Bite-size tech: Toro Rosso STR11 rear wing

The team expected the update to provide a significant improvement in performance, perhaps enough to overcome the power unit deficit it faced at Spa and Monza from running a year-old Ferrari powe unit.

When that didn't materialise it left the team in a quandary, one it worked through intelligently to understand, with both drivers back-to-back testing the old and new specifications.

It is understood that this study highlighted that the predicted downforce gain was largely met by the update, however, a disproportionate and unexpected increase in drag also came with it, nullifying to a large extent the downforce gains made.

As such, in Malaysia it is no surprise to see the team install a new rear wing design which appears to work on the compromised relationship between downforce and drag.

Toro Rosso STR11 rear wing

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

The butterfly style design mainplane features a much shorter chord in the central part of the wing, whilst retaining a tall chord height at the outboard sections.

The DRS actuator pod has also been redesigned to take this into account, along with the shape of the top flap, which now features a broader V groove.

The open ended louvres pioneered by the team at the start of the season are retained and run in the higher downforce configuration of three louvres to help displace the vortices generated at the wing tips.