Formula One car development blog

Mercedes' W01 features considerable updates at Spain, including an all new airbox. The team is taking a completely different route in this area compared to its rivals by lowering the height of the air inlet to just behind the driver's helmet. The vertical crash structure is now completely decoupled from that aerodynamic function. In the first 4 races of the season, the W01 already featured this vertical crash protection running through the airbox.

The new design attempt to improve t... Read more

Mercedes have also brought a new rear wing to try out the advantages of McLaren's blown rear wing. Both drivers initially tested the new design, but only Nico Rosberg chose to use it during the race, a move which Schumacher dubbed as 'probably a better choice than my opinion' after he found his teammate 0.6 tenths quicker during qualifying.

The new design is still experimental and features a small channel in the middle of the wing. Two small openings in the low deck of the rear wing... Read more

Although not exactly an F-duct, Ferrari are testing their version of a blown rear wing at Chinese free practices. The F10 sees the addition of a channel up in the shark fin that runs through into the rear wing, with the known rearward slots in the upper deck.

While the shark fin element is now considerably thicker than it previously was, there is at this time no evidence that the driver has any input in this, contrary to McLaren's F-duct design. Air is fetched just behind the airbox... Read more

Days before the first Grand Prix of the season, McLaren's MP4/25 grew an air inlet on top of the chassis. It turned out to be a feeder for its F-duct system. An air channel is contructed through the chassis, along the driver's legs and through the shark fin into the rear wing. By carefully controlling the airflow with his knee, the driver can now cause the rear wing to stall, allowing up to 10km/h advantage on a straight.

When Jenson or Lewis put their knee onto the channel, they fo... Read more

Now that the diffusers have become so much more important, the whole floor of the car has a much increased importance towards the efficiency of the whole car. Renault haven't missed out on that aspect and have added a double floor to its R30.

The team introduced a huge aerodynamic step at Sepang, including new sidepod panels, barge boards, a modified diffuser and a double splitter. Apart from its normal function of splitting air from in between the front wheels to the left and right... Read more

Virgin Racing have designed their car completely with CFD technology, and hence didn't rely on any wind tunnel data, nor did it have testing data at the time of its design process. Based on engine data provided by Cosworth, Wirth engineering decided on a tank size just enough to do a race. The team have however found that when the engine is carefully tuned for performance, it consumes more fuel, putting the team in trouble with its fuel tank size.

Although the team is still working ... Read more

Two weeks ago, in the parc fermé at Bahrain, the Red Bull RB6 was seen to have an extremely high ride height. In fact the car's suspension was holding the car up so high that the rear tyres were in contact with the car's floor, a position that obviously never be useful when running.

After many speculations, it has now been confirmed that Red Bull, and notably also some of the smaller teams' cars have a special ride height control system that allows them to run the cars lower to the ... Read more

One of the aims of last year's aerodynamic regulation changes was to reduce the interest in aerodynamic developing by limiting the possible development areas, including the front wing. The problem with F1 designers and their teams is that they live for every single tenth, and hence rather then stepping back, a regulation change empowers them to look for other solutions.

Red Bull's RB6 front wing for instance is a development of the RB5 front wing. While Newey traditionally designed ... Read more

Force India VJM03 had its sidepod panels revised at Barcelona. The revised panels had a larger cut on their top rear end to let more air bleed between the panel and sidepod, aiming mainly to drag reduction. Moreover a small winglet was added lower on the panel to improve airflow towards the rear sides of the car. The VJM03 retained these revised panels for Bahrain Grand Prix.

McLaren Mercedes have copied the snowplough that featured on the 2009 Williams contender. As McLaren introduced it as of its first test with the MP4/25, Williams dumped it in favour of cleaner frontal aerodynamic.

The system itself is fairly simple in its operation and effectively acts like a diffuser mounted higher above the ground. Part of the airflow under the nose is split left and right of the plough, while everything that flows underneath is slightly expanded, reducing its pre... Read more