The 2012 Formula One season is well underway and so is the technological rule-stretching soap opera that goes with top-tier racing. This year new rules dictated some interesting changes to the way many of the cars look, including the drooped nose seen on many teams (Mercedes above). But as is often the case, it’s what you can’t see that is getting most of the attention. And as teams prepared for Sunday’s race in China, accusations were once again flying down the pit lane about the enforcement of the new rules.
The Mercedes AMG team under the direction of team boss and F1 savant Ross Brawn is generating the most headlines with its version of a duct system introduced a few years ago aimed at making cars faster down the long straightaways.
We first wrote about the idea behind the ducts two years ago when the McLaren team first exploited the idea on the rear wing of its car. After 2010 the rules were changed to ban the very creative system the team developed that involved the driver’s knee and extra air being blown on the rear wing. The purpose was to maximize downforce when needed and minimize the drag created when downforce wasn’t needed. An F1 car can generate more than it’s own weight in downforce thanks to the wings, making it theoretically possible to drive upside down.
This year several teams, the latest being Lotus, have filed official complaints against Mercedes saying the team is breaking the rule to counter these driver assisted ducts to the rear wing. Except Mercedes ducts direct air to the front wing. And the team says the driver doesn’t directly control the flow of air forward, it’s just an indirect result of a driver controlled switch that is perfectly legal.
In an effort to promote more passing and action on the track in recent years, F1′s governing body set new mandates, including the ability to simply adjust the entire rear wing at certain parts on the track. Drivers can flick a switch and the angle of attack of the rear wing is decreased, reducing the drag on the car.
Mercedes is exploiting the writing of the rules saying the driver cannot control any aerodynamic changes other than this legal change to the rear wing, which can only happen at specific times and places. When the angle of the rear wing is changed on the Mercedes racer, a small opening is exposed that allows air to enter a duct. This duct continues all the way to the front of the car where it blows the air over the front wing. The result is the extra air effectively stalls the front wing, reducing the drag and increasing the speed.
So far the Mercedes system has worked well for its German drivers, including 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rossberg, but only in qualifying. Unfortunately for them most of the benefit is not in racing where the wing cannot be moved as much.
Formula One’s governing body has so far dismissed all three challenges against Mercedes, so as was the case in 2010, many in the racing community are expecting the other teams to follow suit and develop their own ducting system to the front wing.
Photo: Mercedes AMG F1
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