Tech focus: Final updates before the break

The Williams FW36 has been the best-of-the-rest during the previous three race weekends, but with the team expecting a tougher time at the Hungarian Grand Prix, specific updates have been introduced for this weekend.

This includes a roll-hoop winglet and revised rear wing, as well as the cooling tail fin that was raced at the German Grand Prix last weekend.

Post-2009, rules have prohibited the rear bodywork from being adorned with cooling outlets, fins and wings. But a few loopholes remain, and Williams has been clever to exploit most of them.

Its new winglet mounted just behind the rollhoop exploits the maximum width in the area, before the bodywork has to be simplified.

This small winglet may be a direct downforce producing device, but similar winglets have also been used for flow-conditioning. To do this, its wake is used to provide a beneficial airflow towards the rear wing.

Also new is the rear wing. This is a slightly tapered high-downforce design without the central "V" cut out on the team's usual wing.

Cooling is critical around Hungary so the usual rollhoop, cockpit side and sidepod top outlets are opened up as well as the slotted shark fin seen in Germany.

This features a series of 18 slots along both sides of its length. Again, the fin sits just within the sidepod exclusion zone to allow more of an outlet area to cool the turbo engine sat below the bodywork.

MERCEDES

Thanks to its pace advantage, the recent focus at Mercedes has been on developing its understanding of the car rather than new parts.

Through the recent Silverstone test and again in free practice, the car was equipped with extra sensors and the team conducted flow-vis runs during free practice.

There was not a new floor specification, but new floors had been made and the first runs were with the old floor featuring a wealth of pressure sensors to understand the airflow.

This, along with copious amounts of aero paint on the underside of the front wing and nose, provided the team with greater understanding of how the car's aero works.

Although there were no obvious new parts, the team did use a clever trick on its brake duct set-up, where the left and right front brake ducts were different in their configuration.

As Hungary works the front-left corner the hardest, teams are careful to manage the tyre. Keeping its temperature down is critical and thus Mercedes has opened up more of the brake duct to by-pass cool air through the wheel.

This extra airflow does not cool the brakes, but by passing through the gap between the brake duct and wheel, its cooling effect prevents the brakes heating up the wheel and in turn the front-left tyre.

SAUBER

For the high-downforce Hungaroring, Sauber's monkey seat at the rear of the car has reappeared. This two-element winglet is mounted to the rear wing support pillars.

Being partially blown by the central exhaust, these winglets create an upwash to keep the rear wing and diffuser flow attached. This means the rear wing can be set to a steeper angle for more downforce, before it stalls.

Like Mercedes, Sauber also split its front brake duct blanking setups left to right.

The Sauber front brake drum has a series of holes to allow heat from the brake disc to pass over the inside of the wheel, in turn heating up the front tyre.

To reduce this effect, the team taped up half the holes in the front brake duct, so more hot airflow exited the wheel directly through the spokes, rather than passing over the inner wheel rim.

LOTUS

Lotus had mixed results with its new parts. The cooling package (explained in Germany) was removed after free practice and both cars ran the conventional cooling arrangement for the race.

Surprisingly given Hungary's hot conditions, this cooling package has not been fitted for this weekend.

But the new front wing endplate, also tested in Germany, has been run so far in Budapest. This retains the same wing and cascade arrangement, with the vane forming the endplate altered. It is now a one-piece vane, where it was previously two.

To maintain the outwash effect required to send the wing's wake around the front tyre, the vane is curved outwards more and a split in its top edge also diverts airflow outwards.

Within the sidepods, there is a large radiator that cools the turbo's water intercooler. This is a critical system, as cooling the charge air from the turbo before it enters the engine's inlets affects power and reliability. For the Renault engine, this is a particularly sensitive factor.

Unlike the relatively simple radiator for the engine's water, Lotus uses a complex multi-panel cooler for the water intercooler. This uses seven separate cores.

For Hungary, the core design appears to have changed, with slightly different tube and bar arrangement being visible. It has not been confirmed by the team if this is indeed a different specification.

MCLAREN

To suit the high-downforce nature of the Hungaroring, McLaren has reverted to the double wishbone fairings on the rear suspension.

These aid downforce by replacing some of the upwash effect lost from the missing beam wings this year.

At recent races, where drag is as important as downforce, the car has sported just the lower pair of wishbone fairings.

FORCE INDIA

Force India returned the car to the pre-Germany cooling arrangement, with the ERS and gearbox cooler atop the gearbox and fed by the roll hoop duct.

This also means the larger engine cover is used to house the coolers.

Although this creates drag, at a relatively low-speed circuit as Hungary this isn't a big disadvantage compared to the reliability benefits of better cooling.

TRACK CHARACTERISTICS

Such is the tight and twisty nature of the track; the car's set-up needs to be almost as though it were a street circuit.

Downforce is critical, as the car spends a lot of time going through turns. With only short straights, downforce can be traded for drag.

As a result, teams bring their maximum downforce configurations, last utilised at Monaco. The largest flaps and additional winglets are all run to gain aero grip in the corners.

It also demands good cooling from the cars. It's not purely the high temperatures, but the stop/start nature makes the engines and brake hotter, plus the average speeds are low, so cooling air is in limited supply.

As with downforce, cooling outlets can be opened up as their usual drag penalty is minimised here.

Teams will run the largest openings in the tail of the sidepods and any other outlet areas, such as around the cockpit and sidepod fronts.