Austria a key race for tech upgrades

The Red Bull Ring has plenty in common with the previous grand prix venue in Montreal - both power tracks demanding heavy braking and good traction, with similar weather and the same tyre compounds.

As the tracks are so similar in nature, many of the developments seen in Canada are also on the cars for this race.

However, with the Red Bull Ring being a European track close to the teams' bases, and immediately preceding the 'aero' tracks of Silverstone, Hungaroring and Spa, this is a key race for technical updates and some teams have brought major packages.

WILLIAMS

A major update has been added to the Williams, including significant changes to the rear wing, diffuser, brake ducts and turning vanes.

The rear wing is all-new, from the more rectangular endplates with large vertical slits to the upper wing profile with a V-shaped cut-out in the trailing edge.

Below this, a revised diffuser now sports large flicks on its outer corners, similar to the small winglets Ferrari has added in this area.

Directing the flow toward these parts are new bargeboards alongside the cockpit. These appear similar to the previous design with three vertical slots along the top edge, but the board's leading edge is now slanted backwards. The extending mounting bracket reaching back to the bargeboard shows the amount the edge has moved.

These changes all work in unison and the whole flow structure under and around the car is changed with these new parts. After being fitted only to Valtteri Bottas's car in practice one, they were applied to both cars from second practice.

McLAREN

A stressful few days for McLaren culminated in the team finally running its major aero update on Fernando Alonso's car for practice two.

This update was primarily formed of the new Williams-like short nose, revised front wing, new floor and diffuser.

Fundamental to this upgrade was the new short nose, which necessitated crash test certification to be allowed to run.

While the nose passed the crash test, there was a discrepancy within the process, which for a while prevented the new nose being passed as safe to take to the track.

It appears the nose was crash-tested with a lighter chassis than that run in Austria, as the test demands the nose is fitted to a complete monocoque to pass the various load and impact tests.

The FIA takes the monocoque's weight as a key indicator of a change in specification, thus too great a difference could have required separate crash-testing with the current tub.

However, McLaren was able to prove the integrity of its latest design to the FIA, and with this resolved the nose was finally fitted to the updated MP4-30.

Having a shorter nose allows cleaner airflow to pass towards the rear of the car. Longer noses are easier to crash test and can also have a beneficial aero effect on front downforce.

The new nose is about as short as the regulations allow. This slims the nose's frontal profile into the distinctive T-shape, with a thumb-like tip and then a wide flat tip 100mm behind it.

Below this the front wing was revised, though it is visibly similar to the old front wing. Like many teams McLaren has taken this opportunity to alter the way the adjustable flap adjusts and pivots. There is now a far larger adjustment mechanism halfway along the flap.

Arriving at the track at the last minute, the floor and diffuser are new. Notably different and unique are the slots in the floor ahead of the rear wheels.

Rather than a single L-shaped slot as is common on many cars, McLaren has quadrupled the slots, with two smaller L-shape slots side by side ahead of the rear tyre, and two straight slots side by side ahead of those.

Meanwhile the diffuser's profile appears to be squarer at the outer edges, maximising the width available for more downforce.

TORO ROSSO

Toro Rosso has quietly gone about adding a huge update to its car, although the results are hard to spot.

The STR10 features a new front wing, revised brake ducts and new rear suspension fairings. Even the rear wheel design is new.

The front wing is all-new, although it follows the same concept and general shape as the old wing.

Some of these changes may be related to the FIA deflection test introduced in Canada. A change to the slot gap supports and flap angle adjuster suggests this is the case.

Also barely visible are changes to the vanes on the endplates, which end with a slightly different shape. There may also be structural changes hidden beneath the skin, which will also assist in meeting the requirements of the FIA test.

At the rear, the lower wishbone has been reshaped to create a conjoined shape, much akin to that used by Mercedes on its front wishbone.

A large portion of the 'V' formed by the rear wishbone is now a single teardrop profile, to direct the airflow over the diffuser.

This is a new innovation. Although the rear wishbone and trackrod are often shaped to smooth airflow over the driveshaft, no other teams have adopted this merged shape.

MERCEDES

Mercedes continues to dominate the field with the W06 and it brought just a few small updates to the Red Bull Ring.

The only noticeable change is to the rear bodywork. With slimmer bodywork introduced in Canada, the coke bottle area has also been shrunk.

The cooling outlet at the very tail of the sidepods is now slimmer, a change that exposes the vane that sprouts from the sidepod down to the floor.

This alteration requires careful research and development work to ensure the car can still be cooled adequately while gaining the aero advantage of reduced rear bodywork.

One personal change for Nico Rosberg was a new seat moulding. This revised seat (labelled a 'Mk2' version) differs subtly from the Mk1 version. Being a prototype, the seat did not have heat reflective coating and foil added to the carbon fibre exterior.

Visually the seat appears to place the driver lower in the car, with an open base so that he sits on the floor and not in the seat.

We have heard several times Lewis Hamilton complaining of a hot seat over the radio. While there are electronic boxes inside the cockpit and some heat may conduct through the tub from the underfloor grounding on the track, it transpires that the most common problem is the low-pressure region inside the cockpit drawing hot air in from the sidepods.

The team told AUTOSPORT it tries to plug any gaps with sealant when the driver complains.

RED BULL

As Canada proved, Red Bull is at a disadvantage with both the chassis and the down-on-power Renault engine at fast tracks, thus Austria is proving another tough weekend for the team.

With this handicap, it is opting to take engine penalties and use the fifth allocations of power unit elements.

Because of the power deficit Red Bull is running even smaller rear wings than it ran in Canada, with a far shallower profile, some 25-50mm less than in Montreal, to reduce drag.

This angle change required alterations to the endplate, which features less louvers in its side.

Other technical updates appear to mainly concern the revised front wing cascade set-up, which is now following the most common format of a winglet and an R-shaped vane. Previously Red Bull used a similar winglet but attached a secondary smaller winglet to it.

These parts are not used to create downforce directly, but create vortices to manage the front tyre wake, which improves the efficiency of the aerodynamics at the back of the car.

FERRARI

Running its new specification engine and aerodynamics from Canada, the SF15-T features nothing more than a few detail updates, such as the fences on the floor and splitter, for Austria.

FORCE INDIA

There were no aerodynamic changes to the car for Austria, but after a long wait the fruits of the aero programme in the Toyota windtunnel in Cologne will be ready for testing next week.

The team has been adding small aero updates and under the skin mechanical updates during the year, such as the hydro-mechanical suspension set-up.

It's not clear if every major aero surface is to be revised, but the update is different enough for the monocoque to need modification to fit some of the new panels.

This is not a structural change that requires crash certification. Teams often bond cosmetic panels onto the tub, to form part of the bodywork. This allows them to change the external shape without the expense of new monocoques and crash tests.

Some of the new update will be on the car in testing after the Austrian race, but it will require the tub modifications to be complete before the full update is seen in Britain.