Ugly 2017 F1 designs are the product of loophole aero designs

[botsapper]

They are not the prettiest racecar designs but they a purely engineering manipulation of the rules to get...ahead. Mercedes already started a controversy of an interesting T-wing strut on top of the engine cover. Maybe an aero/engine cheat or an old tv antenna?


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5WzdqLWQAEoY3R.jpg

Mercedes May Have Already Found A Loophole In F1's New Regs

[Lemmy]

Reckoned to be bloody fast though. 3+ seconds a lap over last years cars is said to be conservative. A friend of mine works for Force India (I live close to Silverstone circuit) as an aerodynamicist, and he reckons the cars are now so quick that the race engineers have reclassified some corners as 'straights' as they'll be going flat out through them.

[freebeard]

http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/the-2017-mercedes-f1-car-is-the-gorgeous-racer-with-the-1792674665

'Pretty' is only paint deep. I'd like to see it in a proper Mercedes silver to show off the surface development. Even as it is, there're lot's of interesting details. I still don't understand those half-round corrugations on the bottom of the front wings of this and others.

The T-strut is apparently a vortex generator; so, F1 meets Unicorn Corral? The comment suggests so.

Those external ducts on the barges? The C-shaped mirror mounts? The vertical canard with turbucles? Airfoiled LIDAR on the air intake?

[Lemmy]

Interestingly, more recent pictures of the Mercedes omit the vane. Could it perhaps be a sensor array, or there for experimental purposes?

[RedDevil]

Aldo Costa, Technical Director of Mercedes F1, has commented that the T wing is just one of the experiments to get control of the wake.
It fits within the regulations for the shark fin, even though it is not very fin-like.
But they will run most test without it trying out different concepts including 'a longer car'!

Ferrari presented their car today with a full shark fin with winglets like these at the end tip... The 2017 cars look spectacular, but I hope these weird winglets get banned.

[gumby79]

Originally Posted by freebeard

...
The T-strut is apparently a vortex generator; so, F1 meets Unicorn Corral? The comment suggests so.
...

Or did F1 saw the horn off the Unicorn and now they are just going to ride that horse?
They unlike 99.9999% of us have and use wind tunnels to be capable of proper positioning of VG's.

From the article...
Development of the new car started before the new regulations were even finalized, and a concept was already in the wind tunnel before the final race of 2016. Since then, it has had over 2,000 runs in the wind tunnel.

The winglets on the left and right of the air intake are interesting as well.
What are they doing hear ...

This leading wing was not in any of the still shots in the article but was on the car in the videos.

[freebeard]

There's a third airfoil above the air intake. I think it is an antenna farm; and if it is, there's enough going on there to make it self-driving.

Another interesting feature is the apparent actuator on the rear wing. The upper element might slide or pivot; but whichever, the upper wing washes out downstream from the actuator. Part of that is wind tunnel work, but another big part is fabrication.

[RedDevil]

The winglet on top of the central air intake is actually a camera or a dummy stud, as not all cars have the camera there. Its shape is by regulation.