Formula One car development blog

Red Bull introduced a new beam wing on its RB9 this weekend at Bahrain. The new version will generate a little bit less downforce than the more conventional one used during the first 3 races of the season. Although a smaller beam wing it itself is nothing special, the roundings on the trailing edge of the wing are interesting indeed. The element is aimed at generating more downforce close to the centreline of the car while the reduced frontal area will cause less drag and downforce ... Read more

Red Bull Racing have copied Williams' hollow front wheel axle and wheelnut to allow air to pass through. Identical to the Williams version that was used since winter testing, the wheel nut is empty in the middle, which allows air caught by the brake ducts to flow out in an attempt to control the front wheel's wake. The latter is an important factor for rear downforce and also explains why teams are not using a similar system on the rear wheels, where it is more beneficial to have sm... Read more

Already since the Chinese GP of last week, Mercedes are running a slightly different front wing which includes a tiny lip on top of the stacked element support.

Also marked in the image are some interesting details which show how much attention Mercedes have put into this new front wing after basically struggling with that part of the car for several years. The support for the stacked element for instance is not as simple at it may initially appear as it is clearly shaped differentl... Read more

Lotus Technical Director James Allison has revealed that the team will introduce a new element in the front suspension that is mainly aimed at better controlling the ride height at the front of the car: "We will trial a suspension modification – internal rather than to the wishbones – which is an evolution of something we ran to good effect during pre-season."

Allison does not reveal what exactly will be tried, but his further comments claar up a few things: "You’re always trying to... Read more

McLaren has introduced a modified sidepod bodywork design that features a bump on top of the sidepod. In fact it looks like the fat lady sat atop of the sidepod, creating this new version. The idea is to draw a little bit more air down onto the exhaust more rapidly, helping the curving down of the exhaust gases aft of the exhaust channel. The difference of course is clear because of McLaren opting to paint less of the car's bodywork in silver.

The design is not new at all and follow... Read more

The Malaysian GP is a notorious challenge for the teams due to its high ambient temperatures and high humidity. As opening up the car creates additional drag, teams optimise their cars for lower temperatures and add outlets as needed.

Various teams have of course different solutions. At Lotus for instance the team added cooling gills aside of the cockpit, a very common outlet used also on the Mercedes AMG F1W04 and the Red Bull RB9. Toro Rosso realised this is an interesting cooling... Read more

Lotus have started the season in anger with an impressive amount of car developments. Already at Australia the team brought a new front wing, while this time in Malaysia there is another new front wing, along with this heavily modified sidepod bodywork, fitted only on Kimi Raikkonen's car. Raikkonen will continue the weekend with the new layout but Romain Grosjean will have to wait until the next race as the team were unable to get two pieces ready.

The new sidepods are a rather lar... Read more

As if it was still 2012, Lotus have kicked off the new season by introducing a brand new front wing on their E21. The team has been focusing on front wing development for years, and with seemingly great results, as performance has steadily improved in recent seasons.

The new front represents another fairly major step, with modified endplates and a more flat stacked panel. The most interesting feature of the front wing may however be the thickness of the lower flap, painted in black ... Read more

Ferrari have used their new front wing debuted at the final Barcelona test throughout the entire Australian GP weekend, showing it confirmed the new part to be an improvement for the car. When comparing this to last year, where the Scuderia had various new parts tested that eventually failed to work in real life, the new parts coming from Toyota's wind tunnel appear to be working straight away. This alone is a great sign for Ferrari that will build confidence within the team.

The ne... Read more

Lotus has had quite a busy schedule recently, and today the team came up with a new rear wing, tested both by Davide Valsecchi in the morning and Romain Grosjean in the afternoon. The new wing appears to be based on the rear wing that the team has already used when running without DRD, as the DRS actuator pod is the same and the wing's main profile also looks similar. The monkey seat however has been changed in a more traditional winglet, contrary to the curved version that existed ... Read more