Racecar Engineering – September 2019

22 http://www.racecar-engineering.com SEPTEMBER 2019

becomefantasticatgettingenginesintegrated

atthelastminuteit is nicetobeabletothink

aboutit a bitmore,andfocusonthedetail.’

Stablerelationship

ToroRossois indeedwell-knownforitsregular

powerunitswapseachseason,havingused

unitsfromthreeofthefourmanufacturersthat

areinthesportsincethecurrentformulawas

introducedin2014.In 2015 it usedRenault,in

2016 Ferrari,in 2017 Renaultagainandthen

in 2018 it switchedtoHonda,andallofthese

werefairlylatedeals.Nowenteringthesecond

yearofitsHondasupplydealtheToroRosso

teamhasbeenabletofullyoptimiseitscooling

systemaroundtheJapanesepowerunit.

‘Historicallywehavechangedenginesa

lot,andthatmeansdealingwithdifferentheat

FORMULA 1 – TORO ROSSO STR14

‘The gains are really coming from packaging,

that was the focus,’ he says. ‘At the end of the

day you want to optimise your cooling package

and integrate that into the monocoque, and

gains made there give aerodynamic freedom.

All the teams are fantastic at optimising mass,

and they all have the stiffness targets and that

is all overcome. If you can avoid putting a bit

of the chassis in an area that you might want

to develop then it gives you the freedom to

change bodywork, develop aero surfaces,

without having to redesign a lot of the car.

It’s really a packaging exercise as far as I’m

concerned. We took a big step with this car and

it is worth highlighting that Honda gave us a lot

of opportunities with the power unit. We had

more time to do that with this car. In the past,

that has held us back a bit. While Toro Rosso has

got a different front wing in the tunnel earlier

the front suspension would have evolved

differently. The thing is you have freeze dates,

when you have to have defined the inboard

pickup points, the outboard points, and after

that you just have to work with what you have.

Even a few races in and with some front wing

and brake duct updates this concept is still

providing a return for us so we are quite happy

with it. Having said that, we are still looking at

other concepts and some of them are better,

but maybe not across the whole aeromap.’

Bully beefed

The utilisation of components from Red Bull

has seen Toro Rosso move its engineering

resource to other parts of the car, such as the

outboard front suspension, but the biggest

focus of all has gone into the monocoque.

‘It all allowed for an increased focus on the

design of the chassis structure, packaging of

the brake ducts and front suspension, and the

integration of the fuel and cooling systems

into the chassis,’ Egginton says. ‘All of this

results in packaging and mass reduction

benefits and provides the team with more

potential for aero development, one of our

key aims. The chassis itself, as per regulations,

is a complete Toro Rosso design, along with

all aspects of the cooling systems, power unit

installation and steering column.’

Hot tub

At the first public run of the STR14 Egginton

told the press that the monocoque on the car

was the most complex that the team had ever

created. ‘It is especially complex in terms of

integrating it with the power unit,’ he added at

Monaco. ‘It’s far more complex than last year’s

car. Because we had that extra resource, we

were able to do more on the chassis and I think

that has created a better all-round car. The

targets we set ourselves for packaging things

like coolers, the plumbing and electrical boxes

to get the tightest and most efficient package

possible was one aspect of it. You can run in to

problems doing that quite easily but the guys

avoided that well. Secondly, we wanted to give

the aerodynamic team as much freedom as

possible while avoiding the need to redesign

mid-year. Some of the shapes and structures

were changed to give that aero freedom. While

the chassis team might have been comfortable

in some areas we kept pushing to create

potential areas for the aerodynamics to be

exploited later in the season.’

According to Egginton, while reducing

weight and increasing stiffness remain

important, the major goal with the STR14 tub

was reduction in its physical size in some areas.

‘Because we had that extra resource we were able to do more

on the chassis and I think that has created a better all-round car’

Toro Rosso still uses small sidpod ducts, with the side impact structure below the main duct. Note the low drag mirror housing

Efficiently cooling the electrical boxes was a key design target for what’s been called the most complex STR chassis ever