Renault’s aggressive development path has focused primarily around the floor and bargeboards throughout the year, with tweaks to the front-wing to help further energise these two critical aero components.
These bargeboards introduced in Austin present further refinements to the existing solution, with considerable care taken to the geometry of the footplate. Even more gill-like louvres have been added along the base to energise the air running below, shifting the flow's path as it weaves its way from the front-wing towards the car's flanks.
Two tiny turning vanes have joined the complex layout, each braced to one another and to the larger boards via several metal stays. These quickly turn the air to create small vortices, which combine with the larger vortex structure shed by the primary bargeboard to protect the sidepods and floor from turbulence that would adversely affect their performance.
Having already delivered a substantial change to the rear diffuser design in Hungary, significant alterations were made to its outboard areas a few races ago in Austin. This brought its design firmly in line with what the likes of Mercedes have been doing this year by using a peripheral Gurney flap arrangement to increase the vorticity of the air exiting from below.
They also introduced a suspended fin into the path of this flow to further this effect. Having kept this iteration for Mexico, the team repositioned the fin to a slightly higher location [yellow arrow above] in Brazil. This subtle adjustment shows that Renault are paying much closer attention to micro-aerodynamic details, of which we will see even more of next year as their refine their concept.
A number of other aerodynamic examinations were also carried out on the R.S.17 on Friday, including an old-school wool tuft experiment on Nico Hulkenburg’s helmet to assess the airflow around the cockpit.
