Friday testing.

Renault
Renault tested some new bits at Paul Ricard before the Race weekend, these and more appeared for evaluation in the first session.

Rear wing

In the most sculpted approach to endplates yet seen, Renault have contoured the notch normally seen between the upper and rear plane. the rear upper corner of the new endplate is moulded into the rear flap and there is a resulting cut out underneath the flap. This allows airflow to exit from inside the endplate , I am being told this is to alter the trailing vortices produced at ther wing tip, which has a resulting effect on drag reduction.

Shelf and Mid wing

The mid wing (behind the roll bar) and shelf wing (between the flip ups) were tested in Ricard. The layout of the shelf wing is similar to one used by Prost in Hungary in 2001. Being mounted between the flip ups, it requires no vertical mounting plates on its underside (suction surface) to reduce its efficiency These are used in conjunction with protruding exhaust pipes, something renault seem to alter between circuits.

Bargeboards

A ferrari (Originally Sauber) like twin barge board set up has been adopted.

Front wing

A long chord has been created across the full span of the width, rather than the cutout seen in the centre section to create more downforce at the expense of drag and a tidy flow under the car.

Jordan

They appear to have altered their airbox, losing the auxillary oil tank mounted atop it and creating a larger internal volume with the new shape.

Minardi

The twin element shelf wing first seen two years ago at Imola has been resurrected. Front wing reverts to the stepped version seen at the start of the year.

Jaguar

No obvious changes yet, Jaguar use a cylindrical auxillary oil tank mounted atop the airbox.