Bite-size tech: Sauber C35 front wing and nose
A lack of funding has severely impeded Sauber's season, with the Swiss outfit unable to focus the kind of resources necessary to bring quantitative gains.
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However, as part of the investment recently injected into the team a few updates are starting to emerge.
We've already seen the new rear wing (above), which emerged at Silverstone but didn't get run in anger until the German GP.
However, the updates for Spa consist of a new front wing and nose, which undoubtedly change the performance of the entire car, given how important these structures are in conditioning airflow to and away from components downstream.
The front wing is very similar to the Red Bull philosophy we've seen so far, with changes made to every surface when compared with the wing's predecessor. It features six full length flaps which are shaped and terminate differently at the juncture with the 'neutral' section of the mainplane.
This will change the shape of the vortex that is shed (Y250) and hopefully improve performance at the front edge of the floor and sidepod.
The flaps curve over at the outer section to create the kind of Venturi tunnel we've been accustomed to seeing from the rest of the grid, improving how airflow moves across the surface of and around the front tyre. This has also led to a change in the shape of the endplate, changing how the airflow structures interact with one another.
A relatively large main cascade, which now features three flaps rather than two, is joined by two smaller cascade winglets.
As part of this update the team also have a revised nose (upper one of the two), the bulk of which is much shorter than its predecessor, placing the thumb style tip further back over the mainplane, requiring a redesigned pair of front wing pillars too.
A pelican style underbelly is also present under the nose, changing the velocity of the airflow as it moves under the nose and taking advantage of the revised interaction and pressure shift caused by the repositioning of the nose tip over the mainplane.
It'll be interesting to see how these changes have an impact on Sauber's overall performance against the rest of the field.
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