TD018 2023 - clampdown on flexible wings

[organic]

Mercedes introduced new rear wing endplates, they kind of look like rudders to me. Hopefully this is a genuine innovation and not reactionary to claw back after the TD.

Anyway those outwashing vanes are nothing new. Alpine and Aston Martin had those vanes on the outer face of the wing endplate since the beginning of the season & Williams added them at Canada

I think it's just a relatively easy way to add performance. Similar to the endplate cutout for higher downforce wings

[collindsilva]

It appears Mercedes and Aston have been hit by the TD. They have fallen so far away!

Aston was hit by an FIA intervention before the TD was implemented for similar reasons, so pretty much yes.

is it possible the fia intervention was only on the front wing because it was super visible and pointed out by other teams, and they've had to make other similar changes with the introduction of the TD? I am thinking things like the rear-wing assembly's attachment to chassis

Considering no new updates on the AMR recently, seems so...
They may need to rework completely, however, considering how much MCL has progressed, seems it can be achieved with the right resources

[scuderiabrandon]

Mercedes introduced new rear wing endplates, they kind of look like rudders to me. Hopefully this is a genuine innovation and not reactionary to claw back after the TD.

Anyway those outwashing vanes are nothing new. Alpine and Aston Martin had those vanes on the outer face of the wing endplate since the beginning of the season & Williams added them at Canada

I think it's just a relatively easy way to add performance. Similar to the endplate cutout for higher downforce wings

https://i.imgur.com/IRET17i.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/G3Ly95P.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/mjJBjKT.jpeg

They help keep the rear tyre wake attached to the wheel for as long as possible giving the diffuser more room to expand in laterally.

This has nothing to do with the TD's

Mercedes introduced new rear wing endplates, they kind of look like rudders to me. Hopefully this is a genuine innovation and not reactionary to claw back after the TD.

Just to be clear this is what I'm referring to ^^^^

[Cs98]

Mercedes introduced new rear wing endplates, they kind of look like rudders to me. Hopefully this is a genuine innovation and not reactionary to claw back after the TD.

That's rudderly ridiculous. Such claims need hard evidence. This is forum rookie mistakes.

[Sieper]

Mercedes introduced new rear wing endplates, they kind of look like rudders to me. Hopefully this is a genuine innovation and not reactionary to claw back after the TD.

That's rudderly ridiculous. Such claims need hard evidence. This is forum rookie mistakes.

Rudder nose cones. Sorry, I meant rubber no scones. Argh, rubber nose cones. I can’t keep making these mistakes. Extra plates for them. To make them harder, like the evidence required.

[AR3-GP]

Verstappen will lap the field if he wants to. Something's up.

[organic]

Some analysis from Brrrrake on Twitter, a former F1 performance engineer

Lewis was talking after Q about how they have too much front end in the high speed.

If you look at his telemetry, he is using throttle in high speed sections to stabilise the car. This is a technique Ferrari drivers have used since beginning of 2022 to keep the rear stable in high speed, particularly Charles Leclerc. To see Mercedes have to start doing it.. is weird.

Lewis says they've had to do this for a little while now. And if you go back to Zandvoort and Silverstone in the high speed corners this throttle application was there as well.

It's possible that TD018 had something to do with this - this is a technical directive which clarified front wing/nose flexibility. Most of the end results of front wing flexibility are that they deflect with speed/load, so through a high-speed corner you’ll have relatively less front aero balance relative to a rigid front wing.

We know Aston Martin had to respond to FIA on their front wing as early as barcelona with a new specification. Could it be that merc's new front wing @ Silverstone was brought for similar reasons and has damaged their balance similarly in high speed?

[AR3-GP]

To me it seems clear that TD018 has had an effect on some teams, just not the ones that people hoped.

Aston's woes have been discussed at length and come from a long way ago. They may have had to make further adjustments to their rear wings by Singapore. Stroll is no longer able to exit Q1 and Alonso scrabbled to a P10 position, some 1.6 seconds off Verstappen. That car was destroyed by the TD.

The other curious case is Mercedes. Very little in the way of verbal sparring by the Mercedes team regarding this directive. Not even a resounding "We are not affected" defense from Toto. Toto Wolff claimed all teams had to make changes, "some more, some less" implying his own team had to make adjustments. Also, we now get to a front limited circuit and Mercedes is behind Ferrari by some margin and the drivers seem much more forlorn than they were at Silverstone, Barcelona, and Australia which were front limited circuits where they were 2nd/3rd best previously. They no longer seem to have a tire deg advantage either.


but we can probably still hold on to "They're setup window has narrowed" or "they aren't winning by 40 seconds". RB have not been affected by this TD in any meaningful way because they were not exploiting anything to any meaningful degree. Realistically RB probably did check their work to make sure the FIA was happy and maybe an extra ply got laid down somewhere for some coincidental flex that didn't need to be there, similar to other teams who made small touch ups for coincidental amounts of flex but, RB was never playing with anything that was fundamental to their car's performance, and did not have any elaborate sliding mechanisms in their wings or floor or engineering drawings, like Aston Martin was, and perhaps others were. If they did, their performance at Suzuka would have been in jeopardy like Aston Martin. Singapore was just out of the window with tires, which were changed in Silverstone which came after Monaco and Canada where they already struggled on this circuit type.

[RZS10]

[snip]

It might be slightly different panels for wing types/downforce levels, different tape application and varying lighting conditions but there's no real difference between them, at least in thickness, is there?

I'd personally reserve judgement and wait for the next race(s), they will run more DF and higher top speeds there, maybe i'll be able to grab some footage for them and other cars, it's a rarely used cam unfortunately.

Thank you @RZS10

I just caught a shot of GR63 from Q2…
https://share.icloud.com/photos/073kAI ... 2nwYbg6zpQ

When you compare it to views from earlier in the year it does look a bit ‘slapped on’ (as opposed to ‘carefully applied’. It could be lighting; but as you say, that exact view is a rare one. If you were looking to exploit the grey that was previously present (pre-TD018 clarification), it is exactly where you would tune the structure (and hide it in plain sight). [...]

Those are all from a recording i have from Baku (shadowplay from a 720p stream):

Still images 2/3 and 5/6 are a single frame apart and even there it can go from looking smooth to more pronounced i think, the edge looks round in some of them and angular in others, the round details are visible in some and invisible in others, my guess is that the (glossy) tape plays a big role in our perception, i'd be surprised if the team did not make sure that the surface is as smooth as possible.

I took a few screengrabs from the Q highlights on Youtube, there's less compression artifacting here which might make it look more pronounced compared to the pics above, i also added yours and imho it kinda is the same thing where it looks more or less like an afterthought depending on the lighting conditions:


And to hammer the point home how visual effects can trick us into seeing things:


It almost looks like a different nose, doesn't it?

Just as an image, not a gif - there's suddenly 'more' under the nose, but it's just artifacting in the shadow


And FW flex is back with a vengeance, also on the inner pieces (Singapore vs Suzuka):



Full:

Compared to Zandvoort (same markers, i couldn't be arsed):

From those two low speed/deflection:

And high speed/deflection:


Hardly any difference on some elements, looks like there's just a difference in flaps or wing level.

[dialtone]

Decent explanation of the potential effects and intended changes from TD39:



To summarize it briefly, since it's in italian: the plank has a 3mm thickness behind the bolts that hold it on the floor, some teams were pre-damaging that 3mm thickness area, or even breaking it slightly, to allow for the titanium bolt to bend and absorb impacts to reduce plank abrasion.

If that's the case, most teams wouldn't really bring any physical changes to the cars to adapt to the updated TD39, they can just stop damaging the plank and raise the car a bit to reduce impacts.

[AR3-GP]

Merc at the bottom of the speed traps. Did they lose something?

Federico:

On the subject of "flexible wings", "rubber" inserts ( ) and TD018, which would have "reduced the efficiency of RedBull, the only one to use this trick" preventing stalls and blah blah blah, here are today's top speeds in qualification. Tomorrow we will see the degradation for the new TD39.

[organic]

Merc at the bottom of the speed traps. Did they lose something?

Federico:

On the subject of "flexible wings", "rubber" inserts ( ) and TD018, which would have "reduced the efficiency of RedBull, the only one to use this trick" preventing stalls and blah blah blah, here are today's top speeds in qualification. Tomorrow we will see the degradation for the new TD39.

Not only were Merc at bottom of speed trap, but it's the largest gap between themselves and pole all season and it was on pure pace. And this track on paper should be like Silverstone, Barcelona which somewhat suit the w14. Seems maybe the car only likes the very high df tracks recently. Earlier in the year they had some of the best performance in the high speed

[dialtone]

Merc at the bottom of the speed traps. Did they lose something?

Federico:

On the subject of "flexible wings", "rubber" inserts ( ) and TD018, which would have "reduced the efficiency of RedBull, the only one to use this trick" preventing stalls and blah blah blah, here are today's top speeds in qualification. Tomorrow we will see the degradation for the new TD39.

Not only were Merc at bottom of speed trap, but it's the largest gap between themselves and pole all season and it was on pure pace. And this track on paper should be like Silverstone, Barcelona which somewhat suit the w14. Seems maybe the car only likes the very high df tracks recently. Earlier in the year they had some of the best performance in the high speed

It’s less the car liking high df tracks and more that if everyone is on high df they comparatively lose less.

At least imho. Car is still a turd that they also developed badly despite having deployed more updates than most.

[AR3-GP]

Merc at the bottom of the speed traps. Did they lose something?

Federico:

Not only were Merc at bottom of speed trap, but it's the largest gap between themselves and pole all season and it was on pure pace. And this track on paper should be like Silverstone, Barcelona which somewhat suit the w14. Seems maybe the car only likes the very high df tracks recently. Earlier in the year they had some of the best performance in the high speed

It’s less the car liking high df tracks and more that if everyone is on high df they comparatively lose less.

At least imho. Car is still a turd that they also developed badly despite having deployed more updates than most.

Just had to get that last bit in eh?....

[dialtone]

To a large extent it’s not their fault. This is why I don’t like budget cap. I feel like chassis redesigns should be allowed in season. Total waste of time otherwise.