How teams are exploring 2017's new rules

Amid the running chaos that characterised Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix - drivers crashing, locking brakes, constantly taking to the escape roads, struggling to get the tyres working, plus the controversial collisions that followed in the race - some interesting technical developments revealed themselves during the Baku weekend.

McLAREN FOLLOWS MERCEDES' DIFFUSER LEAD

McLaren's recent development direction with its diffuser package has taken a leaf out of the Mercedes concept with its outboard foot and vertical vane detail. Both are attempts to exploit extra room for development available in this season's new regulations.

As I've said in many of my technical columns, connecting the trailing edge of the diffuser to the low-pressure area behind the rear tyres will improve the performance of the diffuser and in turn the complete underfloor assembly.

With the new wider rear tyres this year, it is even more important than previously to get the complete rear of the car working. To extract the airflow from the underfloor makes it incredibly powerful and, as the underfloor downforce is not so critical to turbulence, it will also improve the car in traffic.

The regulations for this area are fairly complicated and to fully understand how this detail complies you would need to have open access to view the package vertically.

HOW RED BULL FOUND EXTRA SPEED

Red Bull's strong pace on a circuit with one of the highest demands on engine power on the calendar was a real surprise, with Max Verstappen topping Friday practice and almost outqualifying the Ferraris too.

Renault brought an engine upgrade, understood to relate to software mapping, that its F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul said was worth two tenths of a second - though it seems Verstappen had some trouble with the reliability of this new mode.

But Red Bull's improvement wasn't only down to the engine. For Baku, the team introduced a new smaller twin element upper rear wing, which helped mitigate the remaining lack of power it suffered on the circuit's long straights and certainly helped it join the big fight between Mercedes and Ferrari.

Red Bull always runs its car with more rake - front ride height low, rear ride height high - than most others, and with this set-up the car produces more downforce from the front wing and underfloor, especially in the slow corners. Reducing the cross section of the rear wing downforce wise is not that big a penalty, but the drag reduction this gives is a big advantage relative to top speed.

The other thing worth mentioning is how neat and well detailed the rest of the components around the rear wing are - from the lower mounting of the central wing mount to the DRS package, the detail is second to none.

I've always been told size does matter and that is exactly what Red Bull has done with its bargeboards. The detail hasn't altered hugely, but by being larger they will work the air that little bit more and help extract more of the mass airflow from under the front of the chassis.

This helps the performance of the front wing - especially the central section - and introduces increased mass airflow to the leading edge of the sidepods, both of which help with the overall level of downforce produced by the car.

MERCEDES' BRAKE DUCT EXPERIMENT

I'm old enough to remember the days when a brake duct was a brake duct, but those days are long gone.

Currently, the brake ducts on Formula 1 cars are major downforce producing devices and vitally important as they produce the load directly onto the wheel and tyre assembly, so there is no time lag created by suspension movement.

They are also one of the tools that the teams try to use to help with tyre warming, but using them to help heat the tyres can have a detrimental effect on brake cooling.

Getting temperature into the front tyres has never been easy and in Baku Mercedes used the practice sessions to try to get the optimum package.

During Friday practice Mercedes ran with an asymmetrical duct system. This would allow the team to compare tyre warm-up and brake cooling across the axle.

In this view, which is from the front of the car, the left-hand side has a fully open disc - good for tyre warming but not for brake temperature consistency. Using this set-up, the brakes could get too cold while the car navigates those long Baku straights.

The right-side set-up retains some of that hot air, meaning the inner surface of the rims won't reach as high a temperature but the brakes will stay at a more stable temperature. The initial bite from the brakes will therefore be better.

For final practice and qualifying Mercedes adopted the set-up that gave it the best brake cooling package, letting the tyres look after themselves.

FERRARI TRIES A NEW REAR WING

Ferrari ran a revised rear wing package during Friday practice in Baku. It is believed this design will been seen again at the next race in Austria.

The team then reverted to its Canada package for the rest of the Azerbaijan GP.

Compared to the package on the Red Bull, it is all very cluttered. With the twin wing mounts going to the wing's undersurface, my worry would be about airflow separation where the mounts meet the wing (below).

The blockage they cause is small but it can then spread to a much bigger area, reducing the efficiency of the complete rear wing assembly.

RENAULT PLAYS WITH UNDER-NOSE AIRFLOW

Renault tested a 'channel' style duct under the front of the nose/chassis interface on the RS17 on the Friday in Baku. This set-up was only tested on Nico Hulkenberg's car and was removed afterwards.

Optimising the extraction of the airflow in this area and introducing it to the bargeboards is vitally important to the overall performance of the front wing and underfloor, but it is also critical to what is called ground effect.

What works in the wind tunnel and in CFD doesn't always bring the same rewards when tested on the track, and to me this package looks a bit cluttered. The blockage created by too many bits can be detrimental to overall performance.