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Post by wilmywood8455 on Jul 3, 2018 11:48:24 GMT -8
Mercedes’ Austrian weekend may have ended in disaster, but it began with them sending shockwaves through the paddock, thanks to an extensive car upgrade package which, somewhat ironically, moves them towards Ferrari’s design philosophy. Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola take a closer look… The big technical story of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend may well have big reverberations on the championship. That was the impression given by the performance of the heavily-revised Mercedes W09. Even around the track with the shortest lap time of the season, Valtteri Bottas’ pole time at the Red Bull Ring was an impressive 0.3s clear of the best non-Silver Arrows... Sidepods given a new look So, what was behind this apparently dramatic performance step? One look at the W09’s pared-back sidepods tells the most important part of the story. The radiator inlets have been slimmed down, allowing a big chunk of upper outboard sidepod to be pared back, even to the extent of partly exposing the side impact beams. This in turn allows the bargeboard footplate ahead of the sidepods a much less bluff transition from narrow to wide in accommodating the sidepod. The combined effect of opening out some ‘real estate’ in this highly aerodynamically sensitive area – together with an accompanying change in the flow diverter ahead of the pods - will be to increase the speed of the external airflow down the side of the car, past the ‘coke bottle’ section and back towards the gap between the rear wheel and diffuser. Getting the air that is travelling around and over the sidepods channelled through that little gap at the rear as precisely and fast-moving as possible is one of the absolute key endeavours of the F1 aerodynamicist. As the air exits that gap it merges with the airflow coming through the diffuser from the underfloor.
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