Formula One car development blog

Haas revives double-waved rear wing at Monza

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The Haas F1 Team drew a lot of attention with its new double-waved, M-like rear wing, a completely unique shape for a modern rear wing in Formula One. It's rare these days to see a rear wing that has a different shape along its entire span, and hardly a surprise that Mercedes have, or at least had the most varying profile with its spoon rear wing, as the ones used at Monza and Spa-Francorchamps. Apart from the need to test it under yaw, such designs are furthermore made difficult by... Read more

Sauber making strides with new aero package

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Sauber have at long last introduced an upgrade package for its low key C35. With the team's future secured, money has become available to produce what had been designed in the first half of the season, allowing the team to recover some of the deficit that it had built up since the beginning of winter testing. The team's new package is indeed extensive, with a new, shorter nose much along the lines of what other have been been doing last year. The front wing supports feature a curve ... Read more

Ferrari tweaks front wing

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While Mercedes introduced fairly extensive updates on their car's rear wing endplates and barge boards, Ferrari had some upgrades that focused mostly on the front of the car. Apart from a pair of small winglets behind the front suspension, the front wing was modified to further improve airflow control ahead of the front wheels.

Following the trend of pushing as much air as possible outboard of the front wheels, the front wing endplates were modified to feature a curved trailing edg... Read more

McLaren opts against racing new rear wing endplates

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McLaren have turned up at Austria with a dramatically different rear wing end plate than the previous versions, including three new long vertical slits. These are positioned downstream of the two slits that were already present along the leading edge of the end plates.

All vanes are aimed at directing airflow inboard, hence allowing air to stream into the low pressure area that is induced underneath and behind the rear wing's downforce generating elements. The resulting reduced pres... Read more

What Williams was really doing with its illegal rear wing

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The Williams team surprised during this week's Barcelona in-season test by coming up with a very special rear wing. The wing, featuring an additional section ahead and above the usual rear wing flaps would be illegal to run in races this year, but it proved to be useful for the team in an attempt to find and remedy some of the weaknesses of this year's FW38. It was run for half a day by Alex Lynn, before Felipe Massa had it fitted on the car the entire second day of testing.

Contrar... Read more

New front wing main item of aero upgrade of VJM09

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Like many other teams, Force India have introduced a major aerodynamic upgrade to their car, the VJM09. Even though the update was earlier announced to make the car look quite different, in essence it's detail changes, which nonetheless could have a large effect on the car's aerodynamic properties.

The car's new front wing, immediately fitted on both cars, is the most important item of the package and features an arc on the inside of the outer footplate, a design element seen on the... Read more

Williams' shorter nose and new front wing not a bolt-on improvement

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Williams have finally managed to get a shorter version of its car's nose ready for racing, accompanied with a new front wing. Just one item is available at the Bahrain Grand Prix, after the team rushed to manufacture one after finally succeeding the front impact crash test, following numerous failed attempts. With obvious aerodynamic benefit, F1 teams have recently been pursuing this route, with Red Bull also notably having required many crash tests before finally coming up with a s... Read more

Exhaust solutions, mickey mouse or snowman?

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In a strange twist of events, fans have actually managed to create a little extra area for freedom of design in Formula One cars. The repeated calls for increased engine noise have made the FIA to request an investigation into what could be done to enhance the noise output of the new V6 Hybrid engines. The result of Magnetti Marelli's investigation, during which the company's engineers repeatedly visited F1's engine supplier dynos was that an additional exhaust pipe could resolve a ... Read more

Mercedes debuts new 'Nose 1' iteration, including S-duct

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As was expect, the Mercedes AMG F1 W07 was equipped with a new nose cone when it left the pits on Thursday morning at Barcelona. Named 'Nose 1' by the team, it is the follow-up of the 'Nose 0' (inset, top left) that was used in the first three days of testing, and which was essentially the same as last year's nose cone.

The new one is a clear evolution of the same Mercedes concept. Rather than switching over to a thumb style nose, the team have retained the small nose box, rounded t... Read more

Mercedes' W-floor, end of the bargeboard?

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Having completed more than the targeted mileage on the first day of testing, and actually topping their mileage record from any test session since the introduction of the current engine regulations, Mercedes are again one step ahead of the competition as they have already started to add new aerodynamic components on their car, a single day after the W07 debut.

Named the W-floor by Mercedes, the area ahead of the sidepod now features a number of serrated horizontal and vertical panes... Read more