We are already past the halfway point in the Formula 1 season, and so far we’ve seen plenty of great work done by the teams to improve their performance. As always, Giorgio Piola has kept a close eye on these improvements – so we can take a look through the story so far…

Pockets of performance can always be found when new regulations come into play, especially in areas where the FIA have already tried to close things off. As they say, the devil is in the details.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the photos and captions below.

Slider

List

Mercedes AMG F1 W10 front suspension

1/6

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

All of the teams have looked to carve out space for small winglets on the brake duct this year, as seen here on the Mercedes W10.

Alfa Romeo Racing C38 fins

2/6

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Similarly, many teams now have winglets mounted on the ramped section of the chassis, used to just tidy up the airflow as it travels over the nose/chassis transition. Here’s the Alfa Romeo C38.

Red Bull RB15 new fins

3/6

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

While several other teams have added some relatively rudimentary L-shaped winglets, it was Red Bull that added some more stylised winglets on Max Verstappen’s car in Canada.

Mercedes AMG F1 W10 DRS

4/6

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Mercedes has been playing around with serrated surfaces for a number of years now to help improve efficiency, and this year they opted to do so with the trailing edge of the DRS pod.

Mercedes AMG F1 W10 serrated rear wing

5/6

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Mercedes also ran a serrated trailing edge on its rear wing mainplane in Azerbaijan.

Ferrari SF90 DRS

6/6

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Ferrari also took on a design feature we’d already seen from Toro Rosso, whereby the DRS pod has an extension that limits the upper flap’s travel.

From the editor, also read:

• F1 tech race: Giorgio Piola on key 2019 developments
• F1 tech race: 2019’s nose and front wing updates so far