BAR where at Silverstone for the last test before the Australian Grand Prix. Jenson Button was in the interim "concept" car and Anthony Davidson was in the new 006. While Jenson concentrated on tyre and electronic testing, which included a stall test, where returned to the pits, put the car in neutral, re-engaged first and let the clutch out with out enough revs, the anti-stall software pulled the clutch and the car kept running. This will be useful at the races start when manual launches are required and the clutch release comes under the drivers control once more.
Anthony completed aerodynamic tests, running with different front wings, endplates and rear wings. The team used both a 2004 spec two element wing and a three element 2003 wing. Front wing endplates kept breaking the footplate along the lower edge of the plate. As Anthony was sure he wasn’t hitting anything a manufacturing issue was suggested to be the cause.
One of the most innovative changes on the BAR was the vertical fence on the rear wing, acting like a secondary intermediate endplate. As the fence is positioned at the change in curvature of the rear wing it may act to stop higher pressure from the central span of the wing passing to the slightly lower pressure (shorter chord)outer span. While the fence would produce a small vortex from its junction with the wings trailing edge, the pressure maintained on the outer spans would limit the strength of their more drag critical vortex.
BAR have used shelf wings in the past when under Malcolm Oastlers lead. The device was first used to aid the rear wing when the rules restricted the upper tier to three elements. Now it has returned for the same purpose now the upper tier is down to two elements. While the "wing" is an aerofoil shape it is not highly loaded and acts to condition the flow ahead of the main rear wing to reduce separation under the steeply angled flap.
As the temperature At Silverstone was only around zero degrees C, the hot air outlets for the radiators seen on the launch car (and were stated to be the largest outlet option) were replaced by closed panels showing the true slim-ness of the rear end.
While BAR have been setting fast times in testing the suggestion they are running underweight has been raised. The car may be on low fuel runs, but plenty of ballast was still evident, from a large slab under the drivers legs to the "tuning" ballast added to the splitter section, this ballast is accessible to allow tuning of weight distribution without removing the floor.
Moving away from the bargeboard layout of the 005 (and 004B) the new car uses only a triangular plate with a little flick on the tip to generate a vortex to condition the flow around the car. This is supplements by two small turning vanes low and just ahead of the splitter
The rear end of the new car is also developed from the 005, although the gearbox is in carbon fibre the internally placed dampers and overhead third damper retain a similar layout. Exhausts run straight backwards, without the "up and backward" bend from the 005.