Explained: Ferrari’s fast-tracked F1 upgrade package
Ferrari has fast-tracked the updates originally scheduled for the Hungarian Grand Prix in an effort to improve pace and collect back-to-back data at the Red Bull Ring that will prove invaluable as it attempts to improve the SF1000.
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The updates include a new front wing, which subtly alters the airflow's behaviour at the front-end of the car, and a new floor that was first fitted to Charles Leclerc’s car during FP1 and deals with some of the teams aerodynamic instability issues at the rear.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF1000, floor
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Ferrari SF1000 floor
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The floor features nine fully-enclosed holes at a 45-degree angle just ahead of the rear tyre, rather than the four found on the floor used last weekend. The design, reminiscent of the layout seen at Mercedes, also shortens the longitudinal floor holes ahead of them, with the entire layout altering how the wake turbulence generated by the front tyres is met by the airflow travelling under, over and around the floor.
The design team has also altered the angle of the rearward arching flap, with it being more twisted where it connects to the vertical floor strake. When combined with the additional angled holes, it deals more effectively with the tyre squirt created by the rear wheels and should now be less damaging to the performance of the diffuser.
Ferrari SF1000 front wing, Styrian GP
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The new front wing features a revised footplate (inset), with the more arched profile favoured rather than the flatter architecture of its predecessor. This alters the shape, speed and size of the vortex shed from it and subsequently how it interacts with the rest of the flow structures on the wing and their overall effect on the how the airflow is turned across and around the front tyre in order to shape the wake turbulence.
The upper flap not only slopes down more as it connects with the endplate, it also features a mild geometrical alteration at the inboard end.
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