Formula 1 fans have been offered a first look at a 2017 Formula 1 car design, after a farewell image from Manor staff revealed its windtunnel model.
Administrators for the Manor team announced on Friday that hopes of finding a buyer to save the team had faded, and it was being shut down.
In a bid to say goodbye, staff that had worked on the aerodynamics – including windtunnel technicians, chief designer Luca Furbatto and head of aerodynamics Nikolas Tombazis – posed with a 50% scale model of the MRT07 in a picture obtained by Autosport.
The car has been used as part of the team’s development programme in the Mercedes windtunnel.
It is understood that the version on display was not the 2016 car adapted to the new 2017 rules, as the team could have entered had it found a last-minute buyer, but was instead the project it was planning to compete with before it hit financial trouble.
Although interpretations of the 2017 regulations have been made since the regulations were published, the Manor model is the first actual evidence of the direction teams are taking.
The new front wing clearly features the deltoid shaping required of the regulations, but also shows how the team was trying a more aggressive outwash tunnel and cascade arrangement to displace airflow across and around the front face of the tyre.
The innermost inverted L-shaped cascades work the much talked about Y250 vortex which directs airflow around the front of the car, to prevent interference from the tyres.
The nose is broad like it was on the 2016 Manor, but terminates above the front wing’s neutral section rather than beyond it, as the team looks to improve how the air moves down the car by reducing the blockage caused by the longer nose.
The airflow conditioners that flank the sidepods are retained and may have helped to improve flow around the now wider sidepod shoulder.
The image also clearly shows the new rear wing shape, as hinted at previously by Ferrari’s modified 2015 car used for Pirelli testing last year.
