Tech analysis: Dissecting the new Force India VJM10
All eyes were on Force India yesterday as it unveiled its 2017 challenger at Silverstone ahead of pre-season testing next week in Barcelona.
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Buoyed by its success last season, the team has really started to maximise the performance gains from the switch to the Toyota wind tunnel facilities in Cologne and hopes to carry that momentum into 2017.
The large update used in Barcelona last season took the team a few races to fully understand and maximise performance but gave it the impetus necessary to overhaul Williams and take fourth place in the championship.
It is hoped that the momentum gained in the latter part of the season will carry across to the team's latest challenger - the VJM10.
Front wing
The front wing clearly follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, transferring a large proportion of the DNA of the wing introduced in Barcelona last season into its design.
For instance, the large tunnel [1] used to control how airflow moves across the front face of the tyre and then around it is included. However, the shape of the upper flap [2] has changed dramatically, in order to facilitate the desired effect of both wake manipulation and downforce generation.
A new winglet has been added to the endplate [3] as the team tries to improve the way in which airflow is pushed around the tyre.
The double ‘Z’ winglet [4] that sits behind the main cascade also seems to have been increased in width, likely matching the relative position needed to move air across the face of the wider front tyre.
Making wholesale changes to the front wing philosophy is something that must be weighed and measured as while the regulations have changed significantly for 2017, the maturity of the designs in 2016 was already high.
Nose
Force India's 'Cobra' nose (above), as the team nicknamed it, was a clever way of exploiting the nose regulations in the last couple of seasons, the outfit looking to replicate the kind of effect the higher noses afforded.
With the nose growing by 200mm in length (by regulation) the team has pushed the design a little bit further for 2017.
Whereas the predecessor had enclosed nostrils to feed airflow to the underside of the wing, they've been eroded in 2017, leading to what superficially appears be a longer thumb style nose tip but lurking between the thumb and wing pillars are the guiding platforms that will channel airflow under the nose toward the turning vanes, bargeboards and splitter.
Talking of the turning vanes, their length and complexity has been increased when compared with 2016, taking on a similar design to what Mercedes used in the early part of that year, with numerous serrations traversing their curvature (5 - in the front wing image above).
It would be fair to say that the striking aspect of the VJM10 on first inspection is the rather ungainly growth it sports on the transition from chassis to nose, reminding us of the step nose designs we had to put up with in 2012.
There is method behind the madness though, as technical director Andy Green made clear that the team was looking to make gains from the suspension that just weren't possible if the rockers were placed in a lower position.
"We have tried to exploit an area of the front suspension regulations that improved the characteristics of the front suspension from a mechanical perspective, allowing us to do certain things that wouldn't ordinarily be possible.
"It does mean that because of the way the regulations are worded, we cannot merge it into the nose as we would like because there is an exclusion box there that we have to respect, so unfortunately we've ended up with a little bit of a forehead."
While on the topic of suspension, the team has moved away from the conjoined lower wishbone that it adopted last season and had become in vogue up and down the grid. That's likely due to the way in which airflow now moves around that area of the car and its impact downstream.
The teams has also been given a little more freedom in terms of the shrouding placed around suspension elements with an additional +/- 5 degrees of freedom available, meaning similar effects to the conjoining of items can be made just by altering their angle of attack.
Blown axle
Having introduced a blown axle early in 2016 and making numerous architectural changes to facilitate it, the team have continued to run one in 2017.
It's something that must be considered from the outset as numerous flow structures emanating from the front wing and developing further downstream must be linked to the aerodynamic structure it creates, although we've seen Red Bull utilize it for higher downforce configurations and then blank it off to reduce drag in previous seasons.
Bargeboards
This area of the car is where the technical battleground will unfold in the early part of 2017 as each of the teams keeps a keen eye on what the others have done and attempt to converge on the best solution.
In the case of Force India, the design is on a higher complexity level than what was possible during the last regulation set but doesn't yield the same sort of 'wow' factor that was present when the wraps came off Renault's RS17.
The main bargeboard is essentially a lengthened version of what we saw from teams in 2016, with serrations added in the upper edge to improve efficiency, while it tails off into the axehead, which itself protrudes out further in 2017.
In front of the main bargeboard is another much smaller board used to caress the airflow into the desired location downstream.
Like the other designs we've seen so far, the team has also taken advantage of the floor radius rules. This ramped section will help improve the floor performance, a consequence of the need to feed the increased diffuser downstream.
Sidepods
The VJM10 is the most bulky of the designs we've seen so far, with the sidepods almost extending to the full additional width afforded in the new regulations, likely owing to a desire to keep things in their operating window given the additional power unit performance that Mercedes has apparently found.
Flanking the sidepods as expected are a pair of sidepod airflow conditioners that arch over the upper leading edge of the sidepod's surface to form a slat, improving their aerodynamic operating window.
The vertical parts of the conditioners are similar in design to those used by Mercedes last season, curling inward toward the sidepod before finishing around halfway above the floor, framing the sidepod's shoulder.
As in previous seasons, although the 'works' Mercedes team has opted to run a liquid-air charge cooler system, it would appear that Force India may once again plump for an air-air intercooler in one sidepod and larger radiator in the other.
Airbox
The team has also opted to follow Mercedes' lead in the airbox stakes, increasing its size and compartmentalising it to feed the turbocharger and other ancillary coolers housed in around the power unit.
Shark Fin
Compared with what we have seen so far, the VJM10 is perhaps a little more crude in its use of a shark fin, utilising a large wedge devoid of any real shaping under the rear wing.
Pushed on what would have happened if Red Bull had got their way and the shark fin got outlawed before the season got underway, Green had this to say: "We'd go slower, the car loses downforce when it yaws, it loses more downforce without the fin than with the fin there.
"We are only interested in the car when it is yawing, I don't really care how much downforce it generates in a straight line, but I do care a lot about how much downforce it generates in a corner and if that fin helps us hold on to the downforce in the corners, which is effectively what we are talking about here, then I am going to take it."
Rear wing
The rear wing support pylon perhaps adds more structural rigidity than the solutions we've already seen from Sauber and Renault, owing to the way in which Force India have designed the lower part of their rear wing endplates.
The single centreline support butts into the engine cover in much the same way we've seen Red Bull do in the past and then connects in a swan neck style to both the mainplane and DRS actuator pod.
As already mentioned, the lower portion of the endplates are made up of numerous slots [1] that work the airflow as it passes by, and improve the connection between the wing and diffuser.
A tyre wake slot is also present in the lower leading edge of the endplate [2] injecting airflow inboard in order to improve performance during transient conditions.
It also follows the trend started by Toro Rosso last season, utilising the open-ended style louvres [3] that have found their way onto almost every car launched so far.
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