Tech: What are the aeroscreen's implications?

The most attention-grabbing technical innovation on Russian Grand Prix practice day was one that won't be appearing in a Formula 1 race this year - or possibly ever.

We had already seen Mercedes' halo concept for cockpit protection run on the Ferrari in testing, and at Sochi on Friday Red Bull's high-strength aeroscreen proposal was finally revealed in physical form after CAD renders were issued last month.

The push for increased head protection for drivers is not a direct response to the crash that led to the death of Jules Bianchi, and no one in F1 is arguing that the proposals so far would have saved the Frenchman's life in that particular impact.

But FIA is concerned about the number of head injuries in open-cockpit racing cars globally, highlighted by Justin Wilson's fatal IndyCar accident last year. Safety strides mean some huge frontal or side impacts are now survivable, leaving the risk to the driver's exposed head the main focus.

Alongside the safety concerns, there are also pressures from those who argue an element of danger is part of motorsport's appeal, or that closed cockpits are contrary to F1's ethos and should be kept to other categories such as sportscar racing. The FIA has a fine line to tread.

Red Bull's aeroscreen concept aims to reduce risk of driver injury from objects approaching the cockpit head on.

It does not go as far being a full canopy, indeed there is no structure directly over the driver - which immediately differentiates it from the halo.

Red Bull has released videos of the screen being hit by both a wheel/tyre and a steel object, the 9mm thick screen deflecting both impacts without breakage.

Clearly the solution meets the most likely frontal impact requirements, although the test video did show a rubber mark on the helmet from the tyre passing over the cockpit. This may be a result of a higher helmet position relative to the screen than that tested by Daniel Ricciardo on Friday.

The aeroscreen comprises a structure forming the rail around the top, with the plastic screen bolted to the rail and the monocoque, both holding it securely in place and reinforcing the rail's secondary role as a front rollover structure. This latter effect is aided by the rail having a vertical support in line with the rear view mirrors.

As this rail loops back to the existing side padding, the screen also wraps around to nearly meet the tall cockpit sides.

According to Ricciardo, in the dry and short free practice run visibility wasn't an issue, however the effect of rain, oil and bugs may block the view in race conditions. Tear-off strips and the same wind-on film used for the onboard cameras could resolve that problem.

Aerodynamically the angled front screen will have some effect on airflow over the car. This will be partly beneficial by fairing-in the open cockpit and enclosing the helmet from the airflow, but will also have a negative effect by altering the onset flow to the airbox inlet and perhaps also cooling flow to the driver's helmet. But once the aeroscreen is planned into the car's design, the performance impact will be mitigated.

With the wraparound screen very wide and no structure over the driver's head, egress should not normally be an issue. However with the car inverted, the enclosed sides could make it hard for the driver to escape through the gaps between the rail and ground.

The lack of overhead structure also leaves the driver at risk from anything coming from directly above, such as wheels or bodywork debris entering the cockpit.

These issues are lessened with the halo, but conversely that lacks the benefits of the front screen on the Red Bull proposal.

Perhaps the solution is a hybrid set-up, taking the best of both solutions, with an overhead roll structure and a front screen?

The FIA is evaluating both options, with a view to introducing one for 2017, although it is now very late to get the decision agreed in time for the start of next season.

AWAY FROM THE AEROSCREEN

As the end of the first leg of flyaway races, Russia was always unlikely to be the scene of huge technical updates. The teams will prepare bigger upgrade packages for the Spanish GP in a fortnight after getting the cars back to the factories. But the appearance of power unit updates was a surprise.

FERRARI - FRONT WING FOCUS

There was not quite a new front wing for Ferrari, although the SF16-H gained a new bigger flap set-up fitted to a modified wing.

Normally the Ferrari front wing uses a two element flap set-up, typically painted white. This has been changed to a larger three element set-up.

In adding this bigger flap arrangement, the second element of the main plane has been shortened, such that the five elements now making up the main front wing are almost equal in size.

Though the main plane has changed, the wing tip, endplate and cascades are largely unchanged.

Unusually for front wing updates, the alterations affect the centre span of the wing. This area is the part used to create downforce, so these changes are unlikely to be for tweaking the airflow, but simply for making more downforce, with less of the impact on the wing's wake.

Although Sochi demands more downforce as it is a tighter, street type, track, it's likely that the new more powerful wing will be raced at other more conventional tracks.

Ferrari also wanted to introduce updates to its V6 internal combustion engine at this race, initially under the banner of reliability changes.

But the FIA ruled that the planned alterations did not fall under the remit of reliability tweaks, so Ferrari had to invest three development tokens for the parts to be homologated onto its race engines.

MERCEDES - MORE CUTS AND TWISTS

A new complicated front wing endplate was seen on the Mercedes at Sochi, but this was not run in practice. Instead it will be brought to Barcelona for its maiden outing on track.

Following Mercedes' 2016 mantra that more cuts and twists are better, the new design features the top edge of the endplate vane being broken into three surfaces, with the rear twisted into two vane-like elements.

One new thing that did actually run on the car was an unexpected power unit update - the fuel system gaining new parts that required the spend of two development tokens.

RED BULL - COPYING THE OPPOSITION

Aside from the aeroscreen, the RB12 also appeared with new strakes on the rear wing.

Though not something seen on Red Bull designs before, these strakes are a feature of most other rear wings. They simply guide the airflow upwards along the side of the rear wing endplate, adding to the upwash effect around the rear wing.

This goes to show how little scope for innovation there is under the current regulations. After just three years the teams are increasingly tied to the same design ideas and are forced to take inspiration from rivals and adopt the opposition's ideas in order to add performance to the car.

McLAREN - FILLING IN THE GAPS

There were two aero add-ons visible on the McLaren this weekend, the march of its development programme never slowing between races. For Sochi there was a new front wing cascade vane and also a change to the sidepod vanes.

On the front wing, a small vane was added to the wide cascade winglet, a tiny detail, but one lacking on the McLaren in comparison to other cars. The vane is just another part on the front wing working to direct airflow around the front tyre.

On the sidepods, the usual vane ends vertically but now the end angles to form a horizontal surface then angles again to meet the sidepod.

Like the cascade vane this is an idea common to many other cars, so McLaren is filling in the design gaps and following other teams' leads on where and how bodywork can be used.

TORO ROSSO - HUNTING FOR STRAIGHTLINE SPEED

Having fielded two low drag rear wing designs at Shanghai, even the shorter straights of Sochi prompted Toro Rosso to bring yet further drag reduction solutions to its rear wing to counteract the performance deficit from its 2015 Ferrari engine.

Now the endplate has a cut-out section near the wing tip. This area is where the high pressure above the wing mixes with the lower pressure regions and forms a powerful wing tip vortex.

It's this vortex that induces much of the rear wing's drag, so reducing the effect, even if at the cost of some downforce, helps overall efficiency and top speed.