call an FWEP splitter, would actually create significant downforce when the car is undergoing yaw (turning) because the airflow would now be at an angle to the centerline of the vehicle and the FWEP splitter is going to develop a higher pressure on the top than on the bottom during yaw. This would create downforce, but only when the car is turning, and primarily during corner entry when the airflow is suddenly changed. I think it's a great idea, let's see if it helps Fernando.

Just like a**holes everyone has an opinion, and here's mine. McLaren are using a different, deeper front wing to fight off "push" (and believe me you're always fighting push no matter who is driving). Since the front wing is deeper it cannot be as long as other wings and still be legal. But since it offered a benefit they chose to use that and just add a really wide plate to the bottom of the end plate to keep the VG where they know it works. Again just my opinion.

[kilcoo316]

I think its pretty straightforward tbh.

They making the vortex centre from the main wing to pass inboard of the wheel, the large endplate will help grab some of the downwash and convert it to downforce (while also using vortices to help reduce the upforce caused by the stagnation point of the front tyres). Why would they do this? Might offer reduced straightline drag, might increase the brake duct efficency, might help the suspension straighten the wing wake...


Although, I'm not sure if you actually want the main wing vortex to pass inside the wheel on cornering - it would tend to drag the wheel towards the outside of the corner

[ginsu]

So you guys don't think they've done anything to match Fernando's driving style? Obviously he has a really aggressive turn-in and McLaren said they would tailor the car to suit him, so I've been looking for such modifications on the car. Obviously, the front wing is the part that will most influence Fernando's aggressive turn-in.