For the Universities who can afford it, extravagant and complex aerodynamic packages are now a ?must? for teams to triumph at competitions. This trend began back in 2002 when the Australian based Monash University team utilised their famous Wind Tunnel to develop their first Aero package. Since then, many teams have followed suit and it is now common practise for teams to design Aero packages, even if finances and resources mean it never ends up on the final racecar in competition.
1. Drag vs Downforce
2. Balancing Act
3. Designing the Rear Wing
4. Designing the Front Wing
5. Designing the Undertray and Diffuser
6. CFD vs Wind Tunnel vs Track Testing

1. Drag vs Downforce
A few years ago TU Munich had a rear wing big enough to sit four people! A Formula Student car is a different beast to any other category of Motorsport. With some designs achieving power to weight ratios of 1hp/kg, these cars extract phenomenal performance out of their Motorbike engines, or electric motors. The freedom of the regulations allows these young engineers to experiment with all types of wings, flaps and aerofoils and with the narrow and twisty circuits demanding downforce; Formula Student has become famous for its enormous wings.
?Compared to Formula 1 we are almost unlimited in terms of Aerodynamic regulations because we have no standardised parts, no restrictions on the number of aerofoils and large design spaces,? explains Niklas Pfeiffer, Head of Aerodynamics and CFD at the Cologne Formula ...