Formula One car development blog

One of the success stories of 2006 is without a doubt Super Aguri. The team had been set up in a few months time and refurbished an old Arrows A23 chassis to compete the season with the SA05. At Hockenheim, things improved considerably with the SA06 as the team reduced the weight of the monocoque and had many aerodynamic developments fitted in the following races. The narrower sidepods, new wings, smaller air inlets and differently fitted exhausts totalled for around 2 seconds a lap... Read more

Rear wing supports used to be vertical, flat and rectangular carbon elements placed in the centreline of the car to provide extra strength to the planes of the wing. Nowadays that is no longer the case. Apart from their original means, they are designed as stabilisers for the air passing in between the rear wing endplates. As the arrows on the image show, Super Aguri have also realised this, although it is more like a development coming from Honda Racing F1. The supports will not cr... Read more

The Super Aguri SA06 is still under development and friday saw another new item on the car. While Renault run the ears for about the full season now, SA is testing similar winglets on its car. The item was removed for the race and qualifying as it may have caused unnecesary drag in its current development stages. Compared to the Renault ears they appear to be thicker and pointing out higher above the nosecone. Similar though is the end plate which is remarkable because regular wingl... Read more

The 'new' SA06 is already here for its third GP, and it is still not very clear whether it is the step in the good direction that the team was hoping for. That it sported lots of changes is clear, and the lower flipup in front of the rear wheel is even more proof thereof. The item is somewhat similar to that of Midland and even Ferrari, albeit located lower to the ground. The element here is meant to provide extra downforce and possibly reduce drag as it has the same shape as the ma... Read more

Although not new, the twin keel setup of the SA06 is worth a look. Even the SA05 had a similar keel layout as it too was an update of the Arrows A23 to comply with current regulations. Previously at Arrows, the keels (the right one is marked in the image by 1. ) stretched out vertically from the monocoque to the height of the reference plane. However, because of changes in the beginning of 2006, the technical regs now say "All bodywork situated forward of a point lying 330mm behind ... Read more