updates during recent testing

[Steven]

I guess you all know some of these things already, but he's what I marked up:

McLaren:
- Hornets on the airbox
- Smaller barge boards that now are similar in size to those of Ferrari
- Connection between floor and flipup. Contrary to Renault, it seems like here the connection also is some kind of a vertical wing guiding air towards the centre of the car (helping the coke bottle shape)
- Thin and very nicely shaped chimneys

Renault:
- Slightly modified RWEP's that are a little longer at the top than at the bottom. At least for the lower part, as the plate ends right after the horizontal wing plate at the top.
- Connection/Support between the floor of the car and the flipup. Realised by a small vertical bar.
- Rather short chimneys pointing upwards. Outlet are foreseen with aelerons to allow better assimilation of air put out of the chimney and air passing by
- V front suspension


Williams:
- Smaller airbox air intake
- Really low sidepods that also quickly decrease in height towards the rear
- Huge chimney pointing outwards
- Biggest RWEP (smallest cutout) of all F1 teams at present
- small connection between body floor and flipup

Red Bull Racing:
- High exhausts putting out exhausts about in the middle of the rear wing's open area

Toyota:
- Rounder and smaller nose cone (somehow resembling a bullet)
- Pre-sidepod wings (similar big bigger to those Jordan used in 2004)
- Really huge FWEPs
- Front wing hangups pointing towards each other at the front

Ferrari:
- Extra element in the middle of the front wing
- 3-plate front wing instead of the previous 2 (and thus 4 plates in the middle)
- new RWEP still with a gurney flap at it's tail end

[Carbon]

Thanks Tomba,
It's always interesting to see what others pick up in a car's design.

[ReubenG]

Tomba's comment about the Williams sidepods triggered a thought - the side on profile of the FW27 sidepods is similar to the top half of a conventional aerofoil wing - i.e one designed to produce lift, not downforce. As air passes over the sidepods, it will attempt to adhere to the surface, which drops away, causing a decrease in pressure on the upper surface of the pod. If not contributing to lift, this will certainly be detrimental to downforce generation.

Or is Williams just ignoring the effect of the sidepods on downforce and concentrating on minimising their drag?

[dumrick]

Tomba's comment about the Williams sidepods triggered a thought - the side on profile of the FW27 sidepods is similar to the top half of a conventional aerofoil wing - i.e one designed to produce lift, not downforce. As air passes over the sidepods, it will attempt to adhere to the surface, which drops away, causing a decrease in pressure on the upper surface of the pod. If not contributing to lift, this will certainly be detrimental to downforce generation.

Or is Williams just ignoring the effect of the sidepods on downforce and concentrating on minimising their drag?

This shape allows less masking of the rear wing / diffuser / flip-up / sidepod wing areas by the sidepods, actually allowing more downforce. However, if we analysed the behaviour of the sidepods alone (not considering the wings monted there and the flip-ups) they would generate lift, probably.

[Steven]

indeed!
In fact I think that is the reason why Renault for instance round their sidepods off at the above towards the back (where the gills are). That would mean if any lower pressure area would be present because of the sidepod slope it could be filled up with air from the side. It will then bend inwards before it hits the flipup and be pushed/pulled up by the rear wing to create downforce

[Reca]

As air passes over the sidepods, it will attempt to adhere to the surface, which drops away, causing a decrease in pressure on the upper surface of the pod.

Actually that slope of the sidepod should cause the pressure to increase. If there’s no separation obviously.