Red Bull continues to fly, while Ferrari must absolutely redeem the improper performance of the SF-24 in China. A weekend Of F1 where the load-efficiency equation was very good but, due to the tire problem, the performance they turned out to be quite subdued. A competitive scenario aggravated by the low temperatures of Shanghai which, in Floridathey certainly won’t make a presence. The Prancing Horse celebrates 60 years since its arrival on American soil. Among the various events planned, here is the homage through a particular livery featuring the two shades of blue of times gone by.
Returning to the present Red Bull remains the team to beat. The Austrian team wants to send a positive signal after the farewell of Adrian Newey. A loss that the team he is convinced that he can support thanks to his heirs: Pierre Waché (Technical Director), Enrico Balbo (Head of Aerodynamics), Craig Skinner (Chief Designer) e Ben Waterhouse (Head of Performance). Then there is Mercedes which needs to make a sharp turn. One step forward thanks to updates to correct the defects of the W15. Important weekend of test for the men of Brackley who despite the only hour of free practice available, think they can “understand” their car.
Once again, the second in this first part of the championship will be present there Sprint Race. Format detail strongly desired by Liberty Media to shuffle the cards on the table. Compared to last year however, the double parc fermé offers the possibility of changing the setup on Saturday. An operation that, if used properly, is able to provide many benefits to better interpret the Sunday race, thanks to the plethora of data collected through the 100 km mini race. Without further preambles, let’s move on to the analysis of the aerodynamic configurations, examining the load installed on the rear axle of the cars at the top of the ranking.
Ferrari optimizes the load, Red Bull new rear wing
The first comparison examines Ferrari And Red Bull. The Italian team adopts, for yet another consecutive race, the same rear wing specification, as we had anticipated in recent days. On the other hand, a new specification could be introduced in the next races, when the updates will also arrive to enhance the performance of the red. Maybe not right away Imolabut rather a Monk. We remind you that the choice to use the same wing should help the understanding of the load of the SF-24 and the optimal exploitation of its current potential.
Ferrari must aim to maximize the handling of the car in long-radius curves, while on paper it should struggle in the slow ones compared to the RB20. The inclusion of the roses is excellent and then, in the traction phase, they see a loss of returns due to the advantage of Red Bull quite clear. Nonetheless, to increase the capacity to generate grip on every type of coverage, the engineers tried to obtain a compromise in terms of suspension stiffness which, at least until China, was not fully achieved. Looking at the rear of the colorful Austrian racing car blue racingwe note how on RB20 come back a main plain exhaust already used in Saudi Arabia.
We are referring to the first foil of the wing with different shaping. This specification would appear to lower the aerodynamic load, with the clear objective of optimizing performance at maximum speeds. There downforce generated, therefore, should be maximized by modifying the incidence of the profiles relating to beam wing. We know that the Red BullBasic, It has a chassis capable of producing a lot grip lateral which, in turn, allows the frontal area of the rear wing to be reduced. By unloading the rear axle they would shift the balance towards the front, so we expect them to use one beam wing from greater load to rebalance the center of pressure.
As regards the McLarencurrently on MCL36 one of the two rear wing specifications already seen in this first part of the championship is fitted. In particular we talk about the configuration of Australia. At the moment one of their fundamental problems remains speed at the end of a straight line (EOSS – End Of Straight Speed), also due to the reduced level of efficiency of the car they have been working on for some time. By unloading the wing the center of pressure of the MCL38 it goes too far, generating excessive oversteer which contributes to increasing tire degradation.
As mentioned, Mercedes will debut some updates on the W15. A choice to accelerate development and try to raise the performance of the black and gray arrows. For the appointment in FloridaThe team German continues to use the “spoon” rear wing, a specification observed in most of the first six races of this world championship. It’s a wing that technicians and drivers get along with quite well in recent races they managed to find a good compromise between the balance it creates in the fast sections and the top speeds it allows to obtain.
Authors and graphic designers: Alessandro Arcari – @berrageiz – Niccolo Arnerich – @niccoloarnerich
Images: Albert Fabrega – @AlbertFabrega
