迈凯伦在巴库推出全新车身套件
迈凯伦在阿塞拜疆大奖赛推出近乎全新的车身套件，重点包括侧箱、侧箱进气口、引擎盖和进气箱/防滚架整流罩。此举旨在提升直线速度，因为巴库赛道直线速度对圈速至关重要。
迈凯伦继续推进升级，在巴库出现了一些视觉上引人注目的发展。为阿塞拜疆大奖赛，它引入了或多或少全新的车身套件，其中最显眼的元素是侧箱、侧箱进气口、引擎盖以及进气箱进气口/防滚架整流罩的轮廓。
在新规下，它在效率方面一直挣扎。迈凯伦在直线速度方面很少能名列前茅，所以我相当确定这个套件是为巴库匆忙推出的——因为在那里，直线速度是圈速的主要推动因素。
从散热器进气口开始，迈凯伦在这里偏离了常规。如果说有什么相似的话，它走了与奥迪自赛季初以来一直采用的类似路线。
这是一个相当粗暴的改变，你可以称之为硬加上去的封闭面板。主要原因是侧箱的这一部分包含了侧撞结构，并与生存单元粘合，所以要完全改变它并不容易，或者在预算帽下，也不便宜。
然而，如果它能提升赛车性能，那么最好还是把它装上，忍受可能的评论（比如我的），并尽可能收获圈速上的好处。
用洋红色标出的进气口区域在开放面积方面相当相似，但进入该区域的气流来自上游一个非常不同的位置。像大多数车队一样，迈凯伦加载前翼的外侧部分，就在内轮罩/刹车导管内表面内侧。开口位置的这种变化意味着，为了获得所需平衡而加载前翼时，对冷却的影响不会那么大。
这也让迈凯伦得以修改看不见的冷却系统。我推测它把散热器芯向前移动了。侧箱侧面轮廓的这种变化将更早地引发更多下洗。
侧箱的改变也让迈凯伦得以修改出口百叶窗。很难说程度如何，因为这些通常取决于赛道。慢速、炎热的赛道意味着赛车需要更多冷却。巴库有不错的直道和高速，意味着冷却不那么困难。
进气箱进气口从更接近椭圆形改为三角形，同样符合冷却需求。正如我常说的，用于冷却的气流在产生下压力方面是浪费的。然而，如果一些所需的冷却气流从侧箱进气口转移到了进气箱进气口，那么在这些损失方面可能就不那么剧烈。
与进气箱进气口的变化一致，迈凯伦还改动了用紫色标出的引擎盖鳍片。旧版鳍片上缘的这些台阶会在赛车于弯中偏航时产生涡流。
这些涡流是帮助还是妨碍后翼性能，取决于数小时的CFD建模和可能的风洞测试。它们的需求也取决于后翼配置。
后轮前方的区域也有小的细节变化。这个区域对入洗和出洗的量至关重要。你能产生的出洗越多，底板密封就越好，进而扩散器性能就越好。
这些发展如何提升了整车的效率，将很有趣。迈凯伦能否在巴库为这些慢弯运行更高的下压力水平，同时减少其直线速度劣势？
巴库绝对是那种你会很快找到答案的赛道。
英文原文
McLaren continues to push on with upgrades, with some visually striking developments appearing in Baku. For the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, it has introduced more or less a complete new body package, the most visible elements of which are the sidepods, sidepod intakes, engine cover and the profile of the airbox intake/rollover bar fairing.
It has struggled with these new regulations in terms of efficiency. McLaren has very seldom been up there as far as straightline speed is concerned, so I'm pretty sure this package was rushed through for Baku - as straightline speed there is a prime mover as far as laptime is concerned.
Starting with the radiator intakes, McLaren has gone off the beaten track here. If anything, it has gone down a similar route to what Audi has been running since the start of the season.
It's a fairly brutal change and you might call it a bodged-on blanking panel. The main reason for this is that this section of the sidepod incorporates the side-impact structure and is bonded to the survival cell, so to completely change that is not easy or, working within the budget cap, cheap.
However, if it improves the performance of the car, then it is better to get it on there, suffer the potential remarks (like mine) and reap any benefit in laptime possible.
The intake area highlighted in magenta is fairly similar as far as the open area is concerned, but the airflow into that area is coming from a very different place upstream. As most teams do, McLaren loads up the outer section of the front wing just inside the inner wheel fairing/brake duct inner surface. This change in the opening position will mean that loading up the front wing as required to get the balance required won't affect the cooling quite as much.
This has also allowed McLaren to revise the unseen cooling system. I would assume it has moved the radiator cores forward. This change in sidepod side profile will induce more downwash earlier.
This sidepod change has also allowed it to revise the outlet louvres. It's difficult to say to what extent, as these are normally circuit-dependent. Slow, hot circuits mean the car needs more cooling. Baku has decent straights with high top speeds, meaning that cooling is not quite so difficult.
The change to the airbox intake from more of an ellipse to a triangular shape is again in line with cooling requirements. As I often say, airflow used for cooling is wasted as far as producing downforce is concerned. However, if some of the required cooling airflow has been moved from the sidepod intake to the airbox intake, then it is probably less dramatic as far as those losses are concerned.
In line with that airbox intake change, McLaren has also altered the engine cover fin, which is highlighted in purple. These steps on the upper edge of the older version of the fin would generate vortices when the car is in yaw mid-corner.
Whether these vortices help or hinder the rear wing performance is down to hours and hours of CFD modelling and probably tunnel testing. Their requirement will also be dependent on rear wing configuration.
There are also small detail changes to the area in front of the rear tyre. This area is critical to the amount of inwash and outwash. The more outwash you can generate, the better the sealing of the underfloor and, in turn, the better the performance of the diffuser.
It will be interesting to see how these developments have improved the efficiency of the overall car. Can McLaren run a higher downforce level for these slow corners in Baku while reducing its straightline deficit?
Baku is definitely the circuit where you will find out very quickly.
The Race ·
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