© F1i
IN THE CAVALLINO’S MIRROR
In Austria, Toro Rosso unveiled a significant aerodynamic evolution consisting of a modified front wing, turning vanes, bargeboards and a new rear crash structure.
Unfortunately, the expected time gain wasn’t there:
“We have not made the step forward we wanted and we expected in a way, explained Pierre Gasly in Silverstone. All the upgrades we had, which should have given us some performance, don't seem to have given us those gains. The team tried a range of experiments with ride heights, sensors and rakes on the car, just to get some data to understand the package, which is not translating wind tunnel numbers into reality. It's not that straightforward at the moment. […] The engineers need a bit more time to figure out exactly how we need to make it work, but at the moment we didn't really make a step forward.”
The team continued its development work at Silverstone, where the STR13 was equipped with blown mirrors almost identical to those of the Ferrari SF71-H.
This kind of rear view mirror has an opening on the front of its fairing. The air enters and bypasses a second fairing (internal and made of carbon), before emerging on the other side around the mirror itself. It seems that this hollow fairing of the mirror does not serve to direct the airflow towards the upper sidepod inlet, contrary to what was thought at first.
Put simple, its role would rather be to improve the airflow towards the rear wing and diffuser. Its shape would certainly create a little more drag, but it would also generate a wake of higher pressure, more energized than with a conventional design, which helps the elements further down (the rear wing and the diffuser) in generating downforce.
