In a single -seater of F1, the corner wheel is an element that has taken over an increasingly important function over time, not only because it is an unsuspected mass, but also because its efficiency can have a direct effect both on reliability and on performance .
In the launch of a new project, the teams allocate a lot of attention to the wheel corner consisting of Porta Mozzo, suspension attacks, braking system (carbon and pliers disk) and the relative channels, wheel, as well as hydraulic ducts, electronic sensors and baskets.
The land effect regulation has defined some aspects that regulate the four corners of an F1 very clearly: the circle cover that closes the wheel on the outside, prevents the air flow that came to 2021 could be exploited generated inside the basket to clean the wake behind the front wheel, increasing the purely aerodynamic Out Wash effect.
With the advent of soil single -seater in 2021, the carbon baskets that wrap the corners have taken on both complex as interesting functions that we will now try to analyze in summary. FIA standards impose that external drums, as they are called by the British, are completely closed. With the adoption of 18 -inch circles there is a greater space to … work in the corner and specialize the individual functions to extreme use of use.
McLaren McL38: Each team has developed different brakes for cooling and caliper cooling
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Obviously the primary use is to cool the brakes: the heat produced by the disc and the pliers (there are peaks in detached that reach a thousand degrees!) Must be extracted from the corner to ensure the reliability of the system that must work in a Operation range avoiding overheating, but also the vitrification of the disc if the carbon does not enter the correct temperature window, losing grip and generating situations that could become dangerous. There is an air intake that brings fresh air to the brakes and there are channels that serve to expel the heat from outbursts that must be mounted on the internal side of the corner, by regulation.
Detail of the Mercedes W15 brake basket with air passages to cool the caliper
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
So far it’s all simple. To “hire” the hot air into an obligatory path, the technicians have decided to wrap the disc and the caliper with anti-thermal material, covering the hot area even with a second carbon basket. The goal? Create an cavity with a fresh flow that isoli the “hot” heart of the corner from the circle, in order to prevent the rubber from being radiated by the heat below, causing an increase not expected of the pressure and a consequent degradation of the tire.
Mercedes W15: the intermediate basket with the openings to use when it’s cold or it rains
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
In reality, this speech is 90% of cases true, because on some particular circuits where environmental temperatures are particularly low or in case of rain it is recommended to make openings in the intermediate basket to facilitate the heating of the tires, especially the rain. Obviously this theme is developed above all at the front, because the rear coverages, subjected to traction, do not need to add temperature, but it never changes it.
And here an important simulation work comes into play that manages to define what the capacity of the heat should be, so as not to break the balances laboriously found in the experiments at the dynamic desk that each team has developed.
Red Bull Racing RB20: here is a slit in the intermediate basket
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
In essence, a sort of … gallery with a fan that feeds the corner has been created and allows the analysis of the trend of each individual flow both as regards the courses and for the temperatures. A very important aspect is to be able to find with cold air a good sealing in the area of ​​the bell of the disc, where it is almost impossible to check the escape of a little heat to the outside. We try to “pressurize” the air in that area, making sense on the complication
In this regard, it is interesting to record that Mercedes, but is not the only team, has adopted a solution called “Reverse Bell”: that is, that the cooling of a portion of the disc takes place with a fresh air passage that From the outside of the bell it is pushed inside, mitigating the negative effect we have described.
We have mentioned the cooling socket: perhaps it is not known that only a minimal part of the mouth is intended for cooling the brakes, while major portions are designed for the circulation of cold air in the cavity between the two baskets.
Aston Martin Amr24: flow deviations in the rear intermediate basket
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
And it is interesting to record how each team has defined an air “circulation” that allows to stabilize temperatures, avoiding “blocks” that can harm the efficiency of the system: it does not surprise, therefore, if Aston Martin has introduced real flow deviations to guide the air trend according to the wishes of the herodinamic.
The corner air intake is designed to be as small as possible: the ideal, in fact, is that it does not extend to the suspension arms, dirtying the aerodynamic, since the covers of the arms are designed to be of the flow laminators for the air that you want to allocate in the ventur channels to generate the load with the bottom. And the orientation of the chief designers in choosing suspensions with anterior pulle rod scheme also goes in this direction.
An aspect that should not be overlooked is that of costs: the study and definition of the four corners is a laborious design exercise that requires time because the hot parts, for example, must be isolated from the many sensors housed under the baskets. According to the rumors, the revolte area weighs a lot on the cost limit: a fifth of the development budget is said expected for a season.
It is essential to deliberate at the beginning of the season a system that can remain stable within the entire championship, net of the adaptations necessary for each track …
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