An exclusive insight into the Mercedes W09 on track in Barcelona at F1 testing
F1 is well and truly BACK as the drivers have been testing their 2018 cars in Barcelona – we took a closer look at the Mercedes W09 and some of it’s Aerodynamic improvements…
Rear Aerodynamics
The W09 has a highly developed Aerodynamic package to ultimately improve performance. Flowviz was used during F1 testing on the underside of the rear wing and illustrates how effective the Aerodynamics are, maintaining flow attachment across both rear wing elements. The slits at the base of each rear wing endplate are angled and staggered to streamline the flow.
Another interesting area is the curved elements surrounding the top of the diffuser. Again these are angled and you can see how this rotates the air flowing through the slits, most likely to guide air around the tyre.
Another method teams use to monitor the behaviour of airflow are pressure rakes (pictured below). These are essentially grids consisting of an array of pressure sensors. Here, the pressure rake is measuring the resultant wake from the tyres.
Underfloor
One test item was a small Aerodynamic element located at the edge of the underfloor, infront of the rear tyre, highlighted below.
Front Wing
For several runs on Day 2 of testing, the W09 featured what appears to be some form of heat resistant coating to some of the vertical elements on the front wing.
