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Bahrain Grand Prix Tech Updates

With the teams and cars revealing their ultimate performance in true race trim for the first time in Australia, the development war of 2019 has now really begun. Here’s what we spotted at the Bahrain GP.

Although this Ferrari front wheel assembly hasn’t changed since the Australian GP, some more detailed shots were taken at the Bahrain GP, allowing us to understand more accurately how Ferrari have manipulated the airflow through the wheel.

Air is ducted to flow across the width of the wheel and then exits through gaps in an outer ringF1 teams want to maximise the amount of air flowing through the wheel hub to not only cool the brake assembly but also to manage the wake from the front wing. Once the air has flowed over the front wing, it has been ‘worked’ which means it is low velocity and so it becomes turbulent. To avoid this airflow reaching and affecting the efficiency of other aerodynamic devices downstream, teams flow air through the front wheel, which then helps to guide the wake from the front wing away from the car. 

This is clearly evident in the front wheel assembly of the Ferrari SF90. Air is ducted through the front brake duct and is guided through an outlet and then travels across the width of the wheel (as shown by the blue arrows). The air then exits the wheel assembly through gaps in an outer ring. 

Red Bull Racing ran several prototype camera mount designs on the front suspension throughout Friday’s practice sessions at the Bahrain GP. These could potentially be gathering data on tyre surface temperature, rim temperature or front wing deflection. 

A rare glimpse into the cooling layout of the Mercedes W10. 

For the majority of last year, Mercedes ran with a small vent behind the rear mounting of the Halo. At this year’s Bahrain GP, the Red Bull RB15 featured a similar design. 

As the Halo is a solid titanium structure there is no way for air to flow through it. Therefore, teams can’t be extracting air from the front of the car and feeding it up through the nose, exiting at the rear of the Halo, in a similar vein to how the S-duct works. So, this vent could be fed by another airflow either from the cockpit itself, or through the cockpit. However, this is puzzling. The airflow in and around the cockpit area is very turbulent, therefore ‘dirty’ air from other areas of the car are often fed into the cockpit as it has the least negative effect on the overall aerodynamic performance. This is the reasoning behind the S-duct. So why would teams want to extract this turbulent air and direct it towards the rear wing? Unless this is simply to offer some form of cooling/ventilation to reduce cockpit temperatures, improving driver comfort at the hotter races.

• What is an S-duct and how does it work?

Another change was a minor modification to the Mercedes W10 rear wing endplates for the Bahrain GP. As shown below, an additional element has been added. 

It is often difficult to see and therefore get a clear picture of how the underfloor of today’s F1 cars work. However, here we have a fantastic shot of the Mercedes W10 underfloor, with the front at the right of the picture. The primary aim of the bargeboard area is to help outwash the turbulent wake from the front tyre around and away from the car. This angle clearly shows how all the complex arrangements of winglets and elements are angled to help guide this flow away. 

Another point to note is the longitudinal and diagonal slits in the floor towards the rear tyre. These slits draw in high pressure air from above the floor, underneath which effectively seals the edges of the diffuser. 

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