Autosport – 01 August 2019

GERMAN GP TECH

1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 11

AN UPGRADE HAAS-TRAVAGANZA

MERCEDES MAKES ENDPLATE UPGRADES AT FRONT AND REAR

Haas is still struggling to work out

which of its three specifications

works best. Romain Grosjean

retained the Australian GP-spec

Haas for the Hockenheim weekend,

while Kevin Magnussen trialled the

Spanish GP edition in FP1 before

switching to the new-for-Germany

updates in FP2.

One of the most striking of those

was a new rear wing endplate,

taking a completely new approach

to the strakes overhanging at the

point the endplate bows inwards.

The previous design of nine vertical

teeth was discarded and replaced

with a trio of curved slots.

When tyre wake is kicked up at

the rear, the strakes usually serve

to pick it up and straighten it out

to minimise any resulting drag. But

while those strakes can deal with

airflow washing along horizontally,

they struggle to deal with it once

it has a downwards movement. 

Haas’s solution is diff erent, and

appears to address

the problems it has

been experiencing

in 2019. A new

bargeboard geometry

was also brought to

Hockenheim, adding a

now-popular ‘boomerang’

to the equation. This

paired up with a newly

reconfigured ‘Venetian

blind’ turning vane, where

Haas extended its top

element to blend into

the boomerang section.

One of Haas’s biggest

problems with the VF-19 is

rear end stability, something

that Grosjean feels has been

compounded with the Barcelona

updates. The new bargeboard

package was pressed into service

to address that, managing the

input into the floor to boost

diff user performance. 

JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

New front and rear wing endplates were the

order of the weekend for the Mercedes team,

celebrating 125 years of motorsport. Both the

car and the team personnel were dressed up in

new kit, with the W10 sporting a special livery.

The front wing has gradually changed over

the season, although the current endplate

design has been in action since the Chinese GP

in April. Since then, the wing elements have

slowly folded inwards, and the trailing edge

now no longer protrudes from the back of

the endplate as it did so controversially on

its first appearance.

A novel solution to the rear wing endplate

has come in the shape of a step-shaped cut-out,

along with tiny fins at the trailing edge. This

should take the tip vortices created by the

endplate away from the wing earlier on, giving

the airflow passing under the suction side

of the wing more area to expand. That builds

on the low-pressure zone behind, working

the rear wing harder and extracting more

downforce from the outboard sections.

Each endplate must occupy a certain

bounding box, and the added fins fit in by taking

advantage of a thinner trailing edge. These

guide the airflow passing over the endplate

upwards, meaning that the expansion zone aft

of the rear wing is again larger. It’s a tiny tweak,

but maximising that low-pressure area behind

the car increases the eff ective volume of the

diff user, resulting in more rear-end downforce.

JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

HAAS’S NEW

ENDPLATE APPROACH

DRAWING BOARD

GIORGIO PIOLA

MERCEDES CONTINUES TO

MAKE FRONT WING TWEAKS

REFINEMENTS ON THE

REAR WING ENDPLATE