The Formula One circus is approaching the later stages of the 2015 season, with still a lot on offer. Car development has been key to remaining ahead of your rivals. Coming to Singapore, the teams have still been flat-out with developments, here is an in-depth analysis:
Mercedes
Mercedes have bought back its new box like structure y100 winglet. This is their high downforce design which is made up of four wings to pull up the exhaust plume and feed it to the rear wing. Due the high level of complexity, Mercedes can gain a lot from their design.
Ferrari
Ferrari has imported nine slots to make up the tyre squirt, which is by far the most seen on the rear floor. Teams normally run one or two on the leading edges. The way they work is quite simple, but play an important role in the rear car aerodynamics:
The squirt stops sideways airflow from entering the diffuser side walls, turbulent flow is the outcome from the diffuser, which, therefore, means a loss in downforce.
The squirt is a way to use ‘diffuser sealing’. They produce a vortex to stop the sideways airflow from getting underneath the diffuser, the vortex stops any flow from entering, therefore sealing the diffuser.
Ferrari must have had some issues on this, that’s why we see such a high number of the elements. Airflow must have been sneaking into the diffuser, costing the car vital performance. However, there is no case now, as the vortex will be very powerful from nine tyre squirts.
Ferrari is also using their high downforce wings up front and rear. The angle of attack is visibly steeper than before. Finally, Ferrari are also using a lower side pod, which could have resulted in a new radiator position or the team is clearing the flow path to the rear wing, so can claim more downforce.
Williams
The British-based team have been known to struggle at the high downforce circuits on the Formula One calendar, which is why they have brought some aero changes. The FW37 sees a high angle of attack on the front wing main planes, which has been carried through to the rear too. This will see more drag off the wings, but doesn’t matter so much at Singapore where downforce is key.
Secondly they have brought changes to the vanes under the chassis, the new design is now constructed from three vanes rather than two. This will see a clear direction for the airflow to travel, which would be lot neater than before. Williams will gain more performance from the lower chassis elements too.
Red Bull
Red Bull are always using their knowledge on aero and chassis to good use, with new revisions to the bulkhead turning vanes. They now have a three element design which will improve the quality of the air it collects from the front wing inner sections. This means more flow can be taken to the diffuser, with a better flow path too.
Lotus
The team may have been battled by money issues, but this hasn’t stopped the team updating the E23. They have brought its double winged Y100 winglet. This will help the team gain more downforce from the rear wing main planes, as the lower y100 winglet will feed the gases from the engine to the wings.
Force India
Force India has historically gone well around Singapore. For this weekend, they have brought its maximum downforce rear wing. They have a very high angle of attack, and so have inserted more louvres to help reduce drag. The leading edges of the endplates also feature slots to help reduce the drag of this very high downforce rear wing set up.
Sauber
The Swiss team has been busy over the mini-break, with a much-revised aero package, to help move the team up the grid. The car is almost a B-spec due a large amount of changes brought for the weekend.
The first update you notice is the updated nose structure. Sauber has gone from the ‘pelican nose’ to the ‘thumb nose’.
The new nose is ideal for the car, the thumb section allows more airflow under the chassis, as well as over the top of it. Before, the pelican nose wouldn’t allow much underneath. Sauber should see more stability gained as well as more downforce. Although it’s harder to get through the FIA/ACO crash test, the aerodynamic gain is valuable.
Secondly, Sauber has a new front wing back, which was introduced at China. The wing main planes are much of a much smoother profile, as is the cascade. The tyre wake is getting moved outboard of the front tyre, and getting pushed away from the rear of the car, which would cost them downforce.
The stagnation points off the tyre will be less violent, as the new wing will be pushing the flow firmly away, which means the stagnation points (where the turbulence starts) is smaller of the tyre, so less drag.
Next, Sauber have added a small turning vane to its front brake ducts, this will help turn the oncoming airflow around the tyre, to be collected by the barge boards. This will only have a subtle change to the flow paths.
Also the core of the brakes has changed, this follows the same development route taken by Mercedes, which involves the position of the ‘bell mouth’ inlet to a position or vortex-generating by the new turning vane.
The inlet on the Sauber C34 is now much higher up than before, the vortices created will project straight into the path of turbulence generated by the front tyres, the idea being that the introduction of vortices moves the wake slightly to protect the laminar flow passing around the side pods.
Also new on the C34 is the rear engine cover, which is visibly tighter than before. The new cover is almost been shrink wrapped onto the cars internals, and will see a bigger volume of airflow going to the rear wing, with less obstruction.
The rear tyre squirt has also been updated, they are now a vane to guide the airflow outside of the rear tyre sidewalls. Sauber will also use it to seal the diffuser edges.
The rear diffuser was also modified for the weekend. The centre has been taken out in favour of a more conventional flatter profile. The guide vanes have also been reshaped and repositioned accordingly to help push airflow upwards from under the C34.
Finally the rear wing configuration sees a high amount of louvres help reduce drag of the wing, with a high angle of attack for the main planes to produce downforce at the result of more drag, but as we know, it doesn’t matter so much at Singapore.
Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso might have one of the best aero packages on the grid, but this hasn’t stopped them from improving, the front wing cascade has been upgraded. The new design sees a new outer flick to the inner section of the cascade.
This will help carry the airflow around the front tyre to either be pushed away from the car or used up, this is depending on Toro Rosso’s chassis philosophy.
McLaren
The Woking-based team have come with many chassis changes for the weekend, including new Y10 winglet and front wing.
Starting off with the front wing, McLaren have brought back their outboard canard on the endplate, which help draw high-pressure flow upwards of the car. A vortex is shed of this to help combat the turbulence of the front tyres.
Also, the front wing mounts are changed, they are much longer and are similar to Red Bull’s. They just help out with smoothing out the flow paths of the flow off the front wing, so less drag is gained by these new pylons.
Finally, McLaren has been testing two specifications of Y100 winglets. They ran a two double elements with a slightly different positioning of the flaps.
One design had its flap at the back, and the other had it up front, either way they will both help add downforce to the car. McLaren will determine what design is best when they carry out the analysis of the flow patterns on the flow wiz paint.
Manor
Manor’s last big upgrade package came at the Silverstone Grand Prix. For Singapore they have a new front wing design.
Starting off with the endplate, it’s now straight cut, with the trailing flick added by a different element, before it was a one piece construction. The top flaps on the inner section have also changed to a much cleaner and flatter profile.
And finally they are running four main planes, which is a nice touch from Manor. Before they fan two which didn’t give off a very clean flow path, and as front wings go, it was basic. Now however the car will give off a much more stable air flow for the car to utilise.
