Tech blog: F1 teams striving for final gains

This week's two back-to-back grands prix just a few hundred miles apart over the Sea of Japan could not be more different.

Korea's Yeongam track is a brand new facility which joins long straights to a mix of medium speed corners, while Suzuka in Japan is a classic circuit packed with high-speed, high-energy curves.

Korea therefore demands a balance between downforce and drag to offset the very different efficiency requirement of the three sectors, while Suzuka is a high downforce track, with extreme loads being forced upon the cars through some of the toughest corners on the calendar.

No team has the resources to bring major developments to the tracks at this stage of the season without sacrificing development for next year.

New parts are therefore small details, giving us some insight into the teams' underlying problems with their chassis.

RED BULL

The internet has been perpetuating wild rumours of novel KERS or traction control features on the RB9. All these are ignoring the underlying fact that the Red Bull is no longer hobbled by tyre management issues and simply has better aerodynamics than its rivals.

Its sizeable corner exit advantage is most likely to be provided by the exhaust more effectively blowing the diffuser, aided by legal engine mappings and Sebastian Vettel's driving style.

Red Bull's new developments have been muted at these past two races. A new front wing device has appeared and while this is a totally new solution, it is aimed at the same purpose as the wing's other cascade elements.

What Red Bull has added is a pair of vertical aerofoil elements placed behind the usual cascade wings.

These will set off a vortex that will influence the airflow coming off the front tyre. They appear to be a quite aggressive solution, but not intrinsically different to the usual winglets, vanes and fins mounted to the front wing.

New vanes feature on the F130 © XPB

FERRARI

With recent tracks moving the emphasis towards downforce and aero efficiency, Ferrari has been found lacking.

Development continues on the F130 even this late into the year, as the car sprouted new pod vanes for Korea.

Both the vertical vane ahead of the sidepods and the complex floor area beneath them have been focus areas for Ferrari all year.

The new set-up replaces the two-element lower section of the previous design for a single element vane, but with an added 'r' shaped vane ahead of it. This is quite similar to Sauber's treatment in this area.

As with most teams, Ferrari has been playing with the diffuser exit, but only in detail aspects rather than with a wholly new diffuser.

The E21's wheelbase has been extended by 10cm © XPB

LOTUS

After its practice debut at Monza, the long wheelbase (LWB) Lotus made its race debut at Yeongam.

With the wishbones swept forward to create a wheelbase some 100mm longer than before, the new car needs several visual changes to make the change legal.

Firstly the nose is longer to mount the front wing further forward, although the shape is essentially the same. The T-tray splitter under the car has likewise been extended to align with the back of the front tyres.

The boomerang-shaped support for the splitter is also different: the hollow element, which is used to pass cooling air to electronics in the splitter, is reversed to meet with the outlet under the raised section of chassis.

The concept of the LWB E21 is based on vehicle dynamics. Lotus found the drivers suffered instability on the brakes, and the longer wheelbase negates this while also providing an aero benefit.

For Korea the team also bonded a new bulge under the chin of the nose. As this bulge is longer, it needed to be split into two, with one section bonded under the chassis and the forward section bonded to the nose.

In this format, the car ran shorter turning vanes under the nose to correct the different airflow. Teams find these small chin sections are an efficient way to add a little downforce to the front of the car.

MCLAREN

Now clear of Force India in the championship, McLaren still looks set for a win-less season. Development presses on, with detail changes to the floor fences in Korea and a revised nose in Japan.

At Yeongam the team added another fence to the floor of the car in the coke bottle area. This part's aim is to help collect the exhaust gases and direct them at the side of the diffuser.

McLaren's new front wing should prove beneficial © XPB

Curiously these were not in evidence at Suzuka, where a more significant development appeared.

The pylons mounting the nose to the front wing have been repositioned. McLaren already runs elongated wing mounts for an aero benefit, but these are positioned quite far forward on the front wing.

The more contemporary set-up is to have the mounts as far back along the wing as possible; this places them further downstream, to have a more beneficial effect on the floor/diffuser.

In following this new concept McLaren spent time on Friday checking the mounting set-up, with both an aero rake to map the airflow off the new mounts and also a side facing sensor to detect flex in the assembly.

As the wing is now mounted to less of the support, there remains the possibility the assembly could flex and fail the FIA defection test. Thus 'target' stickers were placed on one endplate and a sensor on the nose detected any movement from stickers and thus from the wing itself.

Other changes to the MP4-28 were the addition of an extra vortex generator on the sidepod shoulders. Having already run three fins in this area, a fourth was added for Korea. These devices set off a spiralling vortex that tumbles down the engine cover; some of their effect is aimed at the exhaust outlet, to redirect it towards the diffuser.

Also McLaren had new rear brake ducts. While the complex vanes and endplate inboard of the duct became yet more elaborate, one interesting new feature is a specific inlet and duct feeding air straight out through the wheel.

This solution works the same as the Williams blown-wheelnut, as the through-flow of air offsets some of the turbulence created by the large wheel rotating in the airflow.

Sauber has gone with a conventional rear wing © XPB

SAUBER

With its improved pace coming from better rear end stability, Sauber reintroduced an old rear wing design and shark fin on its front wing for Korea.

The delta-shaped rear wing was used to boost speed on the long straight in Korea.

The shark fin meanwhile was probably an aero aid for the front wing, with the single fin being unlikely to deter marbles being lodged in the wing's slot gap.

MERCEDES

Mercedes remains in the hunt for second in the championship, but development is now on subtle details rather than big upgrades.

Having lost a huge amount of pace in Singapore from a front wing clogged with tyre marbles, Korea saw a coincidental introduction of shark teeth fins on the front wing.

Mercedes' new floor slots © XPB

These devices are most likely vortex generators to accentuate the front wing aero wake, however there remains a theory they might help deflect marbles, preventing them clogging up the slot gaps in the wing.

Less ambiguous were the new slots in the rear of the floor.

All year the W04 has had one large slot in the floor in front of the rear tyres. For Korea this was changed for a series of slots machined into a titanium bolt on section of floor.

These slots offset the bow wave formed by the rotating rear tyre, which sends unwanted air into the diffuser and robs it of downforce.

Although still unraced, Mercedes briefly tested its Drag Reduction Device in free practice at both races. This suggests perhaps that the system might be considered as part of the 2014 car design.

WILLIAMS

Now under the technical leadership of Pat Symonds, Williams introduced part of an aero upgrade for Korea.

Williams has introduced a revised front wing © XPB

Although a larger package is designed, it was decided the performance from the full package featuring wings, floor and sidepod did not warrant the investment in manufacturing.

So for Korea simply a revised front wing appeared, with a new leading edge profile and a revised cascade set-up.

Rather than the complex leading edge of older Williams wings, the new design has a simpler profile, leaving the complexity to the cascade winglet. This takes the form of the pylon mounted winglet with a twisted shape to direct airflow around the front tyre.

This design did not race in Korea, but is in evidence again in Japan.