McLaren MP4-26 Mercedes

[TheWiseOwl]

Credit to Adam Cooper

[Coefficient]

A thought came to me earlier, how about if McLaren put a thin lid on top of the sidepods and used that as a downforce generating surface? It could narrow down at the back to accelerate air flow through the tunnel too.

Would this even work, or would the drag penalties outweigh any gains? I assume the latter as McLaren would've probably obviously considered this already

As a pure guess it might compromise the flow under and over the floor.

It would be illegal. You aren't aloud any downforce devices in that area.

[horse]

You aren't aloud any downforce devices in that area.

Not sure about that, but it would contravene this:

3.8.4 Any vertical cross section of bodywork normal to the car centre line situated in the volumes defined below must form one tangent continuous curve on its external surface. This tangent continuous curve may not contain any radius less than 75mm :
a) the volume between 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line and 300mm rearward of the rear face of the cockpit entry template, which is more than 25mm from the car centre line and more than 100mm above the reference plane ;

[Mole]

You aren't aloud any downforce devices in that area.

Not sure about that, but it would contravene this:

3.8.4 Any vertical cross section of bodywork normal to the car centre line situated in the volumes defined below must form one tangent continuous curve on its external surface. This tangent continuous curve may not contain any radius less than 75mm :
a) the volume between 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line and 300mm rearward of the rear face of the cockpit entry template, which is more than 25mm from the car centre line and more than 100mm above the reference plane ;

They already have winglets there

[Pierce89]

judging by the picture at the top, Macca is going for the small flap rear wing now

[Shrek]

Credit to Adam Cooper

i see 2 thing weird here, the slits on the endplates looks like they produce df and what's the thing in the middle of the beam wing

[Owen.C93]

That thing on the beam wing is just a cover for where the old activation system used to be.

[foxivan]

Hi everyone I am a Macca fan and new to this site. I have followed this thread for some time and registered at last . I am a bit confused by some members saying that Macca is trying to reduce the DF at the front, would it be good to add more wing at the rear and achieve higher corner speeding at Silverstone?

[myurr]

Hi everyone I am a Macca fan and new to this site. I have followed this thread for some time and registered at last . I am a bit confused by some members saying that Macca is trying to reduce the DF at the front, would it be good to add more wing at the rear and achieve higher corner speeding at Silverstone?

F1 cars are always a compromise between level of downforce and drag, and therefore straight line speed. For this circuit McLaren's staff and simulators have determined that this level of rear wing is optimal in terms of overall lap time in the dry and the level of front downforce is largely selected to produce the desired balance for the car.

[Ferraripilot]

Is that a gurney tab I see on the 3rd element of the front wing located outboard near the endplate?

[Owen.C93]

Is that a gurney tab I see on the 3rd element of the front wing located outboard near the endplate?

Yes. They normally run it.

[Hangaku]

Hi everyone I am a Macca fan and new to this site. I have followed this thread for some time and registered at last . I am a bit confused by some members saying that Macca is trying to reduce the DF at the front, would it be good to add more wing at the rear and achieve higher corner speeding at Silverstone?

There is also the fact that they (along with everyone else) have lost a load of downforce points at the rear. This means that the car will be oversteery as the front is producing the same levels of downforce. So to balance the car, they can dial some downforce out of the front, and make the car behave mid-corner.

I'm sure it's not quite as simple as that, but that's the general idea.

[PlatinumZealot]

Or... use a big azz rear wing! I would take the big azz rear wing because sometimes, you just need the down-force!

[ringo]

You aren't aloud any downforce devices in that area.

Not sure about that, but it would contravene this:

3.8.4 Any vertical cross section of bodywork normal to the car centre line situated in the volumes defined below must form one tangent continuous curve on its external surface. This tangent continuous curve may not contain any radius less than 75mm :
a) the volume between 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line and 300mm rearward of the rear face of the cockpit entry template, which is more than 25mm from the car centre line and more than 100mm above the reference plane ;

They already have winglets there

No, that area is not in the volume specified in the regulation.
It's the same volume where Ferrari and renault have the lump in front of the sidepods.

[PlatinumZealot]

Credit to Adam Cooper

Thank God the central pillar is gone. It was unnecessary drag and also blockage of the cooling hole.