From a three-week break, Formula One is back for the Belgian Grand Prix at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps, a fast flowing track with often sees a compromise between high and low downforce levels setups. On Thursday, some striking designs came up in the pit lane.
Mercedes
The usual configuration for Spa is to slim wing angles to reduce drag, but because Mercedes are the front runner in this current era of power units, they are able to maintain a relatively high downforce set up, which is evident at Spa.
The first thing you notice is the new ‘spoon’ rear wing, which featured in 2013 on the Sauber and Williams cars. While it may look odd, it will play a bigger role than it normally would. It works by reducing drag of the back of the car, this is thanks to slimming the wing tip vortices of the trailing edge, but the central curve is doing most of the job out of the two.
As air is hitting the wing, the curve is giving off a free-flowing effect which reduces the drag and turbulence of the wing. The drag effect is a lot less than a straight main plane.
Secondly, Mercedes have tightened up its coke bottle engine cover. This might be common but plays a vital role. With a smaller engine cover there is less surface area for air to hit, so teams gain some performance here. Furthermore, the rear wing has more air flow coming towards it, so will produce more downforce, which will come in handy in sector two.
For the front wing, Mercedes has inverted its outboard canard on the endplate. It now sits low and is more of a scoop design. With the high-speed of the air flow, this little flick will help with flow management and tyre wake, which will get push around the front tyre, more so than before.
Ferrari
Ferrari have come with the usual changes for a low downforce track, with new front and rear wing in place. With the front wing, many of the elements have been removed. It’s now running two main planes with three turning vanes so the wing can still help with the outwash of the front tyre.
The rear wing sees the trailing edge gurney flap gone, as are the end plate louvres. The reason being is that the car is running a low angle of attack now with the elements removed, so less downforce too. They have also made alterations to the sawn neck rear wing pylon too.
Williams
Williams have a new rear wing for Spa, with a low drag philosophy in its DNA. On the leading edge of the end plate, you can see a slot section, this will draw low pressure on the outer edge to the inner surface. This means the wing can generate more downforce. Manor has likewise done the same.
Red Bull
The Milton Keyes based team have been busy over the break, with new engine updates to the Renault PU as well as the chassis. The vortex generators have been removed bar one on the side pod. They play an important role with the car’s aerodynamics, which guides air down the side pod to the diffuser. But, as we are at Spa, you do not want much downforce, so much has been taken away.
To add, Red Bull have also slimed its rear wing to a tiny structure. The car has a lower rake angle to help reduce the downforce levels. It’s the second slimmest wing on the grid.
Force India
The VJM08 has been given a very slim front wing for Spa this weekend, but still sees a lot of downforce being produced. It has come down to two flaps with a large gurney towards the rear of the wing. The angle of attack is a lot lower than usual, so the flow runs over the wing a lot faster, with less break-up of the boundary layer, so less turbulence.
Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso have taken the exact same route as Red Bull with the Spa updates, with the same rear wing and side pod updates. Toro Rosso has also changes its front wing, which sees some of its cascade elements removed. The outwash effect is not high on the to-do list for a low downforce track, so the turning vane has been dropped.
McLaren
The Woking team have been busy with Honda over the break, which has seen three engine tokens used up in the combustion area of the engine block. When looking at the updated rear, the ERS cooler which was a high-mounted radiator now sees a Sauber like design with ducts coming from the inlet by the roll hoop, which follow the main air box. Behind the plenum sees the ERS cooler which is a much smaller intercooler than the big radiator, which we saw before.
This has also help the chassis, which sees an even tighter packaged rear end. For the rest of the car, the usual updates apply with a very slim rear wing and turning vanes removed from the front wing configuration.
