The key technical developments from Australia

As the first grand prix of the season in a year of big regulation changes, there were always going to be plenty of new parts appearing in Australia.

The areas that feature the biggest development have been the front wings, bargeboards and diffusers. These are the areas where you get the biggest bang for your buck and therefore you get the biggest return, with the final optimising to come later.

Let's have a look at some of the technical themes on details on display in Melbourne this weekend.

BARGEBOARD DEVELOPMENTS

The idea of developing this area of the car is all well and good, but - as I said when the car was launched - I would be very careful if I was implementing too many changes around the Ferrari bargeboard area.

It's a very complicated design and one little slip up could cost you far more than you might think you were going to gain. But that's the area where Ferrari has carried out some subtle mods.

Is this the reason Ferrari has lost some ground to Mercedes compared to its pace in testing? You can be sure the head scratching will have begun.

In comparison to the Ferrari, the Mercedes (above) is very complicated in detail, but much simpler in overall component concept. By that, I mean that each component individually is doing a lot more but there are fewer components in total.

One of Mercedes' new additions is this 'boomerang' wing section (appropriate for Australia) coming out of the side of the chassis.

This will pick up the airflow that is coming off the front wing, and going in between the chassis and the front tyre, and the airflow coming over the front tyre and help blend them together.

This will give the sidepod leading edge components a more consistent airflow regime, and in turn allow the components on that edge to work more efficiently.

The vertical, three-element sidepod leading edge turning vane again allows the component to work harder without the risk of airflow separation, especially with varying steering lock.

The detail on the Mercedes' lower underfloor leading edge components is second-to-none. Again, all of these small components and their vortex-inducing section changes improve the performance of the leading edge of the underfloor.

FRONT WING COMPARISON

Front wings are an area that can dictate the car's overall performance, as the airflow coming off the trailing edge is what the rest of the car is left to work with.

Last year, the inboard ends of the flaps and the intersection between the central and very simple FIA-defined section of the front wing and the outer section the teams can work on was very important. This area's main function was to induce a very strong vortex that helped with the performance of the underfloor.

This year, it is more important that the airflow coming off that area of the wing is more sympathetic to the performance of the bargeboard area. So diffusing the pressure differential between the upper and lower surfaces of the flaps is the challenge.

Looking at the three top teams and how they go about things shows there is more than one way to skin a rabbit.

Mercedes has a fairly simple concept. It has a main plane and three flaps with the ends twisted downwards, similar to last year but not quite as aggressive.

Red Bull has gone the other way and twisted the inner end of the flaps upwards to reduce the load they will produce. Doing that reduces the wake off this part of the front wing.

Ferrari is more similar to Mercedes, but it has a more three-dimensional flap trailing edge as well as an extra flap element.

Consistency of airflow coming off the trailing edge of this area of the wing is what is required. As with most areas of the Mercedes, it just looks more at one with everything else around it.

The team really does push the limits on slot gaps in other areas to achieve consistency, so I can only assume that it has achieved that consistency in this area without being overcomplicated.

WILLIAMS FRONT WING DETAIL

Williams ran a modified version of its testing front wing outboard section in Melbourne. This is an important area of development because the area of the front wing ahead of the front tyre is one of the most complicated sections on a current F1 car. There are more components in this area all doing different things, but they end up working as one system.

The objective of all this is to minimise the effect the front tyre has on the front wing and unfloor performance. And it has to achieve this with varying steering lock

Car performance is not as important when you are going down the straight as it is when you are mid-corner and pulling 4g or more.

This area of the wing works to turn the airflow around the outside of the front tyre. If this can be achieved, the disturbance to the airflow will then, in turn, be pulled into the low pressure area behind the front tyre.

That means the airflow disruption from the tyre will be minimised, allowing the front wing and underfloor to perform at its best.

This is what the Williams design is aiming to do even better than before.

RENAULT REAR WING MOUNTING

The FIA was not happy with the way the Renault team had mounted the rear wing in pre-season testing.

The rules say the DRS actuator has to be an add-on device to the rear wing, which is mounted separately. But Renault had the wing mount and the DRS actuator as more or less one component with the rear wing hung underneath.

For Melbourne, Renault had to separate these two. As can be seen in the main picture, the DRS actuator is now mounted above the actual wing mounting structure.
In my opinion it's a lot of fuss about nothing. But as they say, rules are rules.

HAAS T-WING

T-wings were the talk of the town in Melbourne, with the FIA saying they are likely to be outlawed for 2018. But that came a little early for Haas when it had to remove its T-wings after the first free practice session.

It was no surprise, as the T-wing was moving around a lot during Barcelona testing, so I don't understand why this wasn't done earlier.

When you have a small component like this and it is moving around, it will be detrimental to the overall performance. So stiffness is vitally important.

Haas was able to modify it on Saturday and Roman Grosjean was able to put it to good use to line up sixth on the grid. That's a great achievement for a team just going into its second season.

To achieve the modifation, a carbon-fibre strip has been glued to either side of the shark fin - you can see the diagonal line running up the shark fin to the base of the T-wing. This reduces the lateral movement of the T-wing.

DIFFUSER COMPARISON

With the new diffuser regulations and the wider tyres, the cars certainly look a lot better from behind. But looks aren't everything, it's function that counts. In this area, I believe Mercedes (above) is a step ahead.

Mercedes has worked very hard in making the low pressure area behind the rear tyres connect up to the trailing edge of the diffuser.

In effect this gives the diffuser more extraction capacity, meaning that the airflow under the car is travelling faster to fill that void.

When it does this, it creates a lower pressure under the massive flat floor area and creates more downforce overall.

The slot gaps on the outer vertical walls of the diffuser clearly show Mercedes is inducing a huge turning moment in the airflow. These slot gaps are needed to keep the airflow attached to the surface.

The same view of the Red Bull (above) shows that it is nowhere near as aggressive with the diffuser in this area. The Toro Rosso (below) is very similar to Red Bull, as is the Ferrari.

It is not just about changing the design in this part of the car, it is about how the airflow is arriving in this area.

This could mean new rear brake ducts and changes to the bargeboard area, so it's not the development of a moment.