Engine oddities and aero tweaks at Suzuka

At Suzuka, the major topic of discussion surrounding Mercedes remains last Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix engine failure for Lewis Hamilton.

We are three years into the current engine regulations and major blow-ups are rare.

Mercedes has confirmed what appeared likely from the way the engine blew up on the Sepang circuit's main straight - that it was a bottom end failure, specifically a big-end bearing failure.

As yet, it has not identified the root cause, but it has unceremoniously dismissed any conspiracy theory nonsense, bearing in mind the effort Mercedes put in at the Belgian GP to stockpile three new engines for Hamilton.

As Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe explained at Suzuka on Friday, the motor was 'new' having only installation mileage before being fitted for Sepang.

The failure came after only 600km or so of running. This puts the engine well under the expected maximum mileage, and beyond the point where 'infant' failures occur on new motors.

Lowe confirmed nothing appeared untoward at the point of failure, so the motor wasn't being pushed hard, it showed no signs of no oil leaks, reduced oil pressure (except for the sudden loss at Turn 15 at the point at which the engine went) or high temperatures.

Presumably this also negates any potential influence from kerbing or strikes from below the car, which may have affected the bottom end of the engine.

So it seems there were no obvious external factors contributing to the failure. In response, Mercedes has opted to run all its engines in a slightly different way this weekend, to safeguard against the recurrence of that failure.

FERRARI RE-VISITS FRONT AERO TWEAKS

Having tested new under-nose aero parts in Sepang (turning vanes, bat wing and splitter), but not raced everything that was tried, the package returned for more mileage at Suzuka.

This time, the nose has been subtly revised. In fact, the changes were to the front wing mounting pylons with parts bonded onto the crash structure forming the nose, which allowed the changes to be made without needing to re-pass the crash test.

All of these parts form a chain of aero surfaces under the raised chassis along the Y250 axis - so-called as it is 250mm from the car's centerline.

The airflow affected by the front wing pylons also affects the turning vanes, then the bat wing and splitter vanes.

The whole flow structure is gradually built up by this package of parts. These part the airflow around the car and keep the front tyre turbulence away from the central bodywork.

Development in this area is critical at this time of year, not so much for performance improvement in 2016, but for when the whole bargeboard/turning vane area is opened up by the 2017 regulations.

Ferrari proving its concepts work now give it confidence that the 2017 parts should work equally well.

SAUBER REVISES NEW AERO PACKAGE

Increased investment from is new owners allows Sauber to continue developing the C35.

The team made only subtle changes to the car for Suzuka, but these small parts can be very influential on overall airflow and performance.

This new package consists of revised a splitter, bargeboards and outer floor edges.

As with the Ferrari update, these are a collection of parts that work in unison with each other.

Part of the complex airflow that forms under the raised chassis is where it meets the sidepods and is split to pass under the front of the floor.

Some of the flow under the floor gets kicked up by the outer floor edges and passes along above the floor, increasing downforce.

In detail, the Sauber package starts with a revised leading edge to the splitter, with little vanes added above.

Then the bargeboards feature deeper vertical slots to tailor the airflow.

Lastly, the floor edges are reshaped with more aggressive curled up edges.

RENAULT'S DETAIL WORK

Renault's Bob Bell admitted much of the current progress made by Renault with its RS16 chassis has come from race engineering, rather than new parts fitted to the car.

Nonetheless, some small changes have been added over the past few races, and yet more details have been added this weekend.

Showing the adaptability of large complex parts such as the floor, Renault has been able to change the area around the rear tyre without resorting to a completely new component.

A crucial part of the airflow around the floor concerns how the air approaches the rear tyre. In days gone by, the turbulence from the rear tyre was deterred from upsetting the diffuser by blowing exhaust gasses at the gap between them.

With the exhaust-blown effect removed for 2014, teams have increasingly added more complexity to this area to replicate a lesser and unblown version of the same dynamic. This can consist of the floor edge shape, the slots moulded into it and the vanes fitted ahead of the tyre.

In Japan, the floor area of the Renault has reshaped slots ahead of the rear wheel, in the metal inserts moulded into the edge around the tyre.

This is preceded by a new arrangement of vanes focusing the airflow on the diffuser/tyre gap.

The aim with this is not simply to maximise the blown effect between tyre and diffuser, but also to make sure it's consistent, as this will make the car's handling more predictable.

FIA'S TOKEN GESTURE TO HONDA

In an unusual series of events, the FIA repaid one of the tokens spent in Malaysia by Honda.

As explained in Malaysia, the new Honda V6 featured a revised engine block, partly to deal with reliability issues.

Although Honda devoted two tokens to the upgrade, the FIA felt that, as the change was made on reliability grounds, the usual process to allow reliability upgrades could be invoked.

As a result, one token has been credited back to Honda, leaving it two to use before the end of the season.

They are unlikely to be used, however, as any new parts would result in further grid penalties.