R30 – New low downforce rear wing for Canada

     Renault front wing may have changed several times but on the contrary the rear wing follows a less aggressive development program . At Canada the R30 featured a new low downforce rear wing which was the second version since season start and the fourth since winter testing .

R30’s F-duct (rear wing stalling system) version launched at Spa

 

         Renault initially declared that would not intend to waste time and effort on developing its own version of the F-duct system but rather on extensive R30 development . Several months have passed since then and now at Belgium Renault presented its own version of the rear wing stalling system . The team obviously changed mind and voted yes for developing its own version ,  even though the F-duct system would be out of rules next season ,  probably because firstly the R30 shows great potential and secondly the battle with Mercedes GP for the 4^th constructor’s championship position is within realistic reach .

     Renault’s decision  to have its own version paid off at Spa as Kubica was high on top speed list . Furthermore the team evaluated the system to worth up to half a second in the long Spa track but according to Kubica Renault is not going to re-use the system at next race at ultra low downforce track of Monza .

Qualifying Speed Trap

Pos	No	Driver	Time of Day	Speed
1	7	Felipe Massa	14:37:37	312.9
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	14:47:58	307.8
3	1	Jenson Button	14:45:51	307.4
4	2	Lewis Hamilton	14:46:59	307.3
5	11	Robert Kubica	14:47:45	307.0
6	6	Mark Webber	14:47:54	306.2
7	17	Jaime Alguersuari	14:25:50	305.5
8	14	Adrian Sutil	14:47:38	304.9
9	4	Nico Rosberg	14:48:06	304.4
10	23	Kamui Kobayashi	14:10:39	304.1
11	19	Heikki Kovalainen	14:45:39	303.9
12	16	Sebastien Buemi	14:37:52	303.6
13	8	Fernando Alonso	15:07:10	303.5
14	9	Rubens Barrichello	14:47:57	303.4
15	3	Michael Schumacher	14:48:07	303.3
16	22	Pedro de la Rosa	14:10:39	301.3
17	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	14:47:04	301.1
18	10	Nico Hulkenberg	14:47:51	300.0

 

Source  www.f1.com.

 

         Renault’s F-duct system  is operated by the driver’s left hand . Inside the cockpit and behind the driver’s left shoulder there is small  rectangular hole connecting  the system to the driver’s operating control area  . If we take a closer look on the cockpit area behind the driver we can a see that the introduction of the system caused  the left rear cockpit wall to rise up a little so as to fit the system’s tube .

     The system itself receives air from two little holes placed on either side of the airbox ( 1 )   . When the system is activated by the driver at straights the air entering the holes mentioned before , feeds the main plane of the rear wing ( 2 )  , which is connected to the system via a small inclined downwards tube hosed inside the engine cover . When the system is inactive the air then flows out and under the wing’s profile ( 3 ) via another tube (black colored) placed further below the first one  . Nevertheless the exiting flow from the black lower tube is directed above the  extra winglet mounted on the wing’s beam so as not to block the airflow onto it .

     A clever evolution of the system would be to sent the exiting air , by first speeding it up using a Venturi effect inside the tube , directly onto the winglet to maximize the downforce production

R30 – Bahraini rear wing spec

         The R30 run at Bahrain ( and late winter test at Barcelona   )  a W-shaped waved rear wing , with a single pillar [1] to increase wing’s stiffness and a black colored Gurney tab [2] to help increase the level of downforce . The endplates though remained similar to the launch spec , with three horizontal slits [3] and a cut at their up rear part [4] to reduce drag .

        During winter testing at Valencia and Jerez the R30 run at least two different spec of wings . At Valencia the wing had a highly waved-shape and a  “gigantic” tab to produce a big amount of downforce   . At Jerez the R30 was equipped with a new diffuser that made the car produce more downforce and that allowed the team to dramatically  reduce the size of this tab in favor of top speed  .