Williams FW43

[trinidefender]

Some years ago everyone run the big Shark fins almost at any Price. Now Williams made some effort to reduce it. Interesting.

If you look at the height of the lower horizontal section on the shark fin you'll notice that it sits right at the height of the rear wing. While the car is in yaw the air will trip over the top of that section and cause a vortex which then flows onto the rear wing ensuring more consistent rear wing performance.

It's a trade off between the benefits of that vortex and the slightly lighter bodywork vs the benefits of a bigger sharkfin and slightly heavier bodywork, I don't imagine there is much between it.

It's the same concept that McLaren started with last year before moving to a full size shark fin.

[jjn9128]

They have to run bodywork where the #6 is, and a triangle basically where the rest of the fin is.

Not sure how a vortex from a shark fin hitting a wing causes consistent downforce... especially the low pressure core hitting the high pressure surface... I'd say that's counter intuitive.

Shark fin is all about lateral stability and turning, the benefit is negligible so I'd agree on the rest of your comment about balancing the weight and stiffness of the fin which is also relatively negligible.

[trinidefender]

They have to run bodywork where the #6 is, and a triangle basically where the rest of the fin is.

Not sure how a vortex from a shark fin hitting a wing causes consistent downforce... especially the low pressure core hitting the high pressure surface... I'd say that's counter intuitive.

I was looking at the height of it originally and thinking the same thing that the vortex would be at the height of the high pressure side of the rear wing. However, and obviously I can't confirm this without CFD or a wind tunnel, the more I look at it, the more it looks like airflow in that region already has a downward flow to it does it not? If this is true then the vortex will be carried downward along the side of the sharkfin onto the low pressure side of the rear wing where it can have a positive effect.

McLaren did make some statements last year that alluded to this affect of the small fin they started the year with.

Thoughts?

[Lotus102]

Not sure how a vortex from a shark fin hitting a wing causes consistent downforce... especially the low pressure core hitting the high pressure surface... I'd say that's counter intuitive.

Aerodynamics can be counter-intuitive. A vortex, which in itself sucks energy, can be used to draw clean air towards the surface you want flow to attach to

[PlatinumZealot]

The velocity difference across the leeward and windward side of the fins would be almost negligible... Wont have much a of a vortex is my guess.

[Lotus102]

The velocity difference across the leeward and windward side of the fins would be almost negligible... Wont have much a of a vortex is my guess.

My understanding was there was a pretty significant pressure difference when the car is in yaw, particularly in high speed corners, otherwise there’d be no benefit in yaw stability from side force for the full size shark fin.

Either way, you probably don’t want to dump a vortex onto the high pressure side of the RW, so we can surmise that if there is a vortex, that’s not where it’s going.

[Just_a_fan]

The leading edge of the wing between the pylons is raised even more than the rest. The flow going under the wing will be drawn from above to some degree all along the leading edge, and possibly more so between the pylons. See image for what I mean (and yes, it's a normal wing rather than an inverted F1 one but the point remains).



If one could flow a vortex between the pylons in yaw situations, it might help to "clean up" the airflow in this region and help the rear wing a little bit.

[trinidefender]

I suggest all this interested in the the different shark fins read this study.
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Aleja ... -stability

Also to the mods, maybe since we have deviated from the topic a bit some posts can be moved to its own thread?

[Morteza]

Detail of a little deflector on the William's floor.

[tomazy]

[Thunder]

Livery Discussion has been moved to the Team Thread.

[wogx]

The joints of the surfaces around driver's helmet look mismatched

[ENGINE TUNER]

https://i1.wp.com/www.time24.news/i/wp- ... avirus.jpg

Can't see the image

[jjn9128]

The joints of the surfaces around driver's helmet look mismatched

That's called a manufacturing tolerance.

[ScrewCaptain27]

The joints of the surfaces around driver's helmet look mismatched

That's called a manufacturing tolerance.

It looks like the headrest is slightly deformed or not quite fitted properly. It’s a big “panel gap” by F1 standards.