Formula One car development blog

Mercedes AMG revert to old exhaust

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Already at the US GP in Austin 7 days ago, Mercedes AMG surprised by fitting Nico Rosberg's car with the old exhaust solution, favouring it over the Coanda solution that the team development following the example of McLaren. In Austin, the team wanted to do a direct on-track comparison to see the benefits and disadvantages of the Coanda exhaust solution. It is no secret that ever since its introduction, the team failed to get it to work properly, while the downwash of the exhaust ga... Read more

New front wing for McLaren at USA

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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 differen... Read more

Red Bull 'rubber nose' flexing confirmed

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Red Bull has drawn attention to its flexing front wing again at the recent Abu Dhabi GP. When changing the nose cone of Sebastian Vettel's RB8, it was clear that mechanics could easily bend the nose cone. Footage has also shown that when hitting the kerbs hard, the nose shudders, creating a tilting effect for the front wing.

While this may be new to many, Red Bull's bending nose has been discussed on the f1technical forum since the very first winter tests of this year, and even earl... Read more

Lotus debuts coanda exhaust in FP1

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As announced earlier this week, Lotus F1 have finally introduced their new Coanda style exhaust on the E20. It was tested by Kimi Raikkonen only during FP1 at the Korean International Circuit.

The layout very much resembles that of McLaren's downwash exhaust, however on the Lotus it does feature only a very minor bulge, instead the exhaust channel is almost seemlessly integrated into an unchanged sidepod shape. Another interesting detail is the metallic channel used by the team inst... Read more

McLaren tweaks downwash wing

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Although subtle, McLaren have introduced a minor change on the car. The winglet, just above the radiator air inlet, is effectively a connection between the sidepod panel and the monocoque.

The new winglet is a positioned a little higher above the sidepod aims to control airflow just above the sidepod, a crucial area to ensure efficiency of the downwash exhaust.

New nose on Red Bull RB8

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Red Bull introduced a considerable number of changes on its car at Singapore, including a new front wing, diffuser and DDRS. Perhaps of a little less importance, but still interesting is their new nose cone. Just like Williams did, the new nose has a slight bulge below the nose, in the middle of the nose but just behind the front wing pillars. Overall the tip of the nose on the Red Bull is also slightly lower, resulting in more airflow over the nose and less under it.

Such change is... Read more

Ferrari focused on understanding 'development errors'

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Ferrari is more and more struggling to keep up with the development pace of other teams, with Singapore being no exception. The team brought a new rear wing featuring interesting changes, but after testing both the new and the previous wing on Friday by applying flow-vis paint, the Italians opted to use the older version on both cars as the new one did not bring the improvement the team had hoped for.

The new wing features a lot more slots in the endplate (the old wing is displayed ... Read more

Red Bull races new front wing at Singapore

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Red Bull Racing debuted a new front wing on the RB8, featuring two changes. The first of which is the addition of an extra slot where the front wing is ahead of the wheels. This means a little bit more air will reach the underside of the flap, filling the low pressure area underneath the front wing. Although this can add downforce at the front, its most important function is likely to be better control of the airflow around the front wheel, hence the front wheel's wake and underneat... Read more

Williams changes nosecone on FW34

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The Williams FW34 appeared at Singapore with a new nosecone design, featuring a bulge underneath the tip of the nose, in between the front wing supports. Force India have run a similar, but more pronounced bulge during the entire 2011 season on their VJM04. If not for aerodynamic benefit, the bulge can also enable the team to make the nose slightly heavier.

The front edge of the nose has changed as well, now more rounded and extending further ahead of the camera hubs that are still ... Read more

Mercedes adopts coanda exhaust

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Mercedes AMG has become the latest team to adopt a downwash exhaust outlet. After having already tested it on track during the most recent young driver test at Magny-Cours, the W03 was immediately fitted with the new exhaust layout in Singapore and was also found good enough to race.

The team's design very much resembles that of the Ferrari F2012 where a bulge on the side of the sidepod incorporates the upward pointing exhaust pipe. The U-channel behind it attempts to prevent the ex... Read more