How teams are chasing more downforce

Singapore marks a key point in the Formula 1 calendar. With the low-drag races out of the way, and now beginning the end-of-season flyaway leg of the championship, the remaining races are at medium-high downforce tracks, and from now on the cars do not return to the factories.

So Marina Bay is a key place to try new parts in anticipation of the upcoming races. Nearly every team has updates for this weekend. Some parts seen in free practice may not be raced, but will re-appear at the subsequent races on permanent tracks.

This street race is obviously a high downforce track, with a strong emphasis on brakes. It's not that the brakes are worked especially hard in comparison to other tracks, but repeated use, without long straights or a cool climate, increases the pressure from overheating.

McLAREN

As the last track remaining on the calendar with low power sensitivity, McLaren is expecting a more competitive weekend in Singapore, and its car appeared with several updates front to rear.

Reverting to its short nose set up, after the old long nose made a reappearance in Italy, the McLaren has several changes bonded on the underlying crash structure, with new wing mounting pillars and camera mountings.

Now more twisted, the wing mounts tuck in underneath the nose, in a manner similar to Red Bull's nose. This makes the pillars act more like turning vanes. The camera pod mounts were also altered, now lower and mounting to the nose with two teardrop profile mounts, rather than one larger mount the same profile as the camera pod itself.

Air can now pass in between the mounts, to keep airflow attached to the nose downstream of the mounting.

Both of these changes lead on to other tweaks, with new under-nose turning vanes having a complete reworking of the old three-element set up. The bargeboards ahead of the sidepods also gained a tiny vane at floor level. A design seen previously on the Ferrari, the vane directs airflow under the outer corner of the floor's leading edge.

The front wing revisions are difficult to spot. Although it's a not a completely new wing as expected, the old wing's endplates have gained flicks to both the outside and inside of the endplate.

These changes are aimed at setting up the airflow off the front end around the front tyres to the rear of the car and the Hungary-spec slim-line sidepods.

SAUBER

Sauber introduced the biggest update of the weekend, with major aero and structural changes finally making it onto the C34.

Most obvious is the new short nose and the front wing, but the turning vanes, brake ducts, splitter, sidepods, rear wing and diffuser are also changed. The lack of regulation changes for next year mean these parts will carry over into 2016.

Starting at the front, the nose has been shortened to pretty much the limit of the rules, resulting in a Williams-like short thumb-tipped crash structure. Recalling that the original 2015 Sauber nose was a reworking of its 2014 design, this is a significant change in both aerodynamics and structure.

Mated to the nose is a revised version of the China-specification wing. This wing has been tested throughout the year, but never raced and now reappears in a heavily revised form, enough to be considered a new wing.

Designed very early on in the C34 programme, the China-spec wing was not working as anticipated, doubly so because of a lack of associated aero parts not being fitted further down the car, and also because of questions over its design in the Y250 area - the crucial area of front wing design that dictates how the front wheels interact with air flow over the car.

This crucial flow structure starts where the outer wingspan meets the FIA neutral centre section. Vortices created at this junction are aided by the under-nose turning vanes, and the resulting flow pushes the front tyre wake away from the rest of the car.

So the shape of the front wing in this area is critical to the car's overall aerodynamic performance. Thus the new front wing reworks this area, with the wing's slots stopping clear of this region and the inner ends of the flaps joined together. This is all to create a stronger Y250 vortice.

The other major change is the floor, starting at the T-tray splitter, which reverts to an old Sauber format of side vane. It no longer features open sides and vane - the splitter edges are now formed by a U-shape venturi, used to direct airflow under the floor.

At the back of the car, the revised diffuser no longer sports the U-shaped dip in the middle. Instead a cleaner ramp sweeps up under the rear crash structure.

Aiding this altered airflow is a new monkey seat winglet, with a more curved shape.

MERCEDES

Mercedes was one of the few exceptions to the rule in Singapore, as the W06 was apparently unchanged in specification.

The only discernible difference was the return of the large six-element monkey seat winglet.

Under the skin, the Monza engine problems for Rosberg mean he has taken his fourth power unit for this race, although the new spec unit that sprung a water leak in Italy is expected to return to service at Suzuka.

FERRARI

Returning to the stepped sidepod shape and conventional front wing after the low drag races, Ferrari has further updated the SF15-T with a couple of small changes.

Firstly, the rear impact structure gained two new fins, similar to those Mercedes has in the same place. The L-shaped flicks appear to be part of an incomplete wing, but as Mercedes has proved, they are aerodynamic devices in their own right and do not have other parts subsequently fitted to them.

Ferrari also tried a new floor design on Friday. In the area ahead of the rear tyre, the usual three-slot set up was replaced with a series of nine slots.

These direct high pressure from above the floor to the area just inside the rear tyre. This airflow is used to offset an unwanted aerodynamic effect known as 'tyre squirt', where the air spilling off the tyre goes sideways into the diffuser, upsetting its performance.

RED BULL

Surprisingly subtle in its updates at Singapore, Red Bull largely continued to switch between front turning vane and S-duct formats, work the team also carried out at Monza.

Comparing the two turning vane specs, the Singapore vanes are more curved from top to bottom, whereas the older set up is straighter with a small radius joining them to the chassis.

Otherwise, the three-vane set up was essentially the same.

WILLIAMS

Another team with new under-chassis turning vanes, the Williams design was completely new.

The FW37 used to have quite small, near vertical vanes hanging below the front suspension, the set up being split into two elements.

Now there are three vanes joined to a common foot section, each vane curving tightly before joining the footplate.

Williams also tested with flow-vis paint on two specs of front wing in free practice, although both appeared to be similar to those already seen at previous races.

But the test may suggest some small geometry changes were made to these existing designs.

FORCE INDIA

Force India brought the final tranche of updates to the B-spec VJM08 for Singapore, the car now gaining a new floor and monkey seat.

These changes are mainly in the diffuser area, with the centre section being worked much harder, evidenced by the large vertical flap above the diffuser wrapped around the rear impact structure.

As with Sauber, this upwash is aided by a new monkey seat, now mounted cantilever style from the rear wing pillar, rather than mounted by endplates to the crash structure.

TORO ROSSO

Smaller changes went on at Toro Rosso, with a new cascade winglet set up on the front wing.

The old Red Bull-style cascades, with a wide winglet mated to an inboard two-element vane, have been replaced with a narrower winglet joined to a large curved vane.

This vane is quite extreme in its rounded shaping and not something we have seen before.

LOTUS

Lotus had no new parts for this weekend. The sole version of its new front wing continued to be tested and several flow-vis runs were conducted.

One small specific alteration is a change of brake material for Romain Grosjean, who has now switched to using Carbon Industrie instead of Brembo.

MANOR

Following on from its Silverstone update, Manor arrived in Singapore with a revised front wing and rear brake ducts.

Although not a completely new front wing, there have been changes to the flap and the endplate.

Now the endplate curves outwards and does not connect at its rear to the flap.

The resulting gap is worked on by a flick added inside the endplate vane, while the outer section of flap also gains an extra slot.

These changes will influence the airflow around the front tyres, preventing the tyre wake being pulled in between the rear wheels.