Project Details

Rear wing is one of the three main parts of the aerodynamic system alongside the front wing and the undertray. The rear wing is the aerodynamic subsystem that encounters airflow that has already passed over/through all other components on the top half of the car. Because the front wing is capable of efficiently generating large values of downforce, the job of the rear wing is to generate downforce to counteract the front wings effect on the force balance and bring the center of pressure rearward.

The rear wing features 3 cascading elements to reach a large angle of attack without flow separation at 6 design speeds. This year, the main element was designed to have a 3D curvature (as opposed to the normal 2D wing) in which the element transitions from aggressive high-camber airfoils on the sides to a lower-camber airfoil in the center. The 3D curvature was implemented to allow the element to essentially curve over and around the headrest and interact with the cleaner air above and to the sides of the headrest. The varying camber was added to allow the main element to have a flat trailing edge without needing extreme angles of attack on the sides. Without ground effect, the downforce from the rear wing is largely generated via airflow momentum changes which induces higher levels of drag than the front wing and the undertray. To counteract this, a DRS system has been implemented to minimize drag at high speeds when downforce is not needed on track.

To manufacture the main element a CNC mill was used. Then, rather than creating both a male and female mold as it is normally done, only two halves of a male mold were machined and then bonded together. The male mold had to be suspended above the ground for the carbon sheets to be wrapped around it in one piece. Mylar could not be used, but peel ply was applied on the surface of the carbon fiber during vacuum bagging.