Tech analysis: The 2014 F1 midfield

Over a rushed few days at Jerez, the majority of the 2014 Formula 1 grid was unveiled and seen on track for the first time.

It was immediately clear that not only do the cars look very different to what fans have been used to, but they also look very different to each other, giving F1 some refreshing variation.

Even common concepts such as the anteater nose are interpreted differently, and cars with the same engines are exploiting very different sidepod designs.

AUTOSPORT has already run in-depth technical analysis features on the potential title contenders seen so far. Now here's a rundown of the midfield creations.

FORCE INDIA

Having ended development of the VJM06 midway through 2013, the Silverstone-based team was able to plough a larger amount of effort into its new car.

The results are clearly visible, and the all-new VJM07 is a very neat car all round.

Force India has extended its Mercedes engine supply to include the gearbox, so its new car shares the entire rear end of the Mercedes W05.

Chassis development continues to be Force India's sole focus, and the aero packaging is well thought through.

Its iteration of the anteater nose appears to feature an unusually long extension, but this is probably made more apparent due to the upper nose being much shorter and higher. This creates a better shape for the nose to direct airflow under the car.

Also creating space for this airflow is the side profile of the raised chassis. This features the 2014 trend for a stepped end to the chassis, thus meeting the low-bulkhead regulation yet still creating the maximum space for air under the car.

The Force India also has a new front wing, mounted via curved pylons. It was one of the few teams to launch a car with a 2014-specific wing, and the endplates feature several vertical vanes to send the wing's wake outboard of the front tyre.

With the same powertrain as the Mercedes, the Force India also needs a similar-sized cooling package: the sidepod, inlets, overall volume and exit area appear to be similar on both cars. They only differ in the VJM07's use of a rollhoop-fed oil cooler, suggesting this car has greater cooler area overall, probably due to a different means of turbo intercooling.

In using the Mercedes gearbox the team is thus supplied with two points from which to mount struts to support the upper wing, which is a lighter if less aerodynamically effective solution.

The gearbox also provides a mounting for the monkey-seat winglet. As with its front wing, Force India has launched a car with a wing optimised around the exhaust, to improve the flow of air up from the diffuser to the rear wing, in the absence of the banned beam wing.

SAUBER

Sauber's 2013 started badly when the promising C32 had rear-end-stability issues. Once this was solved mid-season the car showed its true pace, but the opportunity for a better championship position was already lost.

Its 2014 contender, the C33, eschews any radical concepts and appears to be a logical solution to the new rules within the team's obvious resource constraints.

As with most of the midfield, prioritising airflow to the rear to recoup the lost rear downforce means that the anteater solution and stepped chassis are adopted at the front.

Sauber's anteater styling is blended smoothly into the upper nose and then streamlined into the chassis, resulting in a very organic design.

Like Force India, the team has also gone straight to a front-wing endplate optimised for the shorter 2014 wing. The curled-down ends of the wing elements and turning vane are aimed at creating an outwash around the front tyre.

In the mid-section of the car, the new triangular-section rollhoop is aggressively undercut. The machined aluminium inner hoop allows far more airflow to reach the rear wing.

With Sauber still running Ferrari's complete powertrain, the rear packaging is again very tidy. At first the cooling-package effect on the sidepods appears to be different from the Ferrari, but closer inspection shows that both cars have relatively small sidepod inlets, and the Coke-bottle shaping is different but probably comparable overall.

Spy pictures of the car without bodywork suggest the turbo intercooler is on one side and is rumoured to be a water-to-air set-up, which is heavier but more aerodynamically efficient.

As a Ferrari customer, Sauber's gearbox is the same as on the F14 T, and the team has adopted similar rear-wing mounts around the exhaust tailpipe.

2014 F1 title contenders technical analysis

Ferrari F14 T

McLaren MP4-29

Red Bull RB10

Mercedes W05

TORO ROSSO

A lot has changed for Toro Rosso in 2014. No longer a Ferrari customer, it now receives the same Renault power unit as its parent Red Bull.

These changes extend to the sharing of a common gear cluster with the Red Bull RB10, although the Toro Rosso design has its own casing and bellhousing to go around it.

While not diminishing the scale of that task, the Red Bull arrangement does free up the team's resources to focus on the chassis.

In every area the STR9 features clever touches to maximise the car around the new rules. Its interpretation of the anteater is similar to much of the midfield, the end being particularly rounded.

Departing from the trend of a very high-stepped chassis, the STR9 instead has a side profile that slopes gently from the cockpit all the way to the nose tip. Only McLaren has also followed such a philosophy.

The front wing and endplates are new, but strangely the endplate is one relatively straight vane, and not a series of twisted elements aiming to create an outwash around the front tyre.

Technical director James Key admitted that this is an area that will be a key focus of development.

Following a Red Bull principle, the sidepods taper outwards towards the floor, and the Coke-bottle area merges into the sides of the engine cover with an almost flat surface. To achieve this smaller sidepod volume, the engine's oil cooler has been repositioned to above the fuel tank and fed by the large intake below the rollhoop.

More thought has gone into the rear-wing installation. The wing is mounted by a spar running flush along the top of the diffuser. This keeps the wing free of the airflow disruption of the usual mounting pylons, albeit at the expense of extra weight.

The wing's endplates feature the current trend of vertical slots. These increase airflow through the wing and increase downforce.

Another downforce aid is the complex monkey-seat winglet. Now taken to the maximum 20cm width, the winglet diverts the exhaust flow upwards to further improve flow through the wing.

WILLIAMS

Williams endured a terrible year in 2013, with initial optimism for its new car unfounded as it failed to work on track.

A litany of problems was unearthed, predominantly the failure of the exhaust-blown diffuser to add performance. Instead it detracted from it.

Reorganisation within the technical staff is getting Williams back on track and the FW36 looks to be a sensible response to the new rules.

Of all of the anteater noses Williams has one of the most unobtrusive installations, the nose tip merged neatly in the main upper nose, albeit at the expense of the overall nose height.

Its front wing appears to be derived from one of the many iterations of this section used in 2013, but a new aero package will be prepared before the first race in Melbourne.

Even ahead of the new parts arriving, some complexity in the current aero package is apparent, especially with the mirrors, which use an antler-like Y-shaped mounting.

The sidepods now need to package the 2014 Mercedes, rather than the 2013 Renault power unit installation. The Williams sidepods appear to be far larger than other similarly powered cars, but feature deep undercuts to the sidepod fronts. This undercut extends all the way around to the tail of the car, which moves the bulk of the sidepods higher up and makes them look larger, but the result is they send a better airflow to the diffuser.

Unlike other Mercedes customers, Williams makes its own gearbox, giving it freedom in rear aero and suspension geometry.

Williams has been able to produce its own ERS since 2009, but now regulations demand that this comes as part of the power unit from engine supplier Mercedes.

In many areas the Williams exhibits neat and simple solutions, but one particularly clever development is the rear-wing set-up. Devoid of a vertical pylon to support the rear wing, it is instead mounted by an alternative to the beam wing.

The rules that banned the beam wing still leave space below the height of the diffuser for wing-shaped bodywork, so Williams has exploited this to fit a low beam wing from the gearbox to the endplates, serving to both support the rear wing and act as a wing in its own right.

This is likely to be a solution adopted by several other teams.

MARUSSIA

Although last year Marussia stepped up a position in the championship, later in the season the car was generally not a match for the Caterham.

With little development to the MR02 in 2013, attention was focused instead on the new MR03. After its delayed debut at Jerez, it's clear the car has benefited from this attention.

In every area the new Marussia is a contemporary F1 design and not off on a tangent as the past few cars from the team have been. Its interpretation of the new nose rules sits somewhere between Red Bulls 'keel' nose and other midfield 'anteater' noses. Its tip is formed by a pod hanging from a more conventional upper nose and then truncated in a teardrop profile.

Maximising airflow under the car, the chassis is raised up to the maximum height and stepped down to the point where it meets the nosecone. Allied to this, the front wing is all-new, sporting six elements and a curved vane that forms the endplate.

Due to the rush to have the car completed for Jerez, it's clear the Marussia was in an unfinished state, with an odd panel running along the top edge of the chassis and no DRS mechanism installed.

Now incorporating a Ferrari powertrain, the car enjoys the same basic rear end as the Ferrari and Sauber. So it's not surprising that the sidepod set-up is similarly sized, although the MR03 has a cooler fed by an inlet under the rollhoop.

A feature of both of the other Ferrari-engined cars is the small inlet on the top edge of the engine cover. This cools the area around the turbocharger.

Unlike the Sauber, the Marussia rear-wing mount is not the same twin-pylon design as the Ferrari, but a McLaren-like 'Y'-mount. This forms a two-legged arch over the exhaust tailpipe, then just a single support holds up the rear wing.

This is a neat solution as it mounts the wing sufficiently, clears the central exhaust pipe and provides only one obstruction to the wing's undersurface.

Along with all the other new aerodynamic surfaces, the diffuser is all new too, with Red Bull-like flicks to the outer section of the floor.

CATERHAM

The delayed introduction of its new car during the 2013 season ended up costing Caterham a place in the championship, as Marussia netted a strong result in the Malaysian Grand Prix and consequently hung onto 10th place.

This year the team is ahead of the curve, with strong alliances with Renault and Red Bull. The car was run on the first day of the Jerez test.

Caterham has a nose that is related to the anteater design, but its detail and construction differ from the rest of the grid. For lightness, Caterham has mounted the front wing via tiny pillars to the extension of the nose. This allows the wedge-shaped upper nose to be freed from supporting the wing and thus can be made purely as a lightweight 'vanity' panel.

The downside to this approach is that this upper nose shape is not hidden by the wing-mounting pylons. Although its shape is similar to many other noses, the unobstructed design looks awkward. But the team is sure that this is the best aerodynamic solution and, aesthetics aside, the nose design appears to be logical.

Further aiding aero in this area, the anteater extension has a vertical vane formed underneath it, and to the side are unusual horizontal turning vanes.

Such is the abruptness of the nose design, it's easy to miss that the front suspension has been changed to a pullrod set-up. Only Ferrari also runs such a design this year, both teams exploiting the horizontal position of the pullrod as an aerodynamic aid.

Internally, the Caterham pullrod set-up provides good access to the springs and dampers, unlike Ferrari's less-accessible solution.

Caterham developed an interlinked hydro/mechanical FRIC system last year. This year's suspension set-up appears to make greater use of this unique coil-sprung linking system.

While being adventurous with the front design, the team was cautious with the cooling package. Thus the CT05's sidepods are large and feature a large open exit, to allow heat from the engine, turbo and ERS to vent adequately at the rear.

As knowledge of the system's cooling requirements grows, the bodywork will be slimmed to a more conventional shape.

Under the skin the CT05 runs the full Renault power unit along with current Red Bull gearbox and bellhousing, with the detail installations on both cars expected to be similar.

Both cars' gearboxes feature mounting points for twin rear-wing supports, and Caterham immediately ran with a monkey seat cantilevered from these mounts over the exhaust, for a beneficial upwashed aero effect behind the car.