F1 News: Image Of New 'Spray Guards' Revealed After Testing Fails

Mercedes and McLaren F1 teams took part in a test to gauge the effectiveness of the prototype wheel arches or spray guards, as many call it. The development of the parts is aimed at reducing spray to improve visibility under wet race scenarios.

The FIA has pulled its socks up with the development of the parts after multiple F1 drivers raised alarms over safety concerns during wet races that compromise visibility and give more room for a disaster to occur.

Sadly though, the test was not an instant success as the wheel arches failed to reduce spray. On the bright side, the test provided enough data that could be used as a starting point to tackle this serious issue.

Though a failure, the exercise proved to be an informative one as it offers a direction to the governing body to head into. FIA single-seater director Nicolas Tombazis commented on the outcome. He said:

"Obviously it would have been perfect if everything had confirmed perfectly and we already had a solution to apply in October or something like that.

"But that wasn't the case. We are completely committed to getting this to work because we feel that sooner or later, it will make the difference between a race being cancelled potentially, or a race happening.

"And I think if over its lifetime, if it saves a race and 100,000 people from suffering a situation like a Spa in 2021, if even once it makes a difference, I think it's well worth it."

2021's Belgian Grand Prix fuelled the idea of developing spray guards that either reduce or mitigate spray. The scene was pitiful as all Formula 1 cars helplessly followed the safety car before retiring to their pits as a result of race cancellation due to rain. And that has been the objective of the spray guards- to ensure that the race continues safely under conditions that would otherwise be impossible to run.

If you look at the prototypes that were tested at Silverstone, there are two parts- one above each of the wheels and the second part close to the ground that extends horizontally.

This is what the FIA’s new spray guards will look like on an #F1 car. Very odd looking piece of tech that's for sure #hungarianGP pic.twitter.com/dOX3ucREVE
— Ed Spencer (@EdSpencer99) July 22, 2023

Mick Schumacher took part in the test as he drove a W14 Mercedes F1 car over artificially soaked areas of the Silverstone race track. On the other hand, Oscar Piastri followed the Mercedes in his McLaren F1 car as he provided feedback on visibility.

Modelling droplets is a difficult task. FIA head of aerodynamics Jason Sommerville and the team faced quite a few challenges in the process. Tombazis revealed:

"Having started this project towards the end of last year, and done quite a lot of CFD simulations, we did understand quite soon that it was not quite as simple as just put something on, off you go, and you're done.

"First of all the CFD simulations are quite tricky, because you have to simulate also the water particles. Secondly, when there's water droplets inside a flow field, it's actually quite complicated physics.

"And additionally, even then you need correlation, because we don't have the full knowledge of much of the water is sucked from the from the ground, and how much is thrown away from the tyres.

"And you also don't know exactly what the diameter of the little droplets is, for example. So the simulation gets quite complicated quite quickly. So that's why we were in need of some correlation."

On the other hand, the team also had to ensure that the prototypes didn't compromise the car's aerodynamics and eventually performance. Tombazis explains:

"We didn't want to lose too much performance of the cars and mess up the aerodynamics too much.

"Although some of it is inevitable. And the actual aerodynamic load on these big mudguards or whatever you call them, if you have a complete cover, that would have quite high dynamic load. And therefore their support on the uprights would have to be fairly robust to not fly off at 300kph."

The FIA has gathered a significant amount of data from the test that should hopefully help them develop an effective and functioning prototype. Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin commented on the test as well, stressing the fact that the prototypes need more work. He said:

"There's more work to do on them.

"But it's a problem that will be useful to have a solution for, because I think the teams and certainly the fans hate it if a race can't go ahead because the conditions are too difficult.

"They're not ready to be moved into production and regulation at the moment. So there's definitely work to do. They do improve the spray that you get from the tyres, but you still get a lot coming from the diffuser in the way that the rear wing's pulling it up, that's all very powerful.

"But interesting first steps, and we're providing the car and some bits to do that development. It's FIA's project to decide where that goes next, and what happens in the future."