Will Gray

Technical Talk: Did F1 aero rules fall short?

Tue Nov 03 04:35PM

This season saw the arrival of a new set of aerodynamic regulations designed to create the perfect conditions for attacking racing - but did they come up short in their bid to spice up Formula One?

The Overtaking Working Group suggested changes in late 2007 after studying the effects of aerodynamic interaction between two closely following Formula One machines, but they were conscious of the need to balance the regulations between turning F1 trivial - by making passing too easy - and not doing enough to improve the spectacle.

The group's initial investigation, run in the McLaren simulator, saw Pedro de la Rosa ‘drive' a 2006 car behind another around Barcelona and try to pass at turn one. That car needed to be two seconds per lap faster than the one ahead to overtake, but when downforce was cut by 50 percent it only needed to be 1.5s a lap faster.

It was then decided that this figure should be cut by a further 0.5s per lap to give drivers with a performance advantage of one second per lap a realistic chance of overtaking. So the study saw two 25 per cent scale models run behind each other in a wind tunnel to try and find different design solutions to solve the problem.

Aerodynamic devices work best when flow is directed straight at them, but as the air moves over them it is twisted into trailing vortices which, in F1's case, combine together over the car to form a wake that trails for some distance behind and causes any car following to suffer reduced aerodynamic performance.

The OWG research, which was revealed little over two years ago, was well developed and blew holes in a previous theory, based on CFD simulations, which suggested a central downwash of air was needed to enable cars to follow more closely and proposed that F1 should adopt a radical twin rear wing solution.

Instead, the newer study suggested the opposite after spotting that the top elements of the rear wing generate a strong set of trailing flows on each side that effectively push the wake upwards and create an inwash of fresh energised flow at ground level.

To maximise this the OWG suggested the taller thinner rear wings that have been run this year, which lift the dirty flow up in the central section behind the car and carry it high above the following car, providing that car with straight flowing air at ground level.

The front wings were widened in tandem because the area where the flow is at its cleanest when following a car is in the outboard region, so a neutral central plane was created with teams developing intricate outer edges instead to maximise the opportunity to work the clean air.

It was also determined that the flow in the underfloor and diffuser is generally stable when following another car but becomes less stable the more downforce it produces. A basic and simplified diffuser design, therefore, would create lower downforce from the underfloor and limit the effect of the wake.

When the double diffuser solution appeared, however, it increased the downforce produced by the floor and made the cars less stable in the wake of another. The key members of the OWG admitted recently this had gone some way to reducing the effectiveness of the this year's regulations.

McLaren's Paddy Lowe admitted: "(Downforce) affects the wake more significantly than anything else and the fact that the downforce achieved by the cars this year is significantly higher than anticipated means inevitably that some of the work we did has been eroded."

That said, though, the initial one second per lap pace advantage the OWG aimed for was already quite a significant difference, especially given how close the field has become in recent years.

Jenson Button's attacking drive in Abu Dhabi last weekend saw him chase down Mark Webber's Red Bull pretty fast - but he was only closing the gap by an average of around 0.5s per lap and, sure enough, that pace difference was not big enough for him to find a way past.

So perhaps they could have gone further, but so many factors influence overtaking that this is only part of the issue.

Carbon fibre brakes, the wrong type of circuits and too much difference in engine power are all among the issues cited with varying importance in this argument - and all must be looked at in equal measure to find an overall solution.

Comments1 - 21 of 21

bring back steel brakes ,with the heaver feul loads next yr drivers would have too look after them.longer braking zones more overtakeing. better for us watching ,
From tamscott on Tue Nov 03 04:59PM
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Can't help feeling that some of this could be sorted out by banning both front and back wings and confining aerodynamics to the body. I would love to see what shape Adrian Newey would come up- with.
From ribohn on Tue Nov 03 05:08PM
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Restrict Downforce @ 200kph to the weight of the car
From owen_roberts_50 on Tue Nov 03 05:43PM
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lately formula one sucks you must not have rpms neither big engine aerodynamics must not exist etc
i am only for weight and external measures limitation and engine shoud have 5000ccm put tyres you want and on this rules you only have to have GUTS if you want win
racing is about racing and not be safe and safe and safe you can go and work for an insurance company
From akneven on Tue Nov 03 06:28PM
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Bring back turbos !
Save the planet by reducing total laps or race time duration
Qualifying should be one session of 30 minutes fastest time is pole
Penalties should be served on the track and not carried over till after race or next race
Bring back competition with tyres ... we have lost Bridgestone why only have one supplier
Rules are rules
If cars dont meet the standard ... cannot race ( all cars that didnt runs Kers this year should have been penalised in my opinion)
If you have a duff engine or gearbox stick a new one in no penalties
I am sure we will see some blow ups with Cosworth back in the mix
Lets see what 2010 brings ?
From radar2000uk on Tue Nov 03 07:17PM
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Overtaking would have been fine this year if Brawn hadnt ruined the regs with his near cheating
From jonny_maverick1 on Tue Nov 03 07:19PM
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making passing too easy?! hahahahahahahaha
From neill.holdsworth on Tue Nov 03 08:23PM
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paralysis by analysis syndrome. solution is easy, steel brakes, standard diffuser design (shallow, single, no holes) and single profile front and rear wing of limited area...what so hard about that...
From neill.holdsworth on Tue Nov 03 08:35PM
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For years i have been banging on that all you need to do is 'widen' the rear of the cars to provide the "slip stream" affect!
However as usual the F1 techie dudes over complicate the issue.
Simply return the look of the cars back to the golden era of F1 where overtaking by a slower of a faster car was achieved by slip streaming!
Why is it no one seems to be considering obvious forgotten technical characteristic??
From energy001 on Tue Nov 03 09:45PM
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How about ditching the sequential paddle shift gearboxes and bringing back the manual gearboxes.
From rl_wilgus on Tue Nov 03 10:11PM
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Get rid of the drive through penalty for ignoring a blue flag.
The first time a top team lost a race because they couldn't overtake a backmarker the engineers would solve the problem within a few weeks.
From calvin_v_smith on Tue Nov 03 11:39PM
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They should have disallowed the controvercial double decker diffuser. Maybe without it, Button might be 0.75s faster and be able to overtake Webber. It is just fraction of a second difference and it could make difference in the outcome of an action.
From ferraribeng on Wed Nov 04 02:29AM
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I think we have it all wrong they should ban blocking period, no more cutting drivers off.
From ronlefebvre on Wed Nov 04 03:06AM
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TOYOTA SET TO QUIT FORMULA ONE!!! (from Financial Times & CNN)
Toyota Motor has decided to follow Honda and BMW out of Formula One racing to save costs as the Japanese carmaker braces for its second straight annual loss, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday.
Akio Toyoda, the Japanese automaker's president, is expected to announce the move later on Wednesday.
Toyota's decision deals a fresh blow to F1, which has been battered by scandals, management disputes and an exodus of sponsors and car manufacturers amid the global economic downturn.
It adds to the challenges facing Jean Todt, the former Ferrari team boss who won a bitterly contested election for president of the Federation International d'Automobile, the motorsport's governing body, last month.
On Monday Bridgestone, F1's exclusive tyre supplier, said it would abandon the sport after its contract expires at the end of the 2010 season.
F1 teams spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to stay competitive on the technology-intensive circuit. Toyota has few trophies to show for its investments, however, and speculation that it would quit had been growing since Honda announced its exit last December.
Toyota, which is the world's largest car manufacturer, suffered a Y766bn ($8.5bn) net loss last year and expects to lose money again in the current year to March 2010.
Other motorsports have also suffered during the downturn, with Subaru, Mitsubishi and Suzuki leaving the world rally championship and Kawasaki withdrawing its MotoGP team.
From dalnsour on Wed Nov 04 06:55AM
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Single element front wings with no driver adjustment will require reduction of diffuser effect if not eliminate it altogether. Another option is to prohibit carbonfiber disks. Require iron disks with carbon fiber pads allowed. This will immediately require significantly greater braking distances and provide for greater opportunities to overtake. Those very simple provisions would reduce costs significantly and create, with immediate effect, more competitive racing.
Additionally, allow one day of free testing for each race venue with a third car for the test driver to develop bits for scheduled aero upgrades. Further, eliminate grid penalties for unscheduled engine and transmission replacements. These were unnecessarily intrusive into the competitiveness of drivers and teams affected.
Finally, Arbitrary selection of rubber compounds that teams were required to use was a disaster and has unnecessarily inhibited all out racing by competitors who had to make irrational strategic changes just to accomodate a silly rule promoted by a non-engineer to counter the idea that certain teams had unfair advantages due to separate tire contracts. The notion was rediculous and the rule should be modified or eliminated. Modification would be to require the tire provider to bring three separate dry compounds such as, soft, medium, and harder, then require the teams to designate two of the three and use them during the race. Either that or use a spec tire for every race.
These changes in the Concorde should be made during the off season with the aero requirements set for 2011 season. Also, with the major manufacturers now a minority, the Concorde should be rewritten under the guidance of FOTA, the FIA, and a group comprised of the technical directors of each team with majority vote for inactment. The 100% requirement was BS and every one knew it.
From larsonrc41 on Wed Nov 04 08:32AM
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Brawn warned them that the diffuser regulations were too lax, so he took advantage of them.
Three answers:-
1) Go back to the days when Jack Brabham's Cooper front wheels lifted an eighth of an inch from the road surface when flat out at Spa.
2) Biplane wings mounted directly on the suspension but make the struts stronger than previously.
3) Fan cars like the Chaparral.
From wa.jones on Wed Nov 04 08:57AM
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There can be no more prolific overtaking in F1 until the front and rear wings are removed from the cars. It is quite possible to bring surface aerodynamics into play with vehicles which operate at such high speeds. The problem is that the wings between them provide 40% of the visible advertising space on the cars, so this is not really a technical problem to be solved by highly qualified aerodynamic groups but by accountants.This is the real problem within F1, it is a business not a sport.
From peteelliott2002 on Wed Nov 04 09:07AM
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What kind of racing is it when you have to have a working group to work out how to overtake? I think it's one of the funniest things I have ever heard. An Overtaking Working Group. Hahahahahah
From colberg100 on Wed Nov 04 10:50AM
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1. Get rid of the diffusor
2. wider cars and wider tires
3. get rid of paddle shifting bring back the good old H pattern shift
4. implement steel brakes...
this will make sure there's a lot of overtaking!!!
From malinovzky on Wed Nov 04 12:09PM
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Get rid of the rear view mirrors and ban blocking that should make it more interesting.
From ronlefebvre on Thu Nov 05 05:13AM
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Everyone use the 'old fashioned' Indy Cars.
They race around slipstreaming within inches, running 3 and 4 abreast, overtaking and undertaking, Never seem's to bother them.
From daves14uk on Thu Nov 05 07:30PM
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