7 tiny aero bits which have awesome effects in F1

Formula 1 has seen a colossal rise on aerodynamic complexity in the last 15 years. if you compare, say a car from 2002 and 2016, the latter will have so much more complexity in its design, thanks to advancement in computer simulations, which allow such small and precise adjustments to be done. So here are seven examples of these engineering wonders.

1. Sidepod vortex generators

This is a trend which started in the last five years or so, to put little fins in the cars sidepod, allowing vortices (i.e turbulent flow) to form and keep the airflow layer closest to the sidepod’s surface attached, shaping airflow around the sidepod. If this layer, called boundary layer, is unattached, it will create unwanted areas where air is not moving relative to the car, augmenting drag and worsening the cars’ performance. Doing this, engineers are allowed to do better packaging and further reduce drag by making a more compact rear end with similar aerodynamic performance.

2. Monkey seats (red area)
This is one of the ultimate examples of the F1 teams to increase downforce. It explores a loophole in regulations to put a miniature airfoil under the large rear airfoil.

3. End plate slots (Yellow area)
Wings have an effect called wing tip vortices, in which the pressure difference between both sides of the wing will cause high pressure air to go into the low pressure’s direction and vice-versa. Then they’ll form a characteristic swirly shape. This is bad because it increases drag significantly. This is why F1 rear wings have plates on their ends, to diminish this effect. Still, there is a tremendous pressure difference between the high pressure side and the normal atmosphere, which would again create vorticity. Then, in the early 2000’s, F1 engineers figured cutting small slots in the high pressure area of the endplates would reduce this pressure difference in a more elegant, smooth way, allowing smaller vortices and less drag so that pilots can have maximum straight line speed.

4. Front wing end plate deflectors (area in orange)
As Formula 1 cars are open wheelers, wheels are subjected to incoming air in a much fiercer way than its closed arches counterparts. Thus, air will flow straight into the front wheels, creating humongous amunts of drag if no action is taken. This is the reason why engineers will try to take all of the airflow away from them, using the front wing to do it. This is why all of these parts circled in orange are pointing away from the wheel, trying to make airflow go around the sides and above it to lessen drag.

5. Front wing wingtips (green circled areas)
These wingtips may seem just like the edge of some smaller elements chucked there to create more downforce, but they also serve a much more important function. they are responsible for generating the Y250 vortex. This is a vortex created 250mm from the cars’ centerline and it is one of the most important aerodynamic effects in a F1 car. It will govern the airflow on the front of the car, preventing the front tyre flow to interact with the front edge of the floor’s. They are guided by those plates located on the side of the sidepods and after the suspension. The Red Bulls designed by Adrian Newey have especially well defined Y250’s when compared to other teams, part of the aerodynamic masterpieces produced by him and RBR’s team.Check out this video below, it is very didactic!

6. The F duct
In the 2010 season ,cars had those weird fins coming from the rear of the car towards the wing. If you look at this season’s Mclaren (the team who started this trend), you will notice a small bump in the front of the car. It collected the air coming from the nose of the car, made it travel all around the car and directed it into the rear wing, creating a so called “blown flap”, which inserts high speed air into the leading edge of the wing, enhancing downforce and reducing drag. The main theory for its name is that it was located in the F from the team’s main sponsor, Vodafone. This also explains why McLaren had higher straight line speeds than average that season.

7. The S duct
This one was first used by Sauber for the 2012 season and its horrendous platypus noses. It is an S-shaped duct which redirects flow from the nose’s underside to the upper side, allowing the nose to be steeper and still keeping the airflow attached to the nose’s surface, further reducing drag. This hapens due to an effect alled the Coanda effect, which is the tendency of a moving fluid to remain attached to a adjacent curved surface instead of being deflected. A cool way to see it is taking a spoon and putting its convex side (cuved to the outside) into flowing water from the sink.

This is it for now! Do you think these details have some influence on the design of street cars or other racing cars? Don’t forget to coment! Hope you enjoyed!

EDIT: As appointed by Ukic MP4-20, the F Duct MP4-25 picture was a launch-spec without the inlet for the F Duct, so here is a reace-spec one. Thanks for helping!