Tech focus: Adapting to life after FRIC

The German Grand Prix marks the mid-point of the 2014 season, with updates planned for this weekend coming on top of the removal of interconnected suspension (FRIC) from all cars that previously ran it.

Without getting into the politics of the situation, the teams were given less than two weeks' notice to prepare for running without suspension that is hydraulically linked from front to rear.

The timing was fortuitous, coming just before the first day of a two-day test at Silverstone. Some admitted to running without FRIC immediately there.

It needs to be made clear exactly what has been effectively outlawed because the term FRIC is vague and used by different teams in different ways.

What has now been unofficially defined as an aerodynamic aid is the interlinking of the front suspension to the rear. Every team had already run this season with a hydraulic element linking each side of the suspension at both the front and rear, with each of these then linked front to rear.

With the FIA's technical delegate, Charlie Whiting, expressing his opinion that the front-to-rear link is not legal, teams are still able to run complex hydraulic set-ups on each axle.

FRIC maintains the ideal ride height of the car's underbody, especially under braking. As the car dives under braking, it uses the rear axle to support the front, to prevent too much dive.

Typically, teams run the cars as low at the front as possible. This gets the front wing close to the ground and increases rear ride height for greater airflow expansion under the rear of the car. Both of these things create more downforce.

If ride height can't be controlled, with this nose-down attitude the front splitter grounds on the track and wears excessively, leading to potential penalties.

So without the link, teams have had to raise the front ride height, which costs downforce and leads to understeer, and find other means to support the front springs under braking.

As the cars are still equipped with very complex hydraulic actuators, valves and accumulators from the full FRIC set-up, they can still use these to control pitch and front ride height. Most teams have simply removed the front-to-rear link pipes.

Some teams may migrate towards more typical heave spring/dampers on the suspension. But the adjustability of the complex hydraulic set-ups will no doubt be exploited in other ways to control the cars' attitude under braking.

McLAREN

As a team working to regain its position at the sharp end of the grid, McLaren's car has been developing rapidly this year.

With a new front wing and a simplification of the rear suspension blockers, the direction has been positive. But we were not expecting the radical rear wing development on the car this weekend.

The slot gap between the rear wing main plane and flap, which is normally straight, has been changed to a wavy serrated gap.

This shaping is formed on both the main plane and flap, such that each curve interlocks with the other to create the wavy slot gap.

How this aero feature works is not entirely clear. Serrated gurneys on the trailing edge of wings have been used in Fprmula 1 before, but not in the slot gap.

Its use is probably related to drag reduction, from either keeping the airflow attached under the wing or breaking up the wing's wake into individual vortices formed on each wave. This might also have a bearing on how the wing works with DRS open.

Also aiding the performance of the new wing are two series of strakes on each rear wing endplate. These are quite common up and down the grid. They also produce a series of vortices that lower the pressure behind the wing to create more downforce.

RED BULL

Again Red Bull made some detail revisions to its front wing. These changes were tried in Silverstone testing, but the blown front axle also tried was not fitted to either car for Friday practice at Hockenheim.

This weekend the cascade winglets mounted above the main front wing had a subtle revision.

The inner winglet forming the cascade elements uses a two element wing. Usually this wing has a vertical endplate to seal the upper and lower surfaces. For Germany the winglets two elements each curl up to form their own separate little endplates.

FERRARI

As usual, Ferrari tried various different wings and brake ducts on the F14 T.

For this weekend, new sidepod vanes seen in testing were on the car. These new parts still wrap around the front of the sidepods, but feature a different shape to both the vertical and horizontal sections.

The vertical part is longer and a new twist to the shape of the vane passes over the top of the sidepod.

FORCE INDIA

For the third consecutive race, Force India tried significant upgrades. First noses, wings, turning vanes and rear wing mounts were adjusted, but now its sidepods have been revised.

Seen initially at the Silverstone test, the Force India has had a big rearrangement of the top bodywork and radiator layout.

Before now, the VJM07 had a large ERS cooler above the gearbox. This was fed by a large duct and opening above the roll hoop.

Having this duct running over the top of the engine leads to the bodywork being quite bulbous.

Having understood the car's cooling needs over the first half of the season, the team has reproportioned and repackaged the coolers, including this cooler within the sidepods.

This has allowed the closing of the extra roll hoop inlet and much slimmer bodywork behind it.

In Britain, the bodywork was very slim and formed a pronounced shark fin over the spine of the engine cover. For Germany with the unusually hot weather, a slightly larger body panel was run, with a larger opening at the back.

LOTUS

In a curious reversal to the Force India development, Lotus has actually fitted a new cooler to the area over its gearbox.

Finding that the Renault power unit is very sensitive to charge air cooling, the E22 has had its second cooling revision this year. At Barcelona, the team fitted a larger water radiator to its turbo's water-intercooler.

To package the sidepods for more cooling area, the ERS cooler has been shifted to over the gearbox.

A triangular, double-pass radiator sits on a carbon fibre mount behind the airbox. This is fed by two inlets formed to the side of the roll hoop inlet. These inlets lead into ducts flanking the airbox above the engine.

This duct work and cooler requires a bulkier engine cover, with a rounded outlet to vent the heat from the ERS cooler. Just as Force India has gained aero performance, Lotus has lost some, but the benefit to the power unit must offset this aero loss.

Lotus also ran with two different front wing endplate updates, one being a tiny infill section added to the trailing edge of the endplate, the other featuring a curvier vane.

HOCKENHEIM

Hockenheim is a 'middling' track, no longer featuring the flat-out blast through the woods. Now, the track is average for power, braking and downforce.

In comparison to recent venues, it lacks fast corners and long straights. With no fast corners, it is medium to high downforce track.

The stop/start nature does make this a power track, but the lack of straights should not hinder those with lower average top speeds.

This weekend's surprisingly hot weather has led to the super-soft option tyre shifting towards a qualifying tyre, unsuitable for long stints if the weather remains hot.

But a change in weather, with either cooler or even thundery weather, is predicted for Sunday's race.

Whether hot or wet, the tricky corner is Turn 1, and track limits have been explored by most drivers. The right-hand flick has been made worse by the slight understeer induced by the banning of FRIC.