Formula One car development blog

As part of a new rear wing package introduced at the Nurburgring, McLaren have dropped their horns that were fitted on the McLaren cars since the beginning of 2005. The elements were designed initially to improve airflow on the rear wing under yaw. However, the new rear wing introduced now has a bumped middle section similar to the rear wing of Ferrari. It obviously improves performance under yaw and makes the horns useless. Additionally, dropping the horns will reduce overall drag ... Read more

Renault is working long days lately in order to regain some of their beloved pace that they showed in 2005 and 2006. This year proves to be troublesome for the French team as the Bridgestone tyres have a worrying effect on downforce. As a result, another new front wing has been developed. Although initially planned for Hungary it was already fitted on the car at the European Grand Prix. The new wing has a deeper spoon curve under the nose tip to improve low speed downforce. Similar ... Read more

Ferrari are really putting in a huge effort to make up for the lost ground because of windtunnel problems earlier on in the season. Now that everything is back on track, developments are clear and pay off. The Italian team has brought a new sidepod vane to the three-day test at Spa. The new panel in the upper image is now open in the middle and features a slit similar to what McLaren introduced albeit slightly more subtle.

While the Scuderia Ferrari is quickly adding new bits onto their car, Red Bull have lately been stuck with their gearbox problems. Without major new aero enhancements in the last races, the team appears to have closely looked to the red cars. New vertical splitters were added underneath the front wing main place to improve downforce. Surprisingly, they have introduced this at this week's Spa Francorchamps test which is known to be a medium to low downforce track. In contrast to Ferr... Read more

Ferrari have once again developed a new rim cover, but this time it has been so thoroughly developed that it doesn't rotate with the wheel any more. The new cover is fitted inside the front wheel to help brake disk cooling. The assembly comes with a newly developed wheel nut (see left image). The nut consist of a central, silver coloured part that does not rotate and is fixed to the wheel axis. Around it is a blue part that does rotate with the wheel. When the fronts wheels are now ... Read more

Ferrari have again added their fins on the underside of the front wing panels. It is new compared to the last races where these were unnecessary due to lower downforce requirements. While the Italian team have used similar solutions in the past, no other team have found these necessary at the French GP. The fins, as marked in the image, are mainly meant to guide airflow to flow laterally under the wing. It can slightly add to downforce but will inflict natural airflow and therefore ... Read more

The Scuderia Ferrari have understood that everything in F1 these days is about cutting through air as efficiently as possible. The team is now aggresively attacking the molecules by new "knives" located just ahead both sidepods. The elements work similar to those at Renault and Honda in order to increase the pressure at the sidepod air inlet. The difference with Ferrari's design is the angle and the sharpness of the endpoints.

As an upper midfield team these days, Williams is closely looking at the solution of other teams to solve their own problems. When at the beginning of the season the team introduced their double deck front wing, the upper elements closely resembled those of the championship winning Renault R26. Yet with their French update, the lower mainplane has been modified to be a little more curved and now also looks very similar to the Renault car, this time the R27. However, the upper panels... Read more

Toyota's 2007 runner is still lacking pace compared to the team's budget, especially in the hands of Ralf Schumacher. Fortunately the team is improving step by step by introducing new parts. This time around the new aero package includes a new engine cover. The upper part of the image shows that new design, following the trend set by McLaren and new used by BMW and Ferrari too. The extra surface in the upper area allows for a cleaner airflow towards the rear wing and is expected to ... Read more

Ferrari have been working on their carbon rim shields for quite a while now, starting in the beginning of last season. With now also Toyota and Renault continuously running with rim attachments on the rear wheels, Ferrari have now come with front wheel cooling aids glued inside the rim. Contrary to the rear wheel where only a small opening is left for air cooling, at the front the modification is far more modest. A small curved ring is fitted to improve the airflow from the brakes t... Read more