Haas is the first F1 team that showed digital renders of their new 2019 F1 VF-19 car and even though they don’t provide the same insight as watching the car on the track, they are enough to see the most important technical changes for the new F1 season.
The biggest change on the 2019 F1 cars is certainly the front wing which beceme 200 mm wider and 20 mm higher, but more importantly, the extremely complex aerodynamic structures on the wing edges have disappeared. They were used to create powerful vortices that were directing the airflow to the outside of the front wheels.
This, together with other changes, should help drivers to follow each other more closely, with less turbulence behind the other car and less aerodynamic downforce losses.
All this should help overtaking, but we have already heard from several engineers that changes are not going to make an impact because the teams will eventually overcome the aero losses and overtaking will be as hard as before.
Nose and front wing
Haas kept nose design as used for the last two years, which was similiar to Ferrari but with little less curvation in the middle part which meets the safety regulations. The front wing is now 2 meters wide and consists of maximum five horizontal elements (last year’s wings had up to a ten elements) .
The first two elements are almost horizontal and the top three elements have more and more camber and a smaller surface, which was common in the past years.
Multiple cascades on the front wing edges are no longer allowed and the only ‘cascade’ allowed is a small horizontal thermal camera holder (marked orange on the photo above) to enable teams to follow the temperature of the front tyres.
The teams have very limited freedom when it comes to the wing endplates that were previously used to create strong vortices and today we see very little curvature in this area, thanks to unbelievably complicated front wing rules.
The front wing endplates (highlighted in the yellow on the photo bellow) are also simplified and are no longer open or louvred and they cannot have flaps and fins. However, it is allowed to have a small radius tunnel extending along the front wing endplate span, which creates a vortex along the outside of the front tyre.
Vertical elements that serve to stabilize the wing and achieve the required strength (orange) may be used in limited number, on specific places and with specific shape.
Also, from this year teams can use only two vertical fences beneath the front wing, perpendicular to the wing elements (filled yellow on the left side of the wing on the photo bellow).
The new Haas VF-19 uses the S-duct system, first used by Sauber in 2012 and its exit is marked orange in the picture bellow.
Also, on the next two photos, the front wing endplates can be seen and their horizontal tunnels on the bottom edge (marked yellow) which doesn’t use the entire span of the endplate.
Area behind the front wheels
The Haas VF-19 here is very similar to the predecessor, with the exception that aerodynamic devices in this area are now lower so that sponsorship logos can be seen better.
At the bottom of this section, there are a number of vortex generators that create vortices along the edge of the floor to help isolate the airflow beneath the car from turbulence, especially from the rotating rear wheels.
The photo bellow shows the simplified front brake air intakes, which in recent years were full of aerodynamic devices which were controlling and conditioning the airflow traveling in this area.
Sidepod area
Haas uses Ferrari power units and some other parts like suspension and hidraulics so it’s no wonder they are very similar to Italian team in this area.
Last year Ferrari had very small sidepod intakes for radiators, which were also aided by additional opening on the top of the sidepod, and this year’s Haas VF-19 has a very similar structure to the last year’s Ferrari SF71H just without the upper openings.
The sidepod cooling opening (orange) is located between the higly positioned horizontal mandatory safety structures made from Zylon (marked yellow) and is positioned as high as possible (to allow as much air to flow cleanly around the bottom part of the sidepod) and as far back as possible (so that the intakes receive cleaner airflow, less affected by the rotating front wheels).
A vertical aerodynamic element is also connected to the horizontal structure, which is linked to a multiple structure (also marked yellow) which takes the turbulent airflow from the rotating front wheels.
Also, in the picture bellow you can see the exit of the S-duct system (between HAAS and RICH ENERGY logos).
In the picture bellow we can see the sidepods from the different angle and cooling outlet behind the halo, as used in 2018 by Mercedes, as well as long horizontal slits on the floor for mixing the air from upper and lower part of the floor to create a vortices which help protect the airflow under the car from the rotating rear wheel and external turbulence.
Engine cover
According to the first photographs, it appears that Haas managed to narrow down the power unit area, especially in the middle part, which is reflected on the bigger vertical fin that divides the engine cover.
This means that the components of the power unit, including engine oil, water, transmission oil and ERS coolers, are differently distributed inside the engine department, but also hints that Ferrari has improved their cooling systems that take up less space while maintaining efficiency and power.
We’ll see how the rear end of the new Ferrari engine will look like in the new 2019 F1 season, but it should be even more extreme as they are a factory team.
The picture below shows a fairly large rake angle of the car, which increases the volume of air beneath the car floor, including a diffuser, which in theory brings more downforce, but in that case it is more difficult to control the airflow in this extremely sensitive and important area.
It is expected that more and more teams will follow bigger rake route due to the restrictive aerodynamic rules for 2019 F1 season.
The airbox above the driver’s head (bordered in yellow) is similar to last year and is vertically divided into three parts (orange). Only visible change is that lower part is wavy and slightly raised in the middle.
The central part of the airbox brings fresh air to the engine, and smaller side ducts are to cool the ERS system and gearbox oil.
Behind the airbox there is a small horizontal wing (purple) like Williams used last year to help shape the airflow on its way to the rear wing, similar to the T-wing.
Rear end
As usual, the teams are very careful not to show too much detail at the back of the car, especially around the diffuser and these digital photos of the new Haas VF-19 are no exception.
The diffuser is almost completely black and the rear wing, which this year is 100 mm wider and 20 mm higher, has more simple endplates. But teams still have some freedom in this area so the end of the upper edge of the endplate is split into nine vertical fins (marked yellow), a trend that McLaren began in 2017 and which was followed in 2018 by some other teams such as Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari who eventually returned to their old configuration.
The rear suspension (marked green in the photo above) has raised upper wishbone mounting point, which last year was used by Ferrari to enable more air to pass over the diffuser.
The Haas VF-19 also has a 750 mm wide T-wing which is slightly curved down at its edges and its design will certainly change during the season depending on the aerodynamic configuration for a particular track.
Wastegate exhaust pipes (pink) are stacked one above the other, above the main pipe, which Ferrari tested last year but didn’t use in races.
