2007 Spanish GP Technical Review

Formula One returned to race action last weekend in Spain after a rare four week break. Despite the long gap, the break was only punctuated by a single test at Barcelona, however it allowed the factories the chance to develop more parts than usual. As a result, every team had developments on their cars in Barcelona - and many of the changes were major.

The Circuit de Catalunya is a good test of the cars in many areas, particularly aerodynamics, as well as braking, traction and cooling. Following changes to the circuit since last year, the track now features a chicane to interrupt the last turn onto the main straight.

This corner used to be the final challenge to the left front tyre, after a lap which already includes several long corners. Now, the cars brake heavily to thread through kerbs before accelerating along the start-finish straight.

With the test preceding the race allowing the teams to run new parts, the teams were able to make revisions based on their experiences with the new tyres over the opening three races. Also, with two of the hottest races out of the way, teams were able to improve aerodynamic efficiency by reducing their cooling outlets and sidepod sizes. Any team with problems in Spain will now be hard-pressed to catch up, considering the run of races prior to the next break in August.

General Trends

Tyres

For Barcelona, Bridgestone brought the medium and hard compounds from the usual range. Despite relatively cool weather, the track's abrasive surface and long corners take a greater toll on tyres than most other circuits. Unlike recent races, the performance deficit between the tyres compounds was smaller.

Everyone except Scott Speed started on the medium tyre, while Alonso was alone in trying the harder tyre for the middle stint in order run for longer to make up for the time lost at the start. During the race the surface conditions were changing, and many teams struggled with consistency - particularly McLaren, who despite being able to match Ferrari for pace, have not yet found mid-race stability from their tyres.

Flexible Floors

It seems the ongoing saga of how teams choose to mount the forward part of their floor has now ended; the FIA having introduced an even more stringent deflection test for the floor. When the cars are bolted to the scrutineering rig, the floor is now pushed up by a load four times greater than that used in the past.

This 2000N (effectively 200kg) load is nearing the static load on the front axle, which is around 270-290kg. At this level the test is almost able to lift the car from the tip of the floor, which effectively stops any team trying flex the floor for aero or set-up benefits.

Most teams were obliged to the change the design of their floor, both to accept the new load, and to remove any sprung mechanisms used previously. However, they have been allowed to engineer a deformable mount to absorb any unexpected impacts. This will protect the floor from kerbing, but will not allow repeated punishment from running low ride heights.

Team by Team

Renault

Coming from the disappointing opening races, Renault appeared with the some new aero parts for Spain. Mainly focused around the engine cover, the coke bottle shape has been shrunk even further, and now undercuts the exhausts to the extent that the fairings around the protruding pipes are moulded into an oval periscope shape, rather than simple U-shape extending from the line of the engine cover.

Allied to the slimmer cover was a shelf wing mounted ahead of the rear wheels - a solution not used by the team since 2005. Overall, these changes point to a drive for rear downforce/aero efficiency, as both the new wing and sidepods will improve flow over the diffuser and to the rear wing.

Ferrari

Regardless of their pace over the rest of the field, Ferrari probably made more changes to their car than any other team. The visual changes, were directed mainly at the sidepods and the turning vanes although mechanical changes, including some to the cooling system, were rumoured.

What has driven Ferrari to make these changes has been the course of debate. Many feel that the changes were a reaction to finding that their cooling was inadequate, compromising aerodynamic efficiency.

The more likely scenario is that Ferrari released the F2007 in the knowledge that it should be both fast and reliable enough, while other teams may struggle with the new tyres and new car reliability issues.

Thus, they were somewhat conservative with the design of the car in certain areas. The sidepod package in particular was largely carried over from the F248. As the opening flyaway races were going to be hot, the team compromised some pace for the reliability of a known cooling package.

The time saved on developing a new aero package for the opening races could be better spent learning how the keel-less car and new-shaped tyres perform. Hence, now the car is back in Europe with circuits less focused on cooling and reliability, the bigger aero step could be introduced.

The revisions on the car start from the front wing and continue all the way back to the rear of the car, but the bulk of the them revolve around the front of the sidepods. These have now been squared off by removing the shapely extensions where the sidepod meets the monocoque. Overall the sidepods remain a similar length.

Outboard of this is a slightly revised pod wing and further back are revised cooling slots, although it seems the radiators remain in the size and position.

One area that has changed is the engine cover; this now has a taller fin bonded to it, similar in shape to BMW's. The curved extension makes the cover taller than the 'toblerone' rule demands, and is used to improve the cars yaw performance as the fin both resists yaw from its greater surface area and redirects the flow the rear wing when the car is yawed to maintain downforce.

Also different is the exit at the rear of the engine cover. This was initially open to vent the hydraulic fluid cooler (fed by an extra duct over the air box), but has now been closed off.

One small detail added to the rear of the car has been the addition of a Toyota-like pyramid hump on the rear crash structure ahead of the rear wing.

But the front of the car has not been ignored, with the bi-plane element on the front wing receiving two small fences to its underside. Additionally, the horizontal sections of the front bargeboards now wear endplates.

Mechanically, the rear suspension has been revised, as the team have been able to alter its geometry to better manage the rear tyres. In the opening races Ferrari appeared to be very gentle on the rears, perhaps to the point where they were losing performance by not working them hard enough.

All of these highly visual changes appear to have maintained Ferrari's small advantage over McLaren in outright pace, rather than extended it - although the improvements to the cooling proved themselves when the cars were able to idle at the end of the pit lane for a few minutes while queued up behind Hamilton's car for the start of Q3.

McLaren

After Bahrain, McLaren tested at the main Barcelona test, but also at an earlier private session at an airstrip in Menorca. The private test is allowed under the testing agreement as the actual mileage covered in a straight-line test is much lower, and also because the tyres are not so critical in the process.

Once McLaren started running in Barcelona, the reason for the private aero test was clear - to introduce the highly different bridge wing. Although the new bi-plane element spanning the entire front wing has not been tried before, the idea makes sense for McLaren in terms of packaging.

Most teams are moving towards the extra element across the front wing, rather than the cascades moulded into the endplates which were so popular last year. Depending on the relative position of the bi-plane element to the nose tip, the inboard end can either attach directly to the nose or curve downwards slightly to meet it.

McLaren's extremely low nose makes packaging the wing more difficult, so simply raising the element and make it pass over the nose is a simpler and more elegant solution.

The extra element over the nose could also be used for producing downforce and/or conditioning the flow towards the rear wing. Most teams adopting these full-width bi-plane elements use the inboard ends to manage the flow over the front suspension, but clearly McLarens version opens more possibilities in this area.

The wing received some criticism over its potential to flex, and like most front wing flaps the element did appear to deflect at high speed, returning to its static position under braking for the first corner.

This in itself is not necessarily illegal, as the FIA reserves the right to test any aerodynamic surface for deflection. The benefit of the movement seen from the on-car footage appears to be negligible, and this has been supported by the FIA and race stewards, who found no fault in the set-up.

Associated with the revised upper element were new front wing endplates. These no longer have a notch along their top edge; instead their side profile is now rectangular. Plus, the fins mounted ahead of the cockpit were removed and a new flick added to the bargeboards. At the sides of the car, the flip-ups were given a slightly different profile and endplate.

As McLaren often revise their car almost imperceptibly, these more obvious changes are no doubt matched by an equal amount of unseen changes. The net result of the development carried out since Bahrain have cleared up Alonso's brake feel problems and maintained the gap to Ferrari

Toyota

After a disappointing start to the season, Toyota responded with a multitude of changes to the car for Spain. These were evaluated at private test in Vallelunga as well as the main test in Barcelona.

Toyota's problems lie in a tendency for understeer, which appears to relate to under-use of the car's tyres. This affects Ralf Schumacher's aggressive turn-in style more than the smoother style of Jarno Trulli.

Toyota have found that their tyres have run under temperature, which is related both the suspension and the amount of downforce the team run. Demonstration of the team's need to run all the downforce the car can provide is in their relatively lowly straight-line speeds.

To remedy their problems, the team has evolved both a suspension upgrade and numerous aero upgrades, while at the same time improving efficiency by reducing their cooling outlets sizes.

Before Spain, the team's technical director Pascal Vasselon told Autosport about some of the more visible aero changes.

"Both the lower beam and rear wing endplate profile have indeed been modified to help improve global efficiency and stability,"he said. "We have updated the cooling panel set-up to take into account the geometric changes to the engine cover, and have also faired in the region around the gearbox."

As mentioned by Vasselon, one of the more noticeable changes has been the change to the chimney/winglet set-up on the sidepod, where the teardrop-shaped duct now exits lower down the winglet's endplate.

"The flow structure in this area is extremely complex,"Vasselon explained. "Put simply, the assembly is an efficient mechanism for cooling the car, using base pressure deltas and strong vortex interactions."

This infers that the relative position of the chimneys to the winglet affects how strongly the winglet aids the cooling extraction from within the sidepod.

The net result, according to Vasselon, was "to maintain the car's cooling profile, but help increase its aerodynamic efficiency."

One other change to the car was the removal of the pod wings and the three mid-wings on the roll bar, replaced by one smaller forward-mounted wing.

Overall, Toyota appeared to be performing better in Barcelona; Trulli's excellent grid position was offset by Ralf encountering traffic in qualifying and reliability issues in the race. With their basic pace improved, Toyota can now focus on translating that into race results.

Honda

Honda now believe they have an understanding of how the car is behaving under braking, and part of the issue is related to how the tyres deform under load. As a result, a heavily-revised car ready for Montreal.

During testing the team tried a number of aero parts, most of which couldn't be distinguished from the usual parts. However, one development that caught everyone's attention was the odd winglet arrangement added on the last day of the test.

Two large fins were mounted towards the tip of the nose cone, termed only as "nose fins" by Honda. The team were not keen to expand upon their benefit. From the limited views we got of the devices, I'd say they were probably aimed to create a little downforce, but mainly to keep the upwash over the front wing aimed back down over the rest of the car.

Despite their location, they are different in function to BMW's tower wings, which were banned last year. The fact that Honda's are mounted much lower and further forward, they are less likely to be banned - indeed, Honda told Autosport that "we always work closely with the FIA to ensure any new developments we introduce to the car are within the regulations."

However, race weekend re-interpretations by stewards have been known to overturn the FIA's initial acceptance. In the end, the devices did not appear in Spain.

BMW Sauber

In order to keep up their third place in the rankings, BMW Sauber has worked hard on their package during testing, with the result that there were both mechanical and aerodynamic new parts in Spain.

During testing, the teams appeared publicly for the first time with infrared cameras for tyre testing. BMW opted only to monitor the hard-worked front left tyre and placed the camera in a large pod on the front of the sidepod. Willi Rampf told Autosport about its use.

"The goal was to gather specific data in order to optimise the mechanical settings,"he said, adding that the size of the pod was an issue: "Yes, it is in fact a considerable aero penalty, but we can still compare different runs and collect a lot of useful data".

Aerodynamically, the car debuted with a dramatic new front wing. Taking cues from older front wing designs, the centre section is now much flatter across a wider span.

Intuitively, this wing should give more downforce, as the lower the wing is to the ground, the better it works. However this can come at the expense of sensitivity, as the wing's downforce can vary greatly with small changes in ride height and roll angle.

This seems at odds with Willi Rampf's strategy announced at the launch to make the car more benign and create its downforce at a range of attitudes. Thus, we could conclude that BMW have used their considerable aero expertise to make the wing work in pitch and roll, despite its shape.

At the rear, a small aero change has been the extension of the small 'Stinger wing' (as Rampf calls it) on the rear impact structure. This now has an extra element to create a little downforce, and also to aid the upwash passing through the rear wing.

In addition, the steering system was upgraded to make it more responsive and give better feedback. This year, there has been a change in position of the rack relative to the wishbones. Perhaps the loads are now being fed into the unit at a different angle, much as Toyota found when they converted the TF105 to zero keel.

On the electronics side, the team have revised their engine management. Some of this work is partly to accommodate Kubica's more aggressive driving style, which still tends to lock the brakes on the overrun. This can be controlled with the engine's overrun settings, which allow the engine braking characteristics to be altered, and can even reopen the throttles if the system detects the rear wheels locking.

Williams

Having struggled in Bahrain with stability of the rear of the car under braking, Williams worked through a range of aero and mechanical upgrades during testing. However the testing was ended prematurely when Nico Rosberg had a major shunt. Such was impact of the crash that part of the front of the monocoque was crushed. Despite the announced changes, the only visual clue was the addition of the roll bar mounted mid-wing.

Red Bull Racing

Having produced such good race pace in Bahrain, Red Bull have gone on to prove the performance was not a one-off. Pressing on hard with development, the RB3 appeared in testing with a range of new parts.

One critical development was the final preparation of the seamless gearbox for racing. The gearbox has only been run in conventional mode in races so far, and the change to the more complex seamless selection mechanism only adds 1.5kg of extra weight.

Reliability hurt both cars in the race, where they suffered hydraulic and gearbox failures. At the team's own admission this pace of development is taxing the their ability to make the car reliable. At last the pace is now confirmed.

Aerodynamically, the car sported two major changes; firstly the front wing received a Renault/Williams-like curved bi-plane element. While the endplates and main front wing appear unchanged, the team did announce changes to the bargeboards.

Again, the team tried outboard-mounted mirrors, although the drivers preferred the cockpit-mounted versions, Clearly, Newey believes there is some advantage to be had with the remote location of the mirrors.

Also, the car's cooling outlets were revised, with the adoption of a Ferrari-like combined chimney/winglet. Further aiding cooling the chimney was a small vent where the chimney joins the sidepod.

Spyker

No changes were noted on the Spyker for Spain, with the team focussing on the B-spec upgrade. Despite Mike Gascoyne's announcement that this would appear in Germany, the roll-out date has reverted to Turkey as the production of the new gearcase has such a long lead time.

Changes for the B-spec car are largely repositioned rear wishbones for aerodynamic benefit. These are mounted in different positions, and therefore demand a new gearbox casing. While the team are revising the gearcase, they are taking the opportunity to switch the rear rotary dampers for linear versions.

Toro Rosso

Having been slightly behind the Red Bull Racing development curve, Toro Rosso caught up a little in Spain with several developments to the car. One change which is not actually visible - despite covering the whole car - is the paint work. The 'Toro' logo which covered the car has been applied as a sticker up until now, but the team are now painting it on to save weight and improve the aero performance.

Actual component changes lie mainly with the adoption of the rear wing and pod wing designs used already by RBR. Unlike RBR however, the team retained the original outboard-mounted mirrors.

Super Aguri

Despite the car's origins dating back to last year, Super Aguri are showing good pace with their revisions to the old Honda design. In testing and racing in Spain, were several major changes to the car including a revised gearbox and a host of aerodynamic parts.

When first listed, these included the odd term 'chicken'. By this, the team meant the pod wings mounted to the fronts of the sidepods. These have changed slightly in that their profile is now more rounded.

Also, the chimneys and winglet combination have changed. A shorter more upright chimney has been introduced, and the winglet is now separate and needs its own strut to mount it to the sidepods.

At the rear, a new curved wing profile is met by a revised endplate no longer featuring a notch on its trailing edge. As much as they've added new parts, other parts were removed for this race, including the mid-wings on the roll bar and the stinger wing on the rear crash structure.

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