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Sauber C37 (text by tw) February 20, 2018


Sauber's new car [C37] Alfa Romeo became the title sponsor was released on February 20, 2018.
For an overview of this new car, see F1-Gate.com.
The Ferrari-made power unit will be loaded this season, but the latest specs will be supplied.
I will write my opinion from the overview of the car body below.

The tip of the nose cone is shaped like a hump to satisfy the regulation, but a horizontal plate is attached to the bottom of the navel cone.
But it is not a big opening like the nose hole nose of Force India, but a mystery plate.

Newly adopted a nose hole to pull out the air flow of the lower surface of the nose to the upper surface of the nose.
This reduces the growth of the boundary layer of the airflow under the nose.

Front suspension incorporates Mercedes' ideas of last year, upper arm is located high outside the wheel.
This makes the air flow in the lower part of the car body cleaner.
The tie rod was laid out at the middle of the upper and lower wishbone. However, should it be as high as the lower arm?

The vertical vanes on the front side of both side pods are made up of three pieces.
They are curved and formed into different shapes, and traces marked finely aerodynamically developed in this area can be seen.
In this part of the air flow route, it is possible to tune the state of the air flow where the under plate sucks from the left and right. It is one of the areas with high aerodynamic performance contribution ratio.

The crushable structure on the upper side of the monocoque side was devised so that the upper side of the side pod did not swell up by moving it slightly downward.
This has the effect of alleviating the lift at the front of the side pod, which had been occurring in the past, and it is an idea that can be evaluated.
As a result, the side pod's height became a unique design with a high inside and a high outside.

However, the undercut on the side pod side is shallow and there is no boldness like other teams here.

Since the air intake part of the induction pod has a complicated three-dimensional shape, please carefully look at the picture.
This may be an advantageous shape with rigidity, but it is a skeptical shape aerodynamically.
Especially when taking cornering swirling flow into the intake, the central pillar is going to get in the way ....

The rear wing's stay is Swan neck style and two.
In order to avoid the exhaust pipe of the waste gate valve, the distance between the stays is slightly wider.

In the central part of the diffuser, three flaps are generated to generate vortex flow which actively jumps up the airflow in a narrow range permitted by regulation.
I think that the amount of airflow suction of the diffuser does not change as much as it seems to look like a form to jump up here, but it is a posture that I want a gain even a little.

However, the height of the diffuser has sloped downward at the outer part, and the author is somewhat skeptical about this shape.
If it is assumed that the largest splash-up shape permitted by regulation, will not it be possible to suck out the air current at the bottom of the car body more?

The line on the top of the rear crushable structure has a new structure that bounces upwards from the taillight.

[C37] has been changed to last year's [C36] and finished in a machine that seems to have a high potential.
However, it seems that the volume of the side pod can be narrowed still, and there is still a place where it seems whether it is a subordinate team.

The driver is Marcus Eriksson and a pair of Charles Leclerd of Ferrari's fostering driver F1 champion in 2017.
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