Williams FW44

[AeroDynamic]

#AMuS

[101FlyingDutchman]

Forgive my lack of knowledge, but why do the fences curve towards the edge of the floor? I know all the cars have this but doesn't this send the air out from under the floor rather than keeping it in the tunnels? Or is that the point?

Outwashing adds ‘functionality’ to the airflow; more downforce can be generated in doing this. A good proportion of the flow entering the tunnels is first kicked outwards to displace some of the lower front tyre wake further from the car centreline. This flow will then roll up into a vortex along the side of the floor which is ingested back under the car further downstream. Vortex structures along the floor edge seal the underbody from the ambient air, and also shield the diffuser from the dirty lateral flow created at the rear tyre contact patch (aka tyre squirt). Hope this helps.

Compared to McLaren's floor pic, these vanes ride much closer to the track than the Papayas. I wonder if McLs twist gets stronger outwash but delivers more mass flow to the air that's extracted by the edge vortex?

Which McLaren floor pic?

[axle]

Not scientific, but, first quali suggests the FW44 is slowest of all

I hope they can unlock performance in time.

[GrizzleBoy]

Not scientific, but, first quali suggests the FW44 is slowest of all

I hope they can unlock performance in time.

Because of Latifis performance?

I don't think you can really judge the performance of probably any Williams based on Latifi tbh.

[McMika98]

Not scientific, but, first quali suggests the FW44 is slowest of all

I hope they can unlock performance in time.

Because of Latifis performance?

I don't think you can really judge the performance of probably any Williams based on Latifi tbh.

No because they were back of pack all practice and lucky that Albon was able to get maximum out while guys like Tsunoda, Ricciardo massively underperformed. Hulk in 2 days was able to almost go faster.
The car is easily half a second behind the rest of field in this track. The Merc engine is losing its lustre, maybe the worst one out there in terms of driveability. To see 4 Merc powered car out in Q1 is ominous considering the engines have now been frozen.
[/quote]

[axle]

Not scientific, but, first quali suggests the FW44 is slowest of all

I hope they can unlock performance in time.

Because of Latifis performance?

I don't think you can really judge the performance of probably any Williams based on Latifi tbh.

No because they were back of pack all practice and lucky that Albon was able to get maximum out while guys like Tsunoda, Ricciardo massively underperformed. Hulk in 2 days was able to almost go faster.
The car is easily half a second behind the rest of field in this track. The Merc engine is losing its lustre, maybe the worst one out there in terms of driveability. To see 4 Merc powered car out in Q1 is ominous considering the engines have now been frozen.

[/quote] agreed.

One has to wonder if the size zero pods are a long term winning strategy (for merc and Williams), and will take time to maximise, or a dead end with unintended negatives.

[McMika98]

agreed.
One has to wonder if the size zero pods are a long term winning strategy (for merc and Williams), and will take time to maximise, or a dead end with unintended negatives.

The Side zero isn't the issue, its the Merc engine struggling in this track for some peculiar reason. The Aston Martin which is closer to Ferrari concept was dead last in terms of speed, so obviously whatever the car concept, the horse power isn't being delivered.

[Vanja #66]

AM is actually not very close to Ferrari concept. Its not just about outer-most surface of the sidepods, its also about small undercut and other details.

As for Williams, their car concept is very similar to last year. Teams which changed their sidepod design from 2021 made a lot of progress. Lack of bargeboards and different flow structures at the front of the floor are a clear sign to look at car design with fresh eyes, yet Williams did a copy-paste. Budget must have been a big influence on their decision.

[vorticism]

Highlight of unique floor shape:

[McMika98]

AM is actually not very close to Ferrari concept. Its not just about outer-most surface of the sidepods, its also about small undercut and other details.

As for Williams, their car concept is very similar to last year. Teams which changed their sidepod design from 2021 made a lot of progress. Lack of bargeboards and different flow structures at the front of the floor are a clear sign to look at car design with fresh eyes, yet Williams did a copy-paste. Budget must have been a big influence on their decision.

Completely disagree on the sidepod take. Compared to either wing or floor, the sidepod has minimal effect on downforce. Its not just 1 car that was slow here, almost all merc powered cars were at the midfield back.
The quali result had more bearing on the engine characteristics and performance than the car aero philosophy here for Merc cars. Read somehwere that the Ferrai engines had short gearing so better traction and acceleration. Clearly Merc have gone for efficiency again over performance, so maybe in race the better fuel consumption might be a factor.

[SmallSoldier]

Williams coolers on the sides of the airbox ducts, relocating them here helped with the skinny sidepods:



Vía Nicolas Carpentiers

[PlatinumZealot]

The exhaust is crazy.. Almost no collector.

They have an T-shaped fire-wall like like Mercedes too. Helps to tuck the radiators into the side of it.

[vorticism]

The exhaust is crazy.. Almost no collector.

They have an T-shaped fire-wall like like Mercedes too. Helps to tuck the radiators into the side of it.

That is bizarre. Six inlet turbine?

[PlatinumZealot]

The exhaust is crazy.. Almost no collector.

They have an T-shaped fire-wall like like Mercedes too. Helps to tuck the radiators into the side of it.

That is bizarre. Six inlet turbine?

They have been moving the collector closer and closer each year. Basically into the turbocharger...

But this year it looks like one of the runners goes above the gearbox mounting point. Could be six ports into the turbocharger as you say.

Like a stafish turbocharger...


We need to see the runners on the left side to confirm if this thing is really a starfish. Runners on the left side would go lower. Indicate this turbine spins anticlockwise when sitting in the driver seat.

[AR3-GP]

That design in interesting. The medusa would make it lighter, no?