Mark Hughes on the key features of the AMR24

The Aston Martin team today presented the AMR24, the new car with a significantly modernized chassis from last year, and Mark Hughes, an expert on the championship’s official website, took a closer look at some of the features of the new product. .

The AMR24 looks quite elegant, an evolution of last year’s car, and the three areas that stand out most are the nose cone, the radiator intakes/sidepods and the rear suspension. But we must also assume that the soil has also been largely renewed.

As Dan Fallows, the team’s technical director, said: “There’s also a lot hidden under the hood that you hopefully won’t see.”

The bottom line is that with this generation of cars, the most important thing is to get the most out of the bottom, and all the changes we see are precisely aimed at achieving maximum efficiency in this area of ​​the car. a wide variety of conditions and situations – at different speeds, during acceleration, during braking, etc.

Nose cone

The very tip of the fairing is now linked to the wing interface (this is exactly how it was on Red Bull cars in the previous two seasons), and not to the main plane below. With a small gap between the main plane and the nose, the airflow directed under the floor of the car encounters fewer obstacles.

Paradoxically, although the nose section has become shorter, the weight of the nose section has increased slightly, as it has to pass the same standard crash test. In order for a fairing with a shorter structure to have the same deformation properties, it must be stronger.

Radiator/side pontoon air intakes

Aston Martin has adopted the Red Bull concept and now the bottom of the radiator inlet has become much longer. The idea is to increase the efficiency of the intake airflow and reduce the lateral “spread” that occurs when the intake opening cannot hold too much air at high speed.

This also reduces the negative impact of low-energy flows on the edges of the bottom, which plays an important role in increasing the efficiency of this part of the machine.

But because this part of the air intake has increased so noticeably in size, in combination with the extended mounting post of the rear view mirror, this part probably also functions as a kind of intermediate wing, directing the airflow pointedly towards the upper surface of the air intake. inclined pontoons. This helps speed up the flow flowing into the gap between the rear wheels and the diffuser.

The area where this current joins that which runs along the edges of the bottom, and both flow into the aforesaid opening, has a very powerful influence on the action of the bottom. Each body part plays a role in increasing the efficiency of this combined flow, because the faster it moves, the higher the level of downward force.

Last year, the car modernization process also affected the side pontoons, and in the case of the AMR24 this trend continued. First of all, it is worth noting that a thickening has developed on the lower part of the pontoons, which narrows the channel below. A similar feature can be seen on the Kick Sauber car, where it also serves to increase the energy of the airflow.

At the same time, the channel on the upper surface of the pontoon became narrower and deeper. This solution also prevents unwanted flows from “spreading”.

Rear suspension

Aston Martin gets its gearboxes and rear suspension from Mercedes, meaning both teams have switched to a rear suspension that uses pushrods instead of rods, and interacts with beams hidden beneath the body panels. At the same time, pushrods are still used in the front suspension.

This rear suspension design places the most massive components higher, freeing up space to give the diffuser the optimal shape and thus increase the efficiency of the underbody.

If this can actually be achieved, there is hope that the car will be less dependent on the angle of attack of the rear wing in terms of downforce – and that maximum speed on the straights will increase. Last year this was one of the weak points of the Aston Martin car.

“We are very pleased with the progress we made last winter,” Fallows said of the team’s performance. “We wanted the car to be faster than last year and we think we achieved that.”