F1 tech: Updates make Mercedes even faster

Almost unnoticed amid the driver transfer news, concerns over the weather, and ultimately a dark day for Formula 1 on Sunday, Suzuka was the venue for teams to introduce their late-season technical upgrades.

Even with the constructors' championship all-but won, and only a tiny chance of Daniel Ricciardo getting involved in the fight between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes still went to Japan with a far-reaching aero update.

It introduced new sidepods, floor and other small aero detail changes.

The Mercedes sidepod and floor was a new design that worked together. The slightly tighter coke-bottle tail to the sidepods provided more airflow to revised diffuser.

A feature of the W05 all season has been the U-shaped outlet in the centre of the diffuser. This provides both an aero effect and allows better access for the external starter motor.

This year, the starter motor hole has to be closed and many teams found the flapped or hinged opening disturbed the airflow.

By removing this U-shape section, more of the diffuser can be given up to downforce production, aided by the better airflow from the sidepods.

But some of the aero stability provided by the U-section is lost, so the car's handling may be more sensitive.

As the centre section of the diffuser is now more aggressive, the team has fitted a row of tiny vortex generators under the diffuser. These keep the airflow coming off the plank and underfloor attached as it expands inside the diffuser.

Further up the floor, the detailing around the lower leading edge of the sidepods is also new.

This is the third iteration of bodywork in this area. What used to be a vertical sidepod vane aided by both a large and small bargeboard is now a vertical vane linked to a single bargeboard.

The freeing up of the axe-shaped floor section from this bodywork has allowed the team to fit a flap over the flick in the floor.

These curled sections of floor edge are used to take the airflow parting over the T-tray splitter and redirect it along the edge of the floor.

This acts both as a seal to the floor and to send higher energy airflow to the diffuser. This flap over the flick-up serves to enhance these vortices.

A tiny detail on the W05 was the addition of a small slot in the base of the r-shaped vanes on the front wing.

Although an inconspicuous change, this probably all adds to the complex flow structures passing along the flanks of the car, starting at the front wing and all working towards better airflow through the diffuser.

TORO ROSSO

Toro Rosso finally had its new nose certified to race after passing its crash tests.

With most of the STR9 having been upgraded through the year, including an early season switch in nose shape, it's surprising the team has invested in a major new nose design.

For Suzuka, the car had a nose similar overall to the design raced much of this season, but with Red Bull 'inspired' details such as a keel nose tip and an s-duct managing airflow around the chassis.

Although a development from the Toro Rosso design department, the resemblance in concept to Red Bull is surprising.

The finger section forming the tip is now very thin. The legality section, that has to be 9000mm squared, is simply a pod-like 'keel' (as Adrian Newey described it).

It's this slender section that makes such big demands on crash testing and it's suggested that the delay in its introduction is because it has only now passed and certified the crash tests.

Also much like the RB10, the keel pod has an open front section; this is nominally the 'driver cooling' slot, more often an oval opening on the front of the teams' noses.

In the case of Toro Rosso and Red Bull, this relieves the pressure build up on the tip of the nose, the air simply venting inside the nose and out through the cockpit.

Not immediately visible is the addition of an s-duct inside the nose. This has been a Red Bull feature for several years; a forward-facing slot under the nose feeds a duct that redirects the airflow out through a rear facing slot above the nose.

This has not been a feature of the STR9 this year, but has been quite simple to integrate into its design as the top of the chassis already has a scalloped section for the duct's outlet to vent through.

This new nose is mated to a front wing based on a version first seen in Austria, with a more complex slotted main wing and wider cascade winglets.

At the far end of the car, there was another new version of the monkey seat.

A far smaller, two-element winglet has been fitted above the exhaust outlet.

Somewhat triangular in shape, the smaller pointed rear flap element mounts the larger forward element with small mounts and no endplate.

This is to collect up the exhaust plume and adds to the upwash passing under the rear wing for reduced disruption to the air flow under the rear wing.

FERRARI

Aside from aero testing and a trial using the old two-pillar rear wing mount, Ferrari also briefly tried a new front wing in free practice.

Only one view of the new design has been seen, but the wing is notable for the Red Bull-style front flap adjuster, which sits in a teardrop shaped housing above the wing.

The wing's trailing edge also features a cut out, perhaps to send more flow to the front brake ducts for upcoming races?

WILLIAMS

Although Williams announced a major aero package, the team hasn't detailed its exact composition.

What was evident on the FW36 this weekend was a much tighter rear bodywork shape.

The sidepods sweep down and tuck in far closer to the mechanicals around the rear of the car.

Such is the shrink-wrapping effect that a blister is required to clear the engine/gearbox mounting. The Mercedes car had similar bumps on the rear earlier this year.

This mounting point has been problematic from an aero point of view for many teams.

As the engine's front and rear mounting points are now defined by the rules, not the designers, the particularly high rear mounting point gets in the way for many teams.

McLAREN

With the focus being on the new Honda engined 2015 project, the MP4-29 ran the revised diffuser and brake ducts seen in Singapore.

FORCE INDIA

Much like McLaren, Force India ran its Singapore front wing endplate update, working with the revised rear brake ducts and diffuser.

SAUBER

Because of the heat, Sauber did not race its slimmer top rear bodywork in Singapore. But the design was back in use in Japan.

The usual, more bulbous, engine cover with its cooling inlet was switched for the slimmer design with the more apparent shark fin in its spine.

CATERHAM

After a tumultuous week, the race team was able to get its long-anticipated front wing onto the car for Friday practice.

This wing is a completely new design, sharing no geometry from the team's usual two front wing set-ups.

Mated to the new nose cone, the wing forms a full four-element design. With the aerofoil shaping starting right from the junction with the neutral centre wing section.

Only the rearmost flap is adjustable for angle, allowing for finer adjustments.

Both the rear flap and one of the intermediate flaps are split to form six elements along the harder worked wing tip.

The main front wing is allied to a revised cascade winglet, a large curved three element design, with a further twisted element sitting above it.

The wing also retains the old wing's concepts of an r-shaped vane mounted inboard of the cascade winglet and further vane behind it.

No doubt the new design brings more downforce, but also different airflow structure along the flanks of the car; these probably aid the revised bodywork first seen at Spa.

PREPARING FOR 2015

A lot of the Friday practice time was also dedicated to gathering aero data for 2015.

There will be few major rules changes for 2015. The nose regulations have been changed to remove the finger tipped noses of this year.

Otherwise, the biggest changes to the cars from this year to the next will be the engine supplier change in layout and the teams' responses to what they've learned this year.

Many teams fitted aero sensors and rakes around their car for the aero and design departments to gather hard data to put into the process for the early 2015 testing-spec bodywork.

One particularly interesting solution was Ferrari, which not only equipped the car with pitot air-speed sensors of the rear wing, but also one low down on the centre section of the front wing.

This is important as the rules next year will place far more of the nose quite low over the front wing. This is because the rules demand both longer and larger nose tips.

Understanding the airflow over the front wing centre section may go towards the possibility of gaining an aero benefit from shaping the nose over the front wing.