Formula One car development blog

Brawn GP have brought a shark fin engine cover to Spa, resembling much to Renault's version. Jenson Button drove it on Friday for quite a few laps, but the team eventually decided not to race it. We may however see it again on future tracks this year.

Another point of interest in this image is the rear wing adjustment possibility. As earlier posted, Williams opted to have the trailing edge lower than the maximum rear wing height. Brawn on the other hand always have the maximum heigh... Read more

It has taken them a while, but Brawn GP have developed their own version of a sidepod panel to smoothen airflow around the sidepod. Arguably, the front end of the Brawn's sidepods are the cleanest of any current car, and hence the need to add these panels may have been less, but any little bit helps.

During the winter testing season and the first half of the year, most of the teams developed similar devices as they proved to be useful in earlier seasons. Brawn however decided to con... Read more

The Brawn GP design team have been looking carefully at Ferrari's front wing compared to their own. Previously that resembled a lot to BMW Sauber's design as it features two upper flaps with the actuator mechanism in the middle of these flaps. The new wing however is completely different and sports only one flap. The most important advantage of this will be the adjustability for the drivers. Previously they only has control of a small panel of which they could change the angle of at... Read more

Since Spain, Brawn is introducing updates all over its car, some smaller than others. At Monaco the BGP 001 featured updated mirror supports. Up to now, the team was running a twin element support while the new version is a much thicker aerofoil. Such in-season change of a previously simple element marks the team's search for performance improvement in areas where aerodynamic development is still allowed.

Brawn have introduced their first car updates at the Spanish GP, keeping them ahead of the competition. One of the changes includes a redesigned engine cover. While the previous design was a smooth cover, the new updated sidepods have a sharper inward curve. More in the centre of the car, following the exhausts is a new cover of the suspension components.

Marked with a second arrow is also the slightly modified bodywork ahead of the exhaust openings, somehow resembling the curved si... Read more

Apart from the double deck exhaust, the Brawn BGP001 now appears to be under fire for its exhausts. Racecar engineering have discovered that Brawn adapted (right) its car after the Australian GP at Melbourne after its exhausts were seen protruding the design (left). It is believed the change was fuelled by informal requests of other teams. Earlier on, in winter testing Ferrari faces the same problem and adapted its bodywork and exhaust system to comply with the strict letter of the ... Read more

The new wider front wings have caused the endplate to have a significantly different function than was previously the case. Instead of trying to direct air in between the front wheels, this year's endplates aim to direct air around the front wheels. While some teams debuted their cars with solutions to move air both sides of the front wheels, the Brawn way has proven more efficient. Although not the only team with this approach, the front wing endplates of the BGP001 show intelligen... Read more