final drive - Mundo Motorizado

SIDEPODS
There are turning vanes on the front corner
of the sidepod, a la Sauber or Red Bull. It’s
easy to get lift on the top of the sidepod. This
is designed to limit that, particularly given
that the exhaust design appears to have
increased the surface area of the sidepod.
Ahead of the rear tyre there is a duct, similar
to Red Bull last year. Where that duct ends
is unclear, but it looks like the radiator exit,
helping to create a gap to better exploit the
Coke-bottle area. Chances are, that duct
runs to the middle of the difuser.
NOSE STEP
The step is still in the nose
and there is no vanity panel (see
p11). The reality is that the step
in the nose is actually a slight
advantage aerodynamically,
so it’s no surprise that this
feature remains.
GET AUTOSPORT
ON THE MOVE
l DIGITAL EDITION
NOW AVAILABLE
FOR iPAD
l STUNNING
HI-DEFINITION
VIDEO CONTENT
l ON SALE ALL
OVER THE
WORLD FOR
ONLY £2.99
NEWS
PIT & PADDOCK
FRONT SUSPENSION
The steering appears
higher in the upright
assembly, roughly
halfway up the
wheel, and the
trackrod is separated
a bit from that
wishbone. That’s
quite a complicated
system, but Kimi
Raikkonen has always complained about the
power steering (see p13) and this geometry
change could help that. Moving the wishbone
up also creates more room for the front brake
duct, which is a very powerful thing because
it calms the airflow displaced by the front tyre
and prevents it from being sucked under the
floor and further disrupting the airflow. This,
in turn, can make the difuser work harder.
FRONT WING
This looks very similar to last year. That’s not
surprising because Lotus has been very strong
on development in this area in the past few
years and it’s logical that this is a subtle
evolution. It’s a three-main-element front
wing, with the outboard part creating a fourth
element to work the endplate area as a threedimensional
duct, which should help keep the
airflow attached. It’s hard to tell how diferent
this wing is. Logically, the front wings on the
E21 will be of the same family and there will
surely be further versions in preseason
testing. The mounting
arrangement where
it goes onto the
centre-flap area is
still very far back
despite the new load
test, so the team
must have had to
make its wing stifer.
Download it now from
the Apple Newsstand
January 31 2013 autosport.com 9