Given the very similar aerodynamic philosophies that Red Bull and McLaren share it’ s of no surprise that the Wokingbased team was quick on the heels of its adversary and also decided to implement a splitter winglet at the German GP. The winglet takes into account the aerodynamic nuances between the RB12 and MP4-31 with the winglet shaped slightly differently, as the latter is less inclined and features an abrupt upturn at the outer edges.
It won’ t have gone unnoticed by many that the pair use a particularly aggressive rake on their car’ s( nose down attitude), which means they are often seen to chase different aerodynamic concepts to the rest of the field, with the splitter winglet an indication of how the rake affects the airflow in this region.
This area of the car seems to be of particular interest to Ferrari too as it looks for further improvements on next year’ s car, as since the United States GP the team has also been testing its own version of the splitter winglet we’ ve already seen Red Bull and McLaren adopt.
As we head toward the change in regulations for 2017 it is easy to see that certain areas of the car are going to be ripe for development, and whilst many will be focused on getting the big things right it is the details that will separate the grid. The enlarged bargeboards, 100mm shorter splitter and 200mm longer nose are all obstacles, and opportunities, for the designers.
How these winglets, be it bat or splitter, fit into the new scheme is yet to be understood. But one thing is for sure, it’ s unlikely to be the last time we’ ve seen them.
The departure of James Allison from Ferrari seemed to refocus the Scuderia on this area of the car, and whilst the team had already introduced chassis winglets at Silverstone, they opted to make a return to the more complex turning vanes and the‘ bat-wing’ that they ran in the latter part of 2015 in Japan.
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