The loss of the
beam wing is significant to the teams as not only did it provide
structural integrity for the rest of the rear wing but also aided in
the flow structures created by the diffuser and upper rear wing
elements.
Williams have attacked this by placing a lower beam wing
at 150mm above the reference plane, the height we usually find the
floor, thus robbing a small amount of diffuser expansion as the floor
sits slightly lower to suit. This does mean that the Diffuser's
angle of attack has likely had to be made more aggressive to fully
extract it's implementation but one will counter balance the other.
Furthermore the team have recessed the Gurney trim around 10mm, as it
usually extrudes vertically at the diffusers edge, this increases the
small low pressure zone behind the Gurney leading to more counter
rotating flow, aiding in diffuser performance.
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