The unique wing ideas that Monza’s F1 challenge throws up
The challenge of the Monza circuit represents something very different for Formula 1 teams, as minimising drag is the name of the game over maximising downforce.
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This usually requires a rear wing design that will be rolled out just once in a season. It’s also meant that we’ve seen some pretty peculiar interpretations down the years, along with some extreme skinny looking setups.
Here we take a look at some of the solutions used in more recent years, and some of the designs that we can expect to see mounted by the teams this weekend.
The 2014 regulations undoubtedly slowed down the cars, not only because the teams and manufacturers had to get used to the characteristics of the all-new power units and additional weight they carried, they also had to deal with the implications of a dramatic overhaul in the aerodynamic regulations.
As we can see here, whilst it still had ground to make up in terms of recovering downforce, it also had a lower downforce option for Monza with two large V grooves cut into the top flaps trailing edge (lower right).
Red Bull had dominated the years before F1 moved to the hybrid power unit regulations, not only through its use of the Renault engine but also its superior grasp on the aerodynamic regulations.
This allowed the team to run a very low downforce arrangement for Monza in 2013, featuring a rear wing with no endplate louvres and a DRS actuator pod that sat right on top of the mainplane, rather than being mounted slightly above it.
The 2009 regulation change really stripped back the aerodynamic complexity that had grown up around the cars in the preceding years. Whilst the teams looked for ways to recover that downforce, they still needed ways to reduce it and the drag induced for Monza.
Here we can see the difference between a normal and low downforce arrangement on the BrawnGP BGP001.
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