OBR25 Front Wing

My first design project at Oxford Brookes Racing was a redesign of the front wing. The aim was to improve the flow delivered downstream, increase performance without adding weight and reduce front-tyre wake ingress.

Project write-up

I joined the Aerodynamics section of Oxford Brookes Racing in September 2024. I was placed in a group of seven new engineers and given the task of improving the front wing.

We split the work between CAD and simulation, although I volunteered to work on both. This allowed me to take ideas from the first model through to the CFD results. We met every week to compare progress, while seven groups developed front-wing concepts in parallel before design freeze.

I produced more than 35 designs, starting with the footplate before working through different mainplanes, flap profiles, endplates and midplates. Some changes were small iterations and others were complete redesigns.

The inner endplates and midplates were particularly sensitive to position and angle. When positioned correctly, they generated a vortex that interacted with the front-tyre wake and pushed it farther outboard. I also completed a sensitivity study to check how the concepts behaved away from the nominal condition.

Our group’s design was selected at design freeze. The final OBR25 package increased CLA from 4.10 to 4.37 and moved the aerodynamic balance closer to the Vehicle Dynamics target.

This was my first aerodynamic design project. It taught me the aerodynamic principles behind front-wing development and showed me how effectively CAD and simulation work can be combined within a team.