Sauber making strides with new aero package

Sauber have at long last introduced an upgrade package for its low key C35. With the team's future secured, money has become available to produce what had been designed in the first half of the season, allowing the team to recover some of the deficit that it had built up since the beginning of winter testing. The team's new package is indeed extensive, with a new, shorter nose much along the lines of what other have been been doing last year. The front wing supports feature a curve on the trailing edges to try to accellerate airflow underneath the nose cone. On first sight, it does look to be more extreme than what other teams have on their cars.

Combined with that is a brand new front wing, featuring an additional flap. The general shape of the flaps now makes the wing look more and more Red Bull inspired, which shouldn't come as a surprise, given that team's obvious agility this year. Additionally, the stacked elements have been completely redesigned, with now just a single vertical support, and 3 flaps, rather than the previous 2. All this works in combination with the modifications done on the endplates in an attempt to better control the airflow that is to be diverted around the front wheels.

Further to the back, the car also features new sidepod panels. These are now one continuous item from the floor to where they connect on the chassis, therefore removing the vertical dead end that was there and used to be common practice in earlier years. It appears though that the vortex coming off that standing element was unwanted, making the new design more efficient. One can also see how the outer part of the horizontal section will generate some lift as it diverts air downward, onto the surface of the sidepod. Again, this is also common practice with a lot of cars, but a step change from what Sauber had previously.

At the very back, a new front wing is also present, resembling a lot the design that the team used at Monza last year - note that at Spa-Francorchamps 2015, the team used a regular rear wing with a horizontal main plane. The main plane's curve is similar or identical to that of the Monza wing, but the flap itself is not trimmed down as was the case last year. As such, we may expect to see this wing return at Monza this year, perhaps then with a smaller flap once again.

Not highlighted, but also part of the team's new package are optimised brake ducts and a new floor.

All in all, the team seemed to be more competitive on Friday as well. Even though it was early days, and the team was still analysing the various configurations, both drivers reported to have noticed clear improvements.