ams Last-minute technology upgrades
11/27/2019
W as we had about that at the start of the current season Topic front wing discussed. Despite the new two-meter sash with limited design freedom, the engineers came up with some very different solutions and concepts over the past winter. The surprise of the experts on the first test kilometers was accordingly great.
During the course of the season, the front wings then moved somewhat out of focus. In most cases, the technicians managed to get the aerodynamics of the front and rear of the car together at some point. At Red Bull it was time in Austria, at Ferrari it was only with the Singapore upgrade that a balanced aero balance was found.
Normally the Asian city race under floodlights is the last important date in the development race. At the subsequent six overseas grands prix at the end of the season, there is usually not much that is new for technology fans to marvel at. Upgrades have been limited to small details in recent years. But this season was different.
ams
Haas brought a completely new experimental wing to Austin for the home game.
New ones Front wing non-stop
When you thought the fun was over, the teams really started to unpack. And as if everyone had agreed, there was a lot of new to discover, especially in terms of the front wing. Red Bull and Alfa Romeo only came with upgraded wings at the penultimate race of the season in Brazil. Two weeks earlier in the US, Haas had a new model in his luggage. Renault and Williams ignited their final stages of development in Suzuka.
While the wings at Renault and Alfa Romeo also made their first racing appearance,Haas and Red Bull decided to only screw on the new parts for a few practice laps in free practice. 'For us it was about checking whether the direction of development was right,' explained Haas team boss Guenther Steiner.
And that's where the reason for the last-minute upgrades is hidden. Before the major reform in 2021, the regulations will remain almost unchanged over the winter. Everything the teams are still learning with their old cars can also be carried over to the coming year. After evaluating the data from the test runs in Austin and Sao Paulo, Haas is accordingly smarter: 'We now know what we did wrong before.'
ams
With the new Alfa wing we would have save us the arrow. The change is clearly visible.
Alfa wing will be back in 2020
The experimental wing from Haas, By the way, of which only one copy was made for cost reasons, is already an anticipation of the design of the 2020 car. Alfa Romeo was also satisfied with the findings. The intervention in Sao Paulo was evidently successful: 'It is quite possible that we will use the wing again as the basic model for the test drives next year,' explained Frederic Vasseur.
In terms of shape, the wings are always the same at. The Haas model looks very similar to the Ferrari version with the flaps sloping sharply towards the outside. And at Alfa Romeo, too, after 19 out of 21 races, they moved away from the idiosyncratic solution with the oversized upper flap and instead, like the competition, relies on five relatively evenly arranged elements.
In the gallery we show you in detail what has happened on the front wing in the last few races.
