GASPING FOR COOLING AIR
In order to offset the constraints associated with a higher altitude, F1 teams also look to channel more air through the radiator cores, mostly by widening the cooling outlet at the rear of their car.
On that aspect, McLaren went a step further than Ferrari and Force India, which ‘only’ increased the size of the aforementioned outlet. The MP4-31 featured a re-designed, more rounded layout that reminded of the Williams setup.
Red Bull, for its part, drew inspiration from a solution devised by Mercedes in 2015: the opening from where the rear wishbones stick out were made much bigger in order to optimise airflow circulation under the engine cover.
Finally, Mercedes did not use again the ear-shaped cooling outlets it had added on each side of the airbox on the 2015-spec W06 for Mexico. This underlines how much progress the triple world champions have made in terms of cooling in the space of 12 months.
