The wind beneath Spyker's wings

When the clocks struck midnight to ring in 2007, a new team partnership came into action, one that could demonstrably improve the team’s aerodynamic efficiency and, ultimately, performance. On 1 January, Spyker gained the use of another wind tunnel, effectively doubling its aerodynamic resources.

In addition to the team’s current wind tunnel in Brackley, just 14km from the team’s base in Silverstone, UK, Spyker is now using a further tunnel in Sant’Agata, near Bologna in Italy throughout the year.

A team of 30 engineers and technicians will be entirely dedicated to Spyker aerodynamic development and the tunnel will run full-time throughout the week. Coupled with the tunnel in Brackley, the team will effectively be able to work on the aerodynamics package 24 hours a day. Such round-the-clock operations bring the team in line with its bigger, and more established, track rivals and could see the performance improve by up to two seconds – in Formula 1 terms, the equivalent of jumping from Silverstone to Melbourne with one graceful leap.

“Aerolab came on board on 1 January,” chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne explains. “It is a customer wind tunnel and can be used by several teams at once, but we have exclusive use this year. It really is a turnkey operation, with a bespoke team who work for just one client. It’s a fantastic opportunity - we will have a team of 30 people and a state of the art facility that’s ready to go.”

The partnership with Aerolab deal is, of course, in addition to the team’s current wind tunnel in Brackley, which was bought by Jordan Grand Prix, a previous incarnation of the Spyker team, 10 years ago. A tight-knit team of 55 people are based in the facility; a mix of aerodynamists, designers and model makers, entirely focussed on improving the aerodynamic efficiency of the car throughout the season.

This year, the department’s resources will be significantly increased when work on a new 50% wind tunnel is completed. Simon Phillips, Spyker’s head of aerodynamics, explains, “We started work on upgrading the wind tunnel late last year. Before work started we could only use a 40% scale model in the tunnel, but when the work is finished, we will be able to test a 50% scale car. It might not seem much of an increase on paper, but it equates physically to a 25% increase in size. This allows the accuracy of the model to be much more precise.”

Simon continues, “Another significant benefit of using a 50% model is that we can use 50% scale rubber tyres rather than making them from rigid carbon. A real tyre squashes and deforms depending on the downforce created by the race car. In reality, at high speed a tyre is not round, and this has a fundamental affect on the air flow around the car. Being able to use these rubber tyres means we are able to represent the car on the track a lot more accurately.”

The new tunnel features a six component overhead balance that is used to suspend a model car from the ceiling and measure all the aerodynamic forces, and a rolling road to simulate track conditions. The upgrade is scheduled to finish before the end of April, which is an exceptionally quick turnaround time. Simon continues, “The planning for this upgrade has been ongoing for some time, and when Mike Gascoyne came on board in November 2006 he added to the push to get the work done. Obviously, a Formula 1 team without a wind tunnel is unheard of these days, and in order for us to maintain our aerodynamic development rate, the upgrade needed to be done quickly as possible. The on-site work was started at the end of January and will be finished in April – very quick considering the main section of the old tunnel has been taken out and completely recreated.” In the interim period, to keep the programme running, the team is using a second tunnel close to the Brackley facility to supplement the Aerolab programme.

Simon explains that the Italian and British wind tunnel programmes will be running in close conjunction, but there won’t be any direct overlap between their areas of development. “There will be clear areas of responsibility for each tunnel so development is as tightly integrated and efficient as possible.”

Amongst its responsibilities, the Brackley facility will design and produce the models that are tested in the tunnels. Each model is an exact replica of the car raced out on track, just 50% of the size. This means every single component that has an aerodynamic influence on the car has to be recreated in miniature, from the bodywork and wings to the radiators, exhaust and braking systems.

The team uses a number of techniques to build each part on the model; one being the more traditional method of carbon moulding which is used to make stronger parts such as the front wing or sidepod turning vanes; to a much more sophisticated processes, such as rapid prototyping which are used to makes much more intricate parts, such as front wing endplates and much of the sculpted bodywork. The Brackley facility has three of these machines working 24 hours a day. A 3D CAD model is input to the machine and then ‘sliced’ down into 0.1mm layers. A laser will then draw each layer onto a large vat of liquid resin, which causes the resin to set instantly. Over a period of time, a three dimensional shape is formed from building up the two dimensional layers. Many parts can be created at once, and in just a few days a whole collection of parts can be made. These freshly made parts are finished and painted in the model shop, and within a few hours will be taken into the tunnel in Brackley or Italy to analyse the airflow over them.

For finer work on how the air is pushed, squeezed or flows over each individual component, Simon and his team use a top of the range computational fluid dynamics software (CFD); a fully interactive programme that allows the team to hone in on areas of the car and understand in precise detail how they behave under race conditions. “We have the best package out there to look at the effects of the air flow. We can understand why the car behaves as it does and test new ideas in minute detail. The wind tunnel is good for understanding a general picture, but this package is the fine brushstrokes.”

Simon continues that the team’s small size is actually an advantage when it comes to CFD; “The integration of the CFD results with the CAD system, and the delivery of in the information to the design teams is very well developed. The size of the department means that the CFD engineers talk face to face with the aerodynamicsts, and that we can adapt our software and methods very quickly to suit their individual needs. When you’re a bigger team, you don’t have that level of flexibility.”

It’s this kind of flexibility that’s allowed the team to make the tunnel upgrade with the minimum possible downtime and disruption – we’ll see the benefits very soon.