Technical: The rest of the season and beyond
Every season, mid way is the turning point of the season in terms of development. It’s the point at which a team will be in full swing of their own development path and/or will have already have converged on another teams design element or be ready to do so. This season has already seen most of the field converge on the McLaren style of exhaust position / channel / rear sidepod bodywork. In line with this are the Vortex Generator’s and Flow Conditioners (Like Sauber’s) on top of the sidepods which reduce the effects of lift by disrupting the airflow.
The team that is left not using the McLaren exhaust that could benefit from introducing it is Mercedes. Mercedes are at a cross roads in terms of development with Ross Brawn already conceding that the WO3 is a stepping stone and the WO4 will be an evolution rather than a revolution. With this being the case and with McLaren and Force India having adopted the same exhaust solution it would seem that Mercedes may see a marked increase in rear downforce from the exhaust solution. In terms of upgrades Mercedes’ have been thin on the ground instead focusing their attention on understanding the Pirelli tyres. Not keeping a consistent upgrade path in F1 means you will always be losing ground to your opposition and this is where Mercedes have now found themselves. At a point in the season where Lotus have started to edge away and the likes of Williams and Force India catch up it may be a good time for Mercedes to introduce such an update. As I alluded to in my Mercedes article: Mercedes upgrade path may have been stunted by their use of DDRS.
In terms of Drag reduction Ferrari have already said they intend to introduce a low downforce package for Monza as will most of the teams, the question is which of the teams will follow Lotus in introducing a passive F duct system in order to reduce drag. This device will obviously be most effective at the 2 high speed circuits of Spa & Monza but will continue to provide an advantage at every circuit on the calender. Unlike the driver controlled F Ducts of 2010 the drag reduction of these passive ducts relies on the car reaching a certain speed before the drag reduction occurs. Both McLaren and Mercedes have experience with Passive F Ducts and so may be best placed to implement the devices. McLaren used such a device at Monaco in 2008 and Mercedes weren’t in a position to implement a driver controlled F Duct in 2010 and so opted for the passive device. Both variants were placed in the Main plane and so should still be able to be used in conjunction with DRS just as the Lotus periscope is doing. Passive F Ducts could contribute to a further speed differential of upto 10kph however as with everything wing related it will be a fine balancing act in terms of downforce vs drag (Co-efficiency) my recent article covers the Past Present & Future of such devices: http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/bank-holiday-monday-musings-rear-wing.html
The teams have already agreed amongst themselves that they won’t use DRS for secondary functions like Mercedes current DDRS system putting pay to more elaborate systems being implemented next season. The FIA however will have the final say if they exclude it’s usage through regulation changes as a team could always take advantage and implement something anyway. Although the teams have ruled out the secondary usage of DRS they haven’t ruled out using F ducts and so this may form part of the design process for the 2013 cars in order to give them an element of drag reduction even when DRS is inactive.
Pull Rod Front Suspension has featured on the Ferrari car for the first time since Minardi used it in 2001, McLaren’s Paddy Lowe has already stated that McLaren will investigate it’s worth whilst designing the MP4-28 as I’m sure others will too.
2013 marks the last year in the current Pirelli tyre contract, Pirelli have followed the remit set out by the FIA increasing degradation to a level that has allowed strategy to become a factor. The tyres supplied by Pirelli have caused that marmite effect with F1 fans, some of the hardcore believe the compounds supplied artificially control the races. Technically this is true but this is nothing new, tyres have always been one of the largest controls in F1. Whether it be Bridgstones that can do a whole race or a war between multiple suppliers, the teams always face designing a car that can use their tyres better than their counterparts.
Since their arrival in the sport Pirelli have been using a Toyota TF109 chassis in order to evaluate the tyres before handing them over to the teams. With Toyota no longer competing in F1 no one team gains an advantage from understanding the tyres in advance. The problem with using the TF109 is that, that car was designed when refuelling was also active in F1. This has now changed with Pirelli beginning to use the Renault R30 they purchased from the Enstone team. This will clearly give Lotus an advantage over the other teams, for they have all the data that relates to the R30 and can engineer their 2013 challenger around a similar ethos to their 2010 challenger.
Why is this important I hear you say? Well this season has clearly shown that having the right chassis design as well as the correct engine characteristics help with the degradation of the Pirelli tyres. Teams using the Mercedes engine and particularly the works team have struggled due the Mercedes V8′s mid range characteristics being off kilter to the way the tyres degrade. With the R30 now being used to test it can also be assumed that Renault powered teams will glean an advantage as the engine characteristics from the test car will form the data used by Pirelli to construct the 2013 compounds.
Pirelli have recently raised concerns over the use of the R30 in it’s development for the 2013 tyres, the problem that Pirelli face when using the R30 is how different the car is compared to a 2013 challenger. The R30 although based on the current rule set has significant differences in it’s design ethos to those used in this years cars, this will lead to a disparity in how the tyre structure behaves on a 2013 car.
2011 was the first time DRS was employed in F1 and so also doesn’t feature on the R30 meaning Pirelli still have some blanks to fill in when designing the constuction of the tyres. They could however employ a similar tactic to the Renault team in 2010 and remove the top wing flap in order to simulate DRS.
So moving forward how could Pirelli do things differently in terms of on track testing? Pirelli could perform their own upgrade package to the R30 to bring it more inline with the 2013 cars. Afterall the R30 will use the RS28 engine and so Renault can provide the same maps to them that are currently being used. The problem of course is cost, updating the R30 even just with aerodynamic upgrades will come at a cost and may then require suspension adjustments to cater for the change in aero. As we can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am6tlrAgzPs Pirelli haven’t made any changes to the aerodynamics of the R30 yet and ran at this Spa test with a very low rear wing AoA.
2014 will provide the first stepping stone in a tyre manufacturer being able to design a tyre that doesn’t favour one engine manufacturer / chassis design over another. This is because the new rules mean that the engine manufacturers place the engine mountings in the same positions and the chassis themselves will have a ‘spec’ position/arrangement in which the engine fits. This leaves scope for engines to be transferred from one chassis to another.
Whilst we are the topic of 2014 lets shift focus to the engine change we will see in that year. The new engines for 2014 will be 1.6 V6 turbo’s, unlike the wild turbo engines of the 80′s these engines will be restricted by fuel flow. The switch from V8′s to the new V6 engines has been a costly one for the engine manufacturers and as we stand only Ferrari, Mercedes & Renault are on target to produce engines for that season. Cosworth who currently supply both Marussia and HRT have not commited to producing the V6 variant and probably won’t due to the high manufacturing costs.
PURE (Propulsion Universelle et Récuperation d’Énergie) was to be a new engine manufacturer fronted by Craig Pollock the ex team principal of BAR who wanted to produce a new engine for the 2014 season. PURE have currently suspended their engine programme due to funding difficulties but may return to production when finances permit. PURE certainly had a good basis with which to produce their engine having secured the services of Gilles Simon, formally part of Ferrari’s engine department and who had also worked with the FIA in regard to powertrain development. The PURE outfit also had ties to Mechachrome (itself an F1 engine supplier, albeit only through it’s purchasing a re badging of Renault engines) and also employed staff from the Renault and Peugeot F1 stables.
With Cosworth and PURE currently out of play this would leave the big 3 to supply the whole grid, however with the cost of producing these engines I’m sure they won’t mind supplying a few more customers. With 12 teams on the grid this is how engine supply shapes up:
Mercedes currently supply their works team, McLaren and Force India.
Renault supply Red Bull, Lotus, Williams and Caterham.
Ferrari also have Sauber and Toro Rosso
To get parity Ferrari and Mercedes would pick up either Marussia or HRT and with McLaren forging a technical partnership with Marussia I’m quite sure they would plump for Mercedes too leaving HRT more than likely taking engine supply from Ferrari.
The 2014 regulations will also see gearboxes move from the current 7 forward gear selection to 8, on top of this the ratios will be selected at the start of the season and only one change of these will be permitted without penalty. This is to restrict the costs involved in specifically gearing the car for each individual circuit and so choosing them at the start of the season will be imperative.
Energy Recovery will also be given an overhaul with the 2014 regulations with the current KERS being joined by TERS (Thermal Energy Recovery System) and coined ERS (Energy Recovery System). The amount of energy that can be released by the ERS is 120kw double that of the current system (Roughly 160bhp) with a 2MJ per lap recovery and release rate which also extends the amount of time this power is available to around 16.66 seconds. Of course as with the current system the amount of power used can be restricted in order to extend the time it can be used.
Due to the enhanced electric power carried onboard the 2014 cars it will also be required that the cars start without the aid of an external starter device (This will finally put pay to the aerodynamic advantage teams use in order to accelerate air through the diffusers starter hole) Furthermore whilst in the pitlane the cars will be required to run only under electric power.
Although the aerodynamic regulations currently in the 2014 regulations haven’t altered drastically from the ones in use now, I’d expect a number of revisions next year before the 2014 cars go from the drawing boards to reality. There is however one aero regulation change that could be significant and that’s the narrowing of the Front Wing from 1800mm down to 1650mm. This will reduce the wing by 75mm either end and require a totally new philosophy in regard to wing and endplate designs.
Author: Matthew Somefield
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Website: www.somersf1.blogspot.com