SectorOne wrote:That overhead shot is just sick. Front wing AoA is mental, and vortex heaven on or near the sidepods.
I have two theories on this front wing, and that is one of them...
The first is as Sector implies, which is that the near vertical and curved section of the wing immediately adjacent to the neutral section is essentially a bargeboard. It allows the flow structures between it and the nose to proceed back and around the sidepods undisturbed. It does this by deflecting flow outward that would otherwise proceed to the suspension and result in turbulent wake that would be incident on the sidepod and dismantle the structures there. I think this approach may also be why the traditional bargeboards at the front of the sidepods have become almost vestigal; the front wings are now decreasing the cross section of the wake incident on the sidepods that used to be handled by the bargeboards.
In addition, the nose cross section is minimized here, and the large curvature of the wing allows a large cross section of laminar flow in between the high AoA section and the nose when the car is in yaw (turning). This cross section of flow in yaw may actually proceed spanwise to the
opposite sidepod intact and reduce stalling on the outside of the car during high speed turn.
The second is that as this point, the front wings of F1 cars are essentially wing/diffuser hybrids. Call them quintuple-deck diffusers or whatever, but imagine if you could have the same size box on the rear diffuser as the front wing, and also have holes. My guess is that it would look a lot like the front wings, with horizontal perhaps without the dramatic outwash elements.