There was a lot of discussion in Mugello and the next race weekend in Barcelona regarding Mclaren's new nose job. Here is Matt Somerfield, an up and coming Technical F1 writer, explaining all.
McLaren used a revised Nose at Mugello. They only ran it very briefly at the end of the test (Around 5 laps) but this wasn't a short enough time for the eagle eyes out there to miss it.
So why the new nose?
McLaren were at odds with the other teams this year who had opted to run much closer to the highest allowable surface area's which has resulted in the ugly 'step noses'. It's not only the nose on the McLaren though that was set much lower. To allow for the gradual curve we have been used to in F1 McLaren also have a lower bulkhead than most of it's oppositions designs . Their design centre's around having the driver at a lower level thus lowering the overall CoG, this also means having the suspension geometry lower and so no need for the higher bulkhead. (A higher bulkhead would have meant raising the driving position for better field of view)
For a few years now McLaren have run with the 'snowplough' under the nosecone as their turning vane(s) the snowplough also acts as a vortice generator creating energised flow toward the front edge of the floor. The original iteration of the McLaren nose also ran with the 'snowplough' (Jerez below) with the FOM camera's outbound of the wing pylons.
Toward the end of the Barcelona test (Below) McLaren tested with the FOM camera's moved into the central section of the wing and removed the snowplough in favour of some much more neutral turning vanes. My best guess for this solution is that although the snowplough is a very effective element (acting as an additional wing) with the loss of EBD having the vortices's it creates interacting with the front of the floor was bad for 'aero' business. Things need to be balanced and so there is no point having something generate downforce in a certain area if you can't attain the same net result further down the chain.
Without the use of EBD this year the aim is to gain back as much rear end downforce as possible and this is the biggest reason as to why the teams went with the 'step nose' designs in the first place. Having the nose in the higher configuration will allow more air to flow under the car thus speeding up the diffuser's effectiveness. McLaren were trying to play cat and mouse with this flow area and rob some airflow to generate more downforce atop of the floor, it's a balancing act of 1 flow vs the other.
The new nose is a compromise as McLaren don't have the bulkhead height to warrant the step, this also means they don't have to have such an aggressive ramp styling from the bulkhead down to the nose tip. Their nose has more scope to fit within the height regulations however due to the bulkhead dimensions it does mean a sharper under nose gradient back to the bulkhead. I don't see this as a bad thing as it should redirect the flow lower as the air detaches from the underside of the nose pushing the air below it to do the same.
Drawing some conclusions from the Barcelona GP we can see that from Jenson's point of view the higher nose may have taken away some of the positive front end balance the MP4-27 had. For Lewis's driving style this appears not to be a bad thing as his pole position and superb drive from the back proved.
As we are aware thermal tyre degradation is a major factor this year and Lewis managed to do the second longest ever stint on a set of Pirelli's at 31 laps (only bettered by Sergio Perez's 35 lap stint) I feel that the balance shift from the higher nose must have in some part attributed to this.
McLaren find themselves in an awkward position in having firstly shunned the idea of a 'step nose' they are now very much running a half and half solution. Their design ethos centred initially around the lower CoG of the lower driving and wing position and now they are having to give up some of this. The other problem with this is data, the other teams have been using the step noses for the 4 proceeding races along with Winter testing and so have the data/telemetry for how the higher nose works. McLaren will be playing catchup and may have to make further alterations to the floors leading edge/diffuser in order to further take advantage of the better flow the higher nose gives.
Furthermore this season has shown how crucial setup can be in extracting the best from the tyres and having made quite a radical change to the frontal aero area they will have to make sure they can get on top of the suspension setup once more.
I expect McLaren and more likely Jenson will revert back to the lower nose spec at Monaco given the street circuits characteristics. However come Montreal I'm sure the high nose will be a top priority for McLaren in terms of ongoing development and setup.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
So why the new nose?
McLaren were at odds with the other teams this year who had opted to run much closer to the highest allowable surface area's which has resulted in the ugly 'step noses'. It's not only the nose on the McLaren though that was set much lower. To allow for the gradual curve we have been used to in F1 McLaren also have a lower bulkhead than most of it's oppositions designs . Their design centre's around having the driver at a lower level thus lowering the overall CoG, this also means having the suspension geometry lower and so no need for the higher bulkhead. (A higher bulkhead would have meant raising the driving position for better field of view)
For a few years now McLaren have run with the 'snowplough' under the nosecone as their turning vane(s) the snowplough also acts as a vortice generator creating energised flow toward the front edge of the floor. The original iteration of the McLaren nose also ran with the 'snowplough' (Jerez below) with the FOM camera's outbound of the wing pylons.
Toward the end of the Barcelona test (Below) McLaren tested with the FOM camera's moved into the central section of the wing and removed the snowplough in favour of some much more neutral turning vanes. My best guess for this solution is that although the snowplough is a very effective element (acting as an additional wing) with the loss of EBD having the vortices's it creates interacting with the front of the floor was bad for 'aero' business. Things need to be balanced and so there is no point having something generate downforce in a certain area if you can't attain the same net result further down the chain.
Without the use of EBD this year the aim is to gain back as much rear end downforce as possible and this is the biggest reason as to why the teams went with the 'step nose' designs in the first place. Having the nose in the higher configuration will allow more air to flow under the car thus speeding up the diffuser's effectiveness. McLaren were trying to play cat and mouse with this flow area and rob some airflow to generate more downforce atop of the floor, it's a balancing act of 1 flow vs the other.
The new nose is a compromise as McLaren don't have the bulkhead height to warrant the step, this also means they don't have to have such an aggressive ramp styling from the bulkhead down to the nose tip. Their nose has more scope to fit within the height regulations however due to the bulkhead dimensions it does mean a sharper under nose gradient back to the bulkhead. I don't see this as a bad thing as it should redirect the flow lower as the air detaches from the underside of the nose pushing the air below it to do the same.
Drawing some conclusions from the Barcelona GP we can see that from Jenson's point of view the higher nose may have taken away some of the positive front end balance the MP4-27 had. For Lewis's driving style this appears not to be a bad thing as his pole position and superb drive from the back proved.
As we are aware thermal tyre degradation is a major factor this year and Lewis managed to do the second longest ever stint on a set of Pirelli's at 31 laps (only bettered by Sergio Perez's 35 lap stint) I feel that the balance shift from the higher nose must have in some part attributed to this.
McLaren find themselves in an awkward position in having firstly shunned the idea of a 'step nose' they are now very much running a half and half solution. Their design ethos centred initially around the lower CoG of the lower driving and wing position and now they are having to give up some of this. The other problem with this is data, the other teams have been using the step noses for the 4 proceeding races along with Winter testing and so have the data/telemetry for how the higher nose works. McLaren will be playing catchup and may have to make further alterations to the floors leading edge/diffuser in order to further take advantage of the better flow the higher nose gives.
Furthermore this season has shown how crucial setup can be in extracting the best from the tyres and having made quite a radical change to the frontal aero area they will have to make sure they can get on top of the suspension setup once more.
I expect McLaren and more likely Jenson will revert back to the lower nose spec at Monaco given the street circuits characteristics. However come Montreal I'm sure the high nose will be a top priority for McLaren in terms of ongoing development and setup.
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