2006 Malaysian GP Technical Review

The second round of the 2006 championship was always going to be a test for the new V8 engines' durability. However, that test proved extra challenging in Malaysia, where the high temperatures and the demanding nature of the Sepang circuit meant the cars were already on the edge of reliability.

Bahrain, normally a weather-challenging race in itself, proved rather reliable for the teams and engines - which all the more put strain on the V8 engines that have arrived at steamy Sepang with half their lifespan already run.

Moreover, with the first two flyaway races taking place within a week, teams did not have the chance to test new parts, which means there was little development evident on the cars. Those changes that were seen in Sepang nonetheless, were either simple add-ons, or cooling related parts.

Flexible wings saga - part two

The controversy surrounding Ferrari's rear wing, which started in Bahrain, carried over into Sepang, and when television footage showed Ferrari's front wing flexing on the straights, the argument went into overdrive.

The Ferrari front wing uses a cascaded element above the main wing, and unlike the Renault interpretation, this wing runs from the endplate to the nose cone.

When the car built up speed, the wing could be seen to move away from the nose cone; the wings mounting on the nose cone consisted of a sliding pin placed towards the front edge of the wing.

The gap that was created at speed was not in itself an aerodynamic advantage. However, this gap did suggest the whole front wing was bending downwards at its tips. TV footage has shown that teams' wings deflect on the straights, so in some respects the fact that Ferrari's front wing bends is not controversial.

However, the upper wing's mount was not rigidly attached to the nose cone. This is explicitly outside of the rules, but it is not uncommon on other bodywork fixings, as the car's bodywork needs to retain a level of freedom of movement. Of course, the others teams' position was that the sliding mount and signs of movement meant Ferrari were gaining an aero advantage from deflecting bodywork.

Since the teams made an informal protest to the race stewards, the FIA delegates have examined other teams' wings, and BMW and McLaren - as well as Ferrari - have been asked to alter their wings for Australia.

Fundamental to the problem is the definition of flex (or deflection, as the FIA calls it). The technical regulations, and specifically article 3.15, require rigid unmovable bodywork (including wings). Then, article 3.17 goes on to define what degree of deflection is allowed for certain areas of the car.

In some respects, these two articles contradict each other, as the latter article implies that some degree of flexibility is allowed. This mismatch of rules is not uncommon and has been created purposely. The broader initial rule allows different interpretations to be applied by both the teams and the FIA, while the latter, detailed rule is generally there to foil previous rule dodges.

Teams may have their own interpretation of the broader rule, but as long as they don't contravene the letter of the detailed rule, their interpretation could be considered legal.

The various specific tests use very small loads to measure deflection, typically around 500N, which is only 50Kg. This is not a large load, considering an F1 car produces over 600Kg of downforce at around 70mph.

With even larger loads experienced by the wings at high speed, it is conceivable that a wing would meet the FIA deflection tests and still flex. Teams can - and do - use this flex to play with the wing's angle and slot gap to reduce drag on the straights, so the question remains, is this legal?

Reliability and technical issues

With the heat and long straights, teams were expected to suffer unreliability with their engine going into its second race. Only Giancarlo Fisichella and Jacques Villeneuve arrived in Sepang with new engines. (Fisichella did not have an engine failure in Bahrain, but his retirement allowed Renault to take the engine back to France for investigation into the lack of power it experienced in the race.)

Friday saw many teams managing their engine's mileage, and several teams refrained from running timed laps in the morning session, while most drivers ran fewer than ten laps in the afternoon. Teams with third drivers have the real advantage here, as the third car is fitted with a fresh engine, unconstrained by tyre allocation or engine replacement penalties.

The odd one out in these figures have been Super Aguri, who have regularly run plenty of laps to gather the track data other teams have built up over history.

Problems started for the Ferrari-powered teams even before the first race was over. Both Felipe Massa's Ferrari and David Coulthard's Red Bull were requested to stop on the cool down lap in Bahrain. Telemetry had highlighted a problem, and although it wouldn't prevent the cars from finishing the first race, the problem was serious enough for both drivers to change their engine with the ten-place penalty for Malaysia.

Then, over the opening days of the weekend, both Ferrari drivers experienced similar problems and were forced to change engines again.

It appears that the Ferrari engine has problems with cylinder sealing - the piston rings were allowing gas from the combustion chamber to pass down the cylinders, and this effect is easily detected by increasing pressure on the crankcase.

Crankcase pressure has been carefully monitored since the long-life engine rules were introduced two years ago; as it is a simple measure for wear in the cylinders.

It appears the Ferrari engines used a different specification to that used previously, and this specific combination created the premature wear and shouldn't be a problem to resolve.

The next engine failure was Ralf Schumacher's, whose Toyota engine spectacularly blew up in qualifying. Then, in the race, more blow-ups occurred for Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld, whose BMW failed in a similar manner to his teammate's engine in Bahrain.

Meanwhile, the other common reliability bugbear of hydraulics struck several drivers: Mark Webber, both Red Bulls and a strange clutch paddle failure for Scott Speed in the Toro Rosso.

Focus: Cooling

The Malaysian GP is one of the hottest races of the year; heat stress affects both car and driver. With ambient temperature up to 40 degrees and high humidity, the drivers suffer in the cockpit.

These temperatures - as well as a lap that punishes the engine at full throttle for over two thirds of its length - make huge demands on the car and engine.

If a team can keep the car and driver cool, then they have not only greater chances of finishing the race, but also finishing it well.

Taking the driver first, keeping him cool would appear to be an easy proposition. Yet he sits strapped inside a carbon fibre tub, dressed in layers of heavy Nomex fabric, and will be undergoing physical stress akin to two hours in the gym.

Added to this, he sits in an environment creating its own heat. On top of the engine behind, the cockpit houses several electronic control boxes, plus the hydraulically powered steering rack, just inches ahead of the driver's feet.

With the driver and his surroundings building up so much heat, he needs to have as much air as possible fed to him, to cool him down. Herein lies the problem: F1 cars are so aerodynamically focused that to open up ducts for cool air would cost some pace, plus the safety-critical monocoque can't be punched full of holes to let air in.

Cooling inlets are therefore limited to just two places: one hole in the tip of the nose, and sometimes a scoop in the access panels on top of the monocoque. The oval holes in the tip of the nose are very efficient at routing cool air into the cockpit, but the air still has to pass the hot steering rack, dampers and electronics before it reaches the driver.

Several teams use the scoop. Ferrari most commonly use it, but Renault have also raced it in Malaysia. The drivers' helmet also provides critical cooling just where the driver needs it: around his brain. Fortunately, the helmet sits in a good fast stream of air, but again structural limitations prevent too many openings in the shell to route cool air in.

Modern helmets have wind tunnel-developed ducts to feed air in and vent it back out. Usually there are two inlets: one on the forehead and chin bar area, and one exit on the rear of the crown.

Drivers also use cooling vests with chilled inserts, and they also take on fluids through a drinks system. A bag or bottle contains the teams' preferred rehydration drink (a mix of water, salts and sugars), and a pump drives the fluid through tubes in to the driver's mouth. A button marked "Drink" on the steering wheel powers this pump.

Next along the car are the variety of ECUs mounted at the front of the sidepods. As these are quite heavy and vulnerable units, they tend to be mounted low on the floor nestling against the inlet duct for the radiators. The ECUs are basically small computers, and they generate huge amounts of heat and need plenty of air routed past them. Their heat sinks often protrude into the radiators' inlet duct, and the front of the sidepod has small inlets to duct air to the ECU.

Of course, the car's main heat source is the engine, and it needs to be carefully cooled. Overheating not only costs power, but also causes irreparable damages to the aluminium block.

The engine is cooled by a large oil cooler in one sidepod, and another large water radiator in the other. Air is fed to these by the inlet at the front of the sidepods. The inlet duct uses large folded mesh grills to catch debris and prevent litter from blocking the inlet. Once the incoming air is heated by the radiator, it is vented back out through the usual sidepod's exits.

When a race is in unusually hot conditions, like Malaysia, if a team have been conservative in their sidepod design, then they may just need their usual range of chimneys and grills. Teams closer to the limit on cooling have to add more and more outlets, even cutting un-aerodynamic holes in the bodywork.

But adding cooling outlets add drag, and this slows the car around the lap, so the team will have to carefully balance the need to keep the car cool for reliability and still being able to lap fast.

At the very rear of the car, the gearbox and hydraulic systems need cooling, and both have their own coolers and small ducts set into the engine cover, to feed cool air to the gearbox and dampers.

Renault

Having been the fastest car at both opening races, the focus on the Renault R26 has revealed some details not seen on the car at its launch or even early testing. While the ear-like winglets over the pushrods (yellow) are developments from last year's car, the area around the front of the sidepods is all very new.

The bargeboards themselves are very similar to the R25's, but the undercut sidepod inlets form an L-shape not adopted elsewhere. While most other teams have made their inlets wider and higher, Renault pick up a lot of air that is running along the side of the monocoque.

Possibly to aid this, the chassis has grown a new bulge (yellow). This shallow bulge sits ahead of the point where the raised chassis meets the sidepods. The floor also features several extra fins to induce vortices into the flow under the car. One can be seen in front of the sidepod (yellow), and another one attaches to the side of the splitter under the car.

McLaren-Mercedes

McLaren have been very tight on cooling, so even with their chimney panels opened up with extra louvers, they have had to cut open one of the panels to let yet more air of the sidepods. As previously described, the compromise is that the open panel adds more drag to the car.

Ferrari

Raced in Bahrain and possibly as contentious as other details already discussed on the Ferrari, are the new rear wheel fairings. These simple rims of carbon fibre are bonded to the outer wheel rim for aerodynamic benefit.

However, rules were clarified in the 1990s to prevent flat wheel covers, as teams had started to experiment with them. The wording prevents wheels of composite (i.e. two different materials) construction. Their reappearance in Malaysia means that the FIA have allowed the simple hoops to be used.

Red Bull-Ferrari

A small detail added to the Red Bull was new fins over the front pushrods (yellow). Much like Ferrari and Toyota's devices, the fin shapes to the upwashed flow, from the front wing back down, flowing over the centre of the car.

Correspondingly, the fins point upwards as though they were there to create lift, but as with all aerodynamics, the whole effect is more important than the counter-intuitive design of just one part.

Super Aguri-Honda

After just one race, the quietly impressive Super Aguri team have produced a new front wing endplate (yellow). The previous design was a simple affair based on the Arrows design. The plate has been brought up to date with a wavy footplate and bowed vertical leading edge. This design of footplate improves the sealing between the wing and ground and also affects the flow around the front wheels.

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