Mclarens new front wing

[PNSD]

From Autosport.

[IMG:275:183]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v452/ ... 022231.jpg[/img]

McLaren are evaluating the introduction of a radical front wing for next month's Spanish Grand Prix after running the new design in public for the first time in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya today.

The wing, which features an extra plane that spans above the nose and is mounted on the front wing end plates, is the result of what the team have openly admitted has been an aggressive development programme ahead of the Barcelona race.

The four-week break between the Bahrain Grand Prix and the race in Spain has allowed all the teams breathing space to work on developments, and McLaren's wing is already believed to have been evaluated during their straightline work they conducted in Menorca last week.

McLaren's main rivals Ferrari and BMW Sauber have both made use of an extra high-plane this year on the front wing, although these have been attached to the side of the nosecone rather than running above the top of it.

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh said last week that the fight for the championship between Ferrari and his team would almost certainly be decided by the rate of development the two outfits were working at.

"It is now very clear that this year's championships will be as much decided in the race to develop the car as the racing that occurs on Sunday afternoons," he explained. "We are now in the middle of a relatively large and unprecedented gap in Formula One racing, with a four week interval.

"During this time we are testing at the Barcelona circuit where the next race will be held. We would therefore target the largest incremental improvement in car performance from one race to another.

"This will not just be with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but within all of the teams in the sport. As a result, the whole organisation is working extremely hard to ensure that we make as big, if not bigger, incremental improvement to the lap time performance of the MP4-22 versus any of our competitors."

[checkered]

Hm, anyone think

McLaren aerodynamicists have been taking note of the discussions here? Seems this is as good a time as any for us to continue considering the merits of box wings in F1 ...

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... though I suspect there's a distinct possibility that that construction will suffer the fate of the Tyrrell x-wings and BMW pylons. I.e. it will be "made" to contravene with a rule, or a rule forbidding a front wing plane attaching only to the end plates while clearing the nose in a continuous form from above will be invented because the look of the wing is too radical/ugly. And of course no-one will 'fess up to that being the real reasoning behind the decision.

[Sawtooth-spike]

surely its going to flex a lot as it has no middle support from what i can see. Plus it looks really ugly and there for can help with Aero (joking).

[manchild]

[scarbs]

It seems a logical step from the split bi plane element and nose fins most teams adopt. I guess mos tof us have had a drawing of this on their notepads for some time.

I notice too, that the fins in front of the cockpit have now been removed. This suggests the new bi plane element is doing some of their work by pushing the flow downwards along the car.

[wazojugs]

Its looks quite aestetic compare to some other wing solutions that have been done in the past.

Not sure if this wing is used for outright down force on the front wheels or if its conditioning the air flow over the car to work the rear wing better.

[scarbs]

I'd say the pressure distribution across the wing, would produce downforce at the tips and little if any in the middle portion of the wing, which works to condition flow to the rear.

True, it seems now that the lower wing supports could be dispensed with as the upper element of that shape and in that position would work quite well to support the entire front wing.

Prizes for the first person to photoshop the lower supports out and add some to the top....!

[Sawtooth-spike]

If they moved the supports to the top surely this would allow a lot movement to the main wing. Surely the FIA would need to test to unsure the wing could not lower itself closer to the ground.

[jddh1]

This is quite an interesting idea. I wonder what the FIA will do considering that the upper portion of the front wing might be a bit "flex". Obviously, this is a test and only time will tell whether this development will be implemented. I just wanted to be there to see how the other teams are freaking out and spending money on running the same simulations at their own HQs.

With that said, I wonder if anybody has a photo that is taken right at the same level of height as the upper wing. I think in the middle, just over the nosecone, it is quite flat. So there would not be any vertical forces generated in this section. If that is the case, why not just attach them at the nosecone instead of linking both sides alltogether like McL has done here. This is just a thought though, as we don't know the angle of attack of that section.

[midzt]

I guess this is more about cleaning up the air flow to the rear wwing than producing downforce at the front, so there should be little flexing. Thats what i gather anyway.

[kilcoo316]

OK - far be it from me to point out the obvious... but the flow coming onto that area of the front of the car is relatively clean, and will pass through the front suspension or over the nose anyway - so will be "straightened" out by that.

Also, the chord length of that wing is so short that no large-scale turbulence will be damped out.


I don't think that wing is gonna "condition" anything. It probably offers a minor improvement in downforce, as well as removing the two horseshoe vortices that exist (on the ferrari etc) from tying the upper wings into the nose which should lower drag a little bit.


As AeroGT3 will point out (from our arguments on the other thread ) - the increase in vertical spacing will improve the efficiency of both wings upper and lower in comparison to the ferrari/renault/bmw/whoever solutions.

[mrmr]

Someone wants to reject this because they, subjectively, believe it to be “ugly”, but to me if it works it's beautiful. The better it works the more "beautiful" it should be considered. Rejecting technological advances (assuming this is one) on "aesthetic" grounds is a reduced definition of aesthetics. Seeing something like this is why I log in in the morning. It’s why I follow F1 and not another series. It's a "passing maneuver" from the engineering team. And it's as fulfilling as a great passing maneuver on the track.

Can’t wait to see the pit crew replace a damaged one in the heat of a race!

[segedunum]

Hmmm. Thanks for the information on the other thread.

I'm not convinced at all that McLaren is going to get anything out of that. It looks a radical thing to do, but I simply cannot see how the top wing is not going to interfere royally with the aerodynamic efficiency of the bottom wing, and the amount of downforce it produces. I doubt whether it is something Newey would have tried, because the potential for disruption to all the surrounding aerodynamic parts and the lower front wing is quite large - with no appreciable benefit.

[mahesh248]

i have a feeling that this is gonna cause the car to understeer in the front which is ...what alonso wants ..... well cool concept .but it Looks bad ...look like a big Mush ...

[tomislavp4]

I like it to be honest

From those angles it is better looking than, for example the Williams front wing with the ears or whatever they are called....