Formula One car development blog

Honda have raced their new W-shaped rear wing for the first time at Turkey. It had previously been tested at Barcelona before the Spanish GP. Previously, Honda's rear wing was a simple shaped horizontal aerofoil with an equal angle of attack over the entire span. For the new wing, the team appear to have started from scratch with some noticeable influence from Ferrari. The element now has a very curved lower element and, as a result, a variable angle of attack along the width of the... Read more

Williams continue to design their front wing independent of what the other teams are doing. The wing that was used in the first three races, as in the lower image, already was distinct as it featured a very smoothly curved base plane profile. This time around, the engineers left the bridge element unchanged, but changed all the rest. The Barcelona spec front wing sports 3 completely separate panels contrary to the previously half open main plane. Apart from that, the leading edge co... Read more

It is no secret that Renault have put high hopes on their Barcelona update, and the Grand Prix even stunned their own guys. Apart from their new elongated engine cover, the French team also developed a new front wing that features important changes to the bridge element. In order to add downforce and driveability, the upper element is now split up in downforce generating aerofoils on each side and a central bridge section. The latter is now an almost perfectly round bow over the nos... Read more

Just like Renault copied BMW Sauber's idea already at the beginning of the season, Toyota have now also seen the light and produced a similar item for their TF108. In fact it looks very similar to Renault's sidepod panel extension. On top of that, as indicated in the image, the panel's leading edge is curved slightly inwards on its lower half of the newly added panel. This detail helps to direct air around the sidepods and towards the gearbox area.
Also in their new package update, ... Read more

All teams have been very busy testing their new wheel fairings during the Barcelona test, but Honda have added an extra bit of value to the wheel covers. Essentially, the covers are a carbon fibre shield that helps with the cooling of the front brakes. Marked in the image are on the right an air inlet to accellerate cooling while on the left a small outlet - pic taken from the right of the car.
Despite being very useful, they generally don't sell well to the wide public as they cove... Read more

Sidepod panels that extend down to the barge boards are the new must-have. Red Bull have created their version on the idea, rather similar to Renault's design. It appears as if the two teams are working together, as on the same day, Renault introduced its Red Bull style engine cover. The new panels help to streamline turbulent air from behind the rear wheel and can potentially add quite some downforce at the back end of the car. Part of that extra downforce is also provided by the n... Read more

Although not spectacular, Ferrari's F2008 is a car in constant evolution. At Barcelona, the barge board were again updated (see image). Previously, the diagonal edge was slightly shorter, while during winter testing there was only a vertical edge. Variations of this diagonal edge barge board was also seen at Red Bull and provides a means of combining the best of both worlds: jagged edged and straight edged barge boards.

It start to look like Toyota is playing a game with us. All the way through 2007, the team used standard mirrors attached to the cockpit sides. Then, at their TF108 launch, it was with great surprise to see that they had chosen to move the mirrors outboard and fix them onto the sidepod panels, similar to Renault's solution on their R27. However, the first three races were again run with a more conventional system. A temporary measure it seems as a completely new design was unpacked ... Read more

Almost one year ago and also at a test session at Barcelona, Honda uncovered its RA107 with elephant ears. While the ears were never raced in 2007, they are back on the RA108. Today, Honda showed off a slimmed down version of their ears. The aerofoils are now smaller but extend higher above the nose. It remains to be seen whether it will be used in races this year, but there is a possibility that the FIA will opt against it, either for security reasons or because it hinders the sigh... Read more

Renault is the first team to have copied Red Bull's overside engine cover. The team must have looked closely to its fellow Renault powered team as the item very much resembles Red Bull's design. The British team introduced theirs at the last test before the start of the season, while Alonso has been busy trying the item in the second day of Barcelona testing. The team also chose to fit their car with the raced front wing instead of the new one in order to better analyse the performa... Read more