The small wing detail that shows Mercedes is still pushing
While much of the focus of the changes to the Mercedes 2020 car have revolved around its new sidepod arrangement and DAS (Dual Axis Steering), there are some other important details that highlight how aggressive the team is in trying to find performance.
Mercedes AMG F1 W11 rear wing detail
Giorgio Piola
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That much became obvious in the second F1 test, as teams moved away from the early focus on reliability and move towards updates that were more about speed.
Mercedes AMG F1 W11 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Mercedes AMG F1 W11 rear wing
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Mercedes duly tested a different rear wing pillar arrangement at the second test, opting for a single element, rather than the two elements ordinarily favoured.
The robust looking pillar is not only mounted to the underside of the wing’s mainplane, but also reaches up to and is merged with the DRS actuator pod, creating a larger central frame that may have some aerodynamic benefits.
Mercedes was not the only team to delve into such intricacies during testing either, with Alfa Romeo having tested a solution that saw its twin swan-neck style mounting pillars increased in height to maximise their aerodynamic effect.
Alfa Romeo Racing C39 rear wing pillar detail comparison
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
New Dog, old Tricks
This configuration is not new ground for Mercedes, as it has opted for a similar solution in recent years, and has even swapped between the two variants depending on the circuit it is visiting and the level of downforce chosen for the rear wing too.
It has also chosen different ways of mounting the single pillar down the years too, with the favoured option this time around to use a pillar that wraps around the exhaust and then mounts to the top of the crash structure.
Back in 2017 it favoured an approach first introduced by Toro Rosso, whereby the pillar intersected the exhaust.
Lessons from others…
Mercedes AMG F1 W10 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Mercedes introduced a rear wing update at the German GP in 2019, featuring a cluster of solutions to try and improve the trade-off of downforce and drag.
The sawtooth cutouts in the rear upper corner of the endplates and the rows of upwash strikes beneath them have been retained for 2020 but the team has made a change to the hanging vane arrangement below them.
Mercedes AMG F1 W11 rear wing
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Haas F1 Team VF-19 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The arrangement seems to take inspiration from a solution introduced by Haas during 2019, with the first element of the trio of flow conditioning surfaces stretching back behind the two other vanes, both of which have a curved geometry on their lower edge.
The airflow structure created by these is clearly optimised to suit the rest of the Mercedes aerodynamic furniture on the endplate, but it is interesting to see that ideas from others, no matter where from in terms of relative performance, can be used as the basis for improvement.
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