Picture LAT
Sochi will hold its first ever Grand Prix in its history. After only creating a one off F3 racer from the 1960’s Russia has not been a main player in motorsport world. There new track has whats called a “50/50 limit” as its has high and low speed corners so engineers will have to find the balance on this difficult track. As a result of the Japanese typhoon many parts and upgrades have been stuck in costumes so updates are short for all teams, Here is what iv found.
Mercedes
As we saw in FP1 and FP2 Mercedes was running a low-drag set up on the W05. What has worried Mercedes is Williams. The FW36 is a very streamlined and aerodynamic car. So Mercedes had taken away louvres from the endplate on the rear wing to reduce drag. This is a popular approach and has been adopted by many teams up and down the grid.
Secondly Mercedes have gone back to the older Y100 winglet specification used during qualifying and will be used for the race too. Having previously used the configuration at Spa. It boasts a two tier set up and is less effective with the exhaust plume effect. So Mercedes have gone for a low-drag set up on the W05.
Lastly, new on the W05 is the brakes. They now have a 4 element brake duct design. It houses a three duct system on the inner part of the car mounted on top of the brake shroud, along with the original and main duct design. The reason behind this is for better brake cooling in the hot conditions in Russia at the moment.
Ferrari
The Italian team have added a small but significant turning vane to the top tier of the cascade on the front wing. The small aero feature is added to help divert more airflow around the front tyres, but drag levels are increased. This small idea has been on the RedBull RB10 and now is highly advanced system.
McLaren
The biggest change comes to the mainplanes connection point on the Y250. McLaren’s new wing has two metal inserts which sit either side of the neutral section on the front wing and are likely to be used as a way of controlling how much flex/bend occurs, as the wing deforms under high neutral load from oncoming air. The net result of this is that the tyre conservation is better which is why we had 1 stop strategy played out by many teams. Also the front axle stability is also improved.
Toro Rosso
Picture LAT
A small but fascinating design on the SRT9 comes from the floor pan. The bargeboards on the floor now feature two slots on the upper inner edge. The slots are added in order to change the air flow principals with the cleaner mass of the air flow going in by the front nose and where the splitter is housed, then on wards to the side pod and diffuser area.
Lastly on the STR9 is the brakes. They have covered the brake shroud/housing with a gold film paper that serves to thermally isolate it. The reason is the same as Mercedes it is to help coll the brakes in a very hot Russia
