2008 Monaco GP Technical Review

Each year the F1 circus descends upon Monaco for the most unique event of the season. Although there will be two more street races this year, the historic Monte Carlo layout would never be allowed if it were a new location seeking permission for a race today.

Thus the cars and their set ups are equally unique to the track. As ever the requirement is maximum grip; aerodynamically the need is for downforce, and drag is not such an issue.

On the mechanical side, softer tyres and suspension are employed to squeeze out more grip from the odd cambers and bumps that form the circuit.

This year, more teams have employed inerters (J-dampers) in their suspension to help equalise the unsettling effect of the tyres bouncing over the kerbs and bumps.

Several cars, including those of Ferrari and McLaren, were seen to be almost flat, as the wheels thumped the kerbs through the chicane and Swimming Pool section.

But the harsh environment is not totally offset by the inerters; the surface still challenges driveshafts and transmissions. The lack of driver aids no longer prevents the rear wheels locking or the engine over-revving if the wheel bounces clear of the road.

At least the engine gets an easier time in terms of duty cycle - the throttle is only open a mere 42 percent of the time (in the dry), while the longest flat out section through the Beau Rivage is for just eight seconds and 500 metres. Both statistics represent a fraction of the usual loadings the engine sees at other tracks.

This year the rain that affected the start of the race presented the teams with the usual conundrum of strategy. Those outside the top ten had the luxury of altering their fuel loads to go longer in the opening to extend the period they can stay out while waiting for the weather to change.

Those at the font had no option other than to make an early pit stop. Bridgestone's excellent wet tyres (an intermediate tyre in layman's terms) were fitted for all but Nelson Piquet at the start. As the rain wasn't teeming down and flooding the track at first, the wet tyres were ideal as they are more geared toward damp and drying conditions.

Those forced to stop due to incidents early in the race did run the extreme wet tyres (Again merely wet tyres in layman's terms) for the middle stint in the race. But as we have seen with the lighter grooved Bridgestone wet tyres, they last very well on a dry track, making the switch over to slicks much easier.

Once the track was dry the tyre choice problems that most teams faced through the dry practices sessions affected their choice of dry tyre. Only Ferrari and the Honda of Barrichello opted for the super-soft tyre, as most teams struggled to make the super-soft option last more than three laps in the earlier practice sessions.

One feature not seen in a race before was a novel anti-fog visor used by the Schuberth-helmeted drivers (including the Ferrari drivers and Nico Rosberg). We have seen drivers struggling to stop the inside of the visor from misting during previous wet races, as the hot breath from the drivers' exertion condenses on the cold visor.

Some drivers prop open the visor a little to let air pass inside, or use a double-glazing like inner visor. Schuberth's solution was to place an electric element inside the visor, to heat the visor slightly.

Much like the demisting element in car windscreen, this prevents the breath forming a mist inside the visor. At the moment the visor is an add-on to the standard RF1 helmet, so the electric cable feeding the element runs exposed down the side of the driver's element to connect via a plug into the car's electrical loom.

Team by Team

Ferrari

As Monaco demands downforce, the 'nose hole' made a reappearance. The vented nose cone was raced with a revision to the opening on its underside, in the form of a fin added to its leading edge.

From above it appears that two small fins have been added to each side of the nose, but from underneath it's clear that the two are connected to form an extension to the front wing. This effectively makes the front wing longer and more efficient.

Curiously, Ferrari shapes the trailing edge of the front wing in a curved 'W' shape, the wing being longer in line with the ends of the fins rather in the middle.

BMW Sauber

After testing at Paul Ricard, BMW Sauber raced new wheel fairings and extra T-wings on the sidepods.

The wheel fairings are different to the early season versions, which were more bulbous and featured a lip that extended past the front of the wheel rim.

The new versions were akin to McLaren's version. A flat disc sits inside the wheel rim and vents via an outlet placed towards the bottom of the wheel. As with McLaren, a small flap inside the fairing directs flow out from inside wheel, to aid brake cooling.

Adding more downforce were new T-wings. These formed a cascade between the usual chimney-mounted wings and the sidepod flip-up.

Williams

Just as at Paul Ricard testing, Williams appeared with its new engine cover fin and extra winglets, although the fin wasn't raced.

The fin is Williams' take on the Red Bull fin, but while it has a similar purpose, it differs in shape. It aims to reduce the tail of the car sliding by presenting a large surface to the oncoming airflow.

This makes the car more stable on corner entry and in a straight line, which is a greater issue with the lack of electronic engine controls and with less weight on the rear axle.

However, a large tail fin can also obstruct flow to the rear wing, and that in itself can make the tail less stable. Red Bull placed the bulk of the fin high up, which allows air to pass under it to reach the rear wing. Williams has made the fin taller towards the front and lowered it towards the rear wing, achieving a similar solution.

Making use of the higher bodywork in front of the rear wing, Williams has added a small winglet to the tail of the fin, possibly by exploiting the loophole in the rules that allows bodywork in the middle 15cm of the rear wing area.

Additionally, Williams changed the shape of the wheel fairings to a more open Red Bull-like shape. This may have been to balance the benefit of the fairing and the cooling needs of Monaco; thus, it may not be a permanent change.

Red Bull Racing

For more downforce, Red Bull has developed a new bridge wing with a more aggressive profile. The deeper outer sections now feature a slot to keep the airflow attached to its underside as the wing angle is so steep.

Toyota

Toyota also brought a comprehensive package for Monaco, the most obvious change being a new rear wing. The wing's geometry creates a deeper section in the middle of the span.

To prevent this more aggressive section stalling, the team has added a small slot into the main plane, with this the wing acts like a three-element wing in the middle.

Three element rear wings were meant to be prevented by the regulations. However, the wording of the rule that allows only two closed sections (wing elements) is misleading, as it only applies to areas between 75mm and 480mm from the car's centre line.

Thus a 150mm span in the middle of the wing is exempt, and it is this area Toyota has exploited. It is the same area that other teams choose to place the extra winglets above and below the main rear wing.

Other details changes around the Toyota are the downforce-creating fins on the pod wings (as with Williams). To accommodate these and possibly also the demands of Monaco, the mid-placed wing mirrors raced in Turkey were replaced with more conventionally-mounted versions by the cockpit. Lastly, the team added small endplates on the faux camera pods on the nose cone.

Toro Rosso

At last, after five races Toro Rosso was able to bring its new car to a race weekend. As the car is designed by Red bull Technologies, the same group that designs the Red Bull racing car, it is of course all but identical to the Red Bull RB4.

The fact that the STR03 runs a Ferrari engine is the only real difference; the chassis requiring a different rear bulkhead, gearbox interface, cooling systems and most importantly, SECU software code.

Effectively a customer operation, the team stated that it is several development steps behind the factory team, yet despite this the car sports a strange mix of new and old Red Bull parts.

For example, the team ran the old outboard-mounted mirrors unloved by David Coulthard and Mark Webber, but favoured by Adrian Newey for the few points of aero efficiency they bring. Yet the team also ran the merged bargeboard and pod wing only seen for the first time in Turkey.

Equally the team had the same rear wing with the V-notch in the trailing edge of the flap. This is not a recent development as reported elsewhere, having been raced since last year.

One issue with the introduction of the new car was the new gearbox it requires. Toro Rosso was racing a different gearbox up until now, and this meant Vettel had to suffer a grid penalty for changing his gearbox before its four races were up.

his seems a harsh penalty considering the circumstances, but no protest appears to have been lodged by the team.

Honda

Even in comparison to the other teams, Honda was hard at work at last week's Paul Ricard test, trialling major developments for both the forthcoming circuits - high downforce parts for Monaco, and low downforce parts for Canada.

To add downforce for Monaco, the car sported several tweaks around the front end. Firstly the arched 'dumbo' wings were given endplates to increase their effect in driving flow to the back of the car.

They were also tried with the vertical parts fretted out, presumably to reduce any negative effect on turn-in.

The front wing endplates were revised with small fins added, and while these may have added some downforce, they are more likely to give off vortices to send flow around the insides of the front wheels.

Honda was also trying different footplates on its endplates in testing. To speed up the process, the team developed an endplate with a detachable footplate, to allow variations to be tried without the expense of producing complete endplate assemblies.

Further back along the car more downforce was produced with a small mid-wing mounted in addition and above the usual Viking wings. A curious development has also been the addition of strips to the inside of the cockpit padding. These reduce the void between the driver's helmet and the cockpit surround, and may be to reduce buffeting or drag.

McLaren

As with most teams, McLaren ran its deepest wing sets, with the wider option front wing. What was new were the sidepods' T-wings, which now featured slotted endplates, just as Renault has run for several years. Additionally, the U-shaped tail wing gained an extra element joining to the upper edge for slightly more downforce.

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