At the final GP before the autumn break and for the second time in as many weekends, one of the most interesting technical nuances on the grid revolved around McLaren and its choice of rear wing.
But unlike what happened in Baku, where attention was attracted by the controversial “mini-DRS”, the fascinating element of the Marina Bay event was the fact that McLaren took the counter- ahead of other manufacturers in terms of aerodynamic downforce.
While the rest of the field took the conventional approach of equipping their cars with the devices offering the greatest possible load, McLaren was the only one not to do so – in fact it chose to go down a notch in terms of ‘support. This decision was made by the team at the start of the weekend.
McLaren started the event on Friday by dividing the work between the two cars. Oscar Piastri thus used the maximum downforce level in FP1, before moving to the lower level that Lando Norris had used from the start.
While the competition faced the Singapore circuit with a high downforce configuration similar to that which would be mounted in Monaco and Hungary (inset, above), McLaren made up for the downforce deficit with an evolved beam wing.
The new beam wing is still biplane, the more loaded lower element having been retained. The upper element, which looks more like a slat (blue arrow, above), has been enlarged to improve the relationship between the two elements and create a stronger connection between them, the diffuser and the rear wing .
The controversy surrounding the mini-DRS
McLaren MCL38 rear wing.
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McLaren’s rear wing was a major talking point ahead of Singapore, with footage from the rear-facing onboard camera of Piastri’s MCL38 in Baku showing distortion at the gap between the main plane and the flap superior. This opening of the space between the fin elements would reduce drag and increase straight-line speed.
While McLaren isn’t the only team to use the flexibility of its rear wing to reduce drag, the method employed is new compared to what we’ve seen in the past.
In this case, there was a side effect, namely that the leading edge of the upper flap distorted upwards, which was particularly visible in the forward corners of the flap (red arrow, above). This “mini-DRS”, as it was quickly nicknamed, was supposed to improve top speed compared to its competitors, without knowing exactly to what extent.
The wing has in any case successfully passed the FIA’s static load tests but, under pressure from its rivals, McLaren has agreed with the governing body to make changes to this low downforce specification with a view to its possible reappearance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Minor changes at Red Bull
The front brakes of the Red Bull RB20.
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Red Bull has been losing momentum for some time, as the RB20 has not reached the expected level of performance. And the developments made during the season have further reduced the car’s operating window.
While the team now seems to understand where things went wrong in terms of the development cycle, fixes won’t be available overnight.
Regardless of its long-term solutions, it also needs to focus its efforts on improving the car race after race and, as such, it modified its front brakes for the Singapore Grand Prix. This involved improving their cooling and modifying the transmission of heat between the brakes and the tires, via the rim.
This is the type of minor change we’ve seen teams make for a number of years, but is less visible with this generation of cars. This is because the outermost brake drum must be sealed, not provided with openings like those used for aerodynamic effects in previous regulatory eras.
In the case of the new RB20 configuration, the design of the inner drum has been modified to include a gutter-shaped cutout, with an opening around part of the brake disc, which also includes a metal component that can serve as a heat sink.
This arrangement allows the heat generated by the brakes to be routed around the assembly and released through the rearward-facing conduit which is mounted on the inside of the brake duct.
