Some of the changes made to Formula 1 cars for the 2022 season have been quite dramatic, such as Mercedes’ sidepods, while other modifications have been more subtle and offer a better idea of how teams think their cars work.
Ferrari made a small change to its front wing layout between the first and second tests, as it appears the team felt that adjusting the angle of the wings would not be enough to balance the difference in downforce at the two circuits.
This difference can be seen near the inner wing trim pivot, with part of the wing trailing edge trimmed away to alter the proportion of downforce that is generated in the center of the wing (blue arrow in top photo).
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said the car wouldn’t change much between the two tests, but the front wing wasn’t the only new-spec part to grace the F1-75, as the team also carried out corrective surgery on the ground. of the car.
Photo by: Uncredited
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
At the front, there was an interesting tweak to the underfloor tunnel leading edge, with the innermost liner extending up over the top of the leading edge (blue arrow), which is a solution that has been seen on other single-seaters, such as the Williams and the Haas.
And, although it had already changed part of its flat bottom in the Barcelona tests (second image above, circle on the right), making a cut in the edge of the floor and introducing a tab-shaped spoiler that was housed inside, Ferrari presented a solution similar to that of McLaren in tests carried out in Bahrain.
Both solutions take advantage of the floor cutout and edge fin regulations, the latter being connected to the floor edge with a series of metal brackets that are also oriented to help influence localized airflow direction.
On the other hand, ground segmentation also means that different parts of the ground are loaded differently as downforce increases and the car is pulled towards the track surface. This is where teams hope to gain performance gains, while also mitigating some of the ill effects of porpoising .
The differences between the Red Bull and Ferrari front wing are very clear, however the two teams made similar changes to the top wing between the two weeks of testing, with the trailing edge of the top wing trimmed close to the pivot. inside adjustment (red arrow).
However, the introduction of this new upper wing design (below) coincided with the arrival of their new sidepods on the last day of testing.
As can be seen from the dotted lines drawn on the images, the more centrally loaded design gave way to a more gradual curvature, which is also reflected in the redesign of the lower fin.
As for the pontoons, the new design variant takes what had already been considered one of the most aggressive solutions and goes further.
The change completely reshaped the shape of the chassis. The green lines drawn on the images below show how the front of the sidepod has been slanted more, while creating a downward shifting area in the belly of the chassis, providing more clearance. for the ground.
The increased slope of the front section is coupled with changes made to the top surface of the sidepod, two sections having been created that help define the path of airflow towards the rear of the car.
The steeper front section draws airflow towards the ground, while the upper rake has also been altered to correct the way it draws airflow towards the bottleneck region at the rear of the car.
This is also helped by the review carried out in the diffuser kick area (red arrow), which has a double effect.
It not only changes the behavior of the airflow at the top surface, which is critical to how airflow is drawn into the gap between the tire sidewall and the diffuser and bottleneck region, but also in the way the airflow transitions between the underfloor tunnel and the diffuser.
Mercedes’ front wing has also been tweaked during its pre-season testing in Spain and Bahrain, with the inner profiles curved downwards and attached to the nose (above, Barcelona) angled to produce more downforce (centre blue arrow).
The upper wing design has also been modified to create a pronounced juncture point that rises near the trim lever (red arrow, center), likely to help more clearly define the outer portion of the wing and improve flow. across the front face of the tire.
Mercedes also played with the trailing edge of the upper wing flap, as we’ve seen on Ferrari and Red Bull, with the element flattened on the inboard section near the trim pivot (green arrow, below).
However, struggling to find the kind of performance it expected from the W13 having fitted its new sidepod solution early in the second test, Mercedes also tried some more extreme setups at the end of the test.
An example of this can be seen below, where the team not only increased the angle of the front wing, but also trimmed the innermost plate of the floor tunnel.
Obviously, this alters the effect that said plate has on the passage of airflow, playing an external washing role similar to that produced by the bargeboards that preceded them.
As a result of these ad hoc alterations, it’s also worth considering the other changes Mercedes made to their car in Bahrain testing, with the flat bottom edge at the top of that list.
Having shown off a wavy design during Barcelona week, the introduction of the new parts saw Mercedes change tack for Bahrain, where it arrived with a more conventional flat bottom, exposing the trailing edge of the plate as it fanned out. the edge of the ground (red arrow, below).
Additionally, Mercedes , along with other teams, have been forced to add metal support braces to the rear of the floor (blue arrow) to prevent the floor from flexing too much and help combat the effects of porpoising .
The Mercedes’ sidepods , dubbed ‘zeropods’, were one of the most talked about updates during testing in Bahrain, and rightly so, as this is a very different interpretation of the new regulations.
Although the pontoon appears to have been drastically reduced, the cross section of the entrance is largely the same, albeit rotated 90 degrees from what we consider to be the conventional orientation.
This allows the team to create a very narrow, sloping section of bodywork from that point, but it also means the intake sits on top of the ground, rather than having the flow conditioning cuts we’re used to. watch.
This is all made possible by the way Mercedes has positioned the Side Impact Structures (SIS), with the top being the most important part in this case, as it has implications for how the rest of the sidepod is designed.
The upper SIS can be positioned anywhere between 460mm and 550mm from the reference plane (the bottom of the car), and between 475mm and 525mm longitudinally from the front axle.
Height from reference plane is critical here, as the lowest mounting point is 50mm taller than in 2021, which is part but not all of the reason teams have moved away from the low-slung solution, pioneered by Ferrari in 2017 and subsequently copied by every team on the grid.
This alone meant that all teams had to rethink the location of the upper SIS and its impact on the design of the sidepods.
In the case of Mercedes, the team decided to take a similar approach to previous years, looking at SIS as a means of deploying a flow conditioning device.
However, its SIS is mounted near the top perimeter of the bounding box, rather than at the bottom as had been the case in recent years and is essentially a reversal of what it did with the W10 in 2020.
It’s also worth noting that the cross frame trick used by Mercedes for a number of years is another key element in the implementation of this design.
While others might follow suit if they believe there is a tangible performance benefit and that it works with their placement of the SIS, the radiators housed in the W13 are recessed, as seen in the W10 (green arrow, top inset). law).
