Mercedes stated early in the weekend that pre-season testing hadn’t gone exactly to plan, despite clocking the most laps and showing signs of having the fastest car.
Some of the aerodynamic upgrades hadn’t performed as expected and the team also had to remove some of the complex suspension elements to comply with the FIA’s directive on aero-influencing systems.
As a result, a post-Singapore-2015-style analysis was launched to uncover the performance that was locked within the W08, which showed immediately after Friday practice as Lewis Hamilton described the car as a “night and day” improvement.
Most of the progress the team made between testing and the race was down to set up but a few detailed changes to the front-wing, sidepods and cooling layout have also helped.
The W08 also donned a revised T-wing, which now features three winglet surfaces – two large winglets that conjoin at the tips and a third smaller element on top.
The combination of winglets and their updated geometry will alter the path of the airflow ahead of the rear-wing, extracting more downforce from the rear-end.
Red Bull
Wheel design has had a steadily increasing amount of attention as they do much more than provide a seat for the tyres.
Red Bull has been making some effort to conceal their wheel design during the testing period and even into the grand prix weekend by installing transportation wheels when shuttling the car from the garage to scrutineering.
At the front you will find the open axle face that air is blown through via the brake duct to assist the front-wing, but the rears are particularly interesting.
The rim tapers outwards towards the open face with a multitude of grooves cut into the surface to dissipate turbulence building up within the deep dish, which is even deeper as a consequence of the wider rear-tyres.
Further revisions were evident on the RB13 after a low-key winter, although it is surprising to see the car lack the complexity and creativity of its rivals in Mercedes and Ferrari.
The two bargeboards that straddle the chassis are stepped along the top rather than a continuous downward slope, with the footplate of the leading baffle slotted and lipped to encourage airflow underneath.
This was accompanied by changes to the vertical vane that is mounted to the sidepod shoulder, which is now joined by a large horizontal piece of carbon fibre to the chassis by the cockpit to induce downwash across the bodywork downstream.
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