Formula One car development blog

Spyker was expecting quite a bit of their new aero package this weekend, but due to Sutil not completing a single lap and Albers suffering an engine failure early in the race that potential did not show. Part of the new package is the new sidepod shield as displayed down in the picture. The above part shows the previous item that was used at Australia and resembled very much that fitted on the M16. The new panel is different in a way that it's not anymore meant to create downforce ... Read more

Ferrari have chosen to add a few shark gills to their sidepods in order to better cool the car down. Although Renault stepped away from the gills last year with the introduction of the V8 engines they still appear to be needed at hot tracks. It is mainly Ferrari now who implement this solution more extensively than Renault or any other team. Since the Ferrari engine isn't particularly known to keep its head cool, we may conclude that the Ferrari chassis does rely less on rear hot ai... Read more

Having in mind that Malaysia is one of the hottest venues of the year and therefore requiring lots of cooling, one may ask himself why Williams is not opening up their chimney more instead of having the exhaust area decreased. The basic reasoning behind this is the aerodynamic effect of the chimney itself, which by its shape forms a Bernouilli wing. It creates downforce as the air underneath moves faster than above. It is however a questionable approach which Williams is using for s... Read more

Red Bull have used the Malaysian test last week to improve their aerodynamic package, resulting in a new rear wing. The lower image shows the wing that was used by both Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing in Australia. The new wing is not curved up anymore in the middle but instead has a dropping leading edge all over the span of the wing, except for both ends where they are a bit cut off. As seen with other teams too, the trailing edge of the upper element has been cut off towards the e... Read more

Bridgestone have been thinking of ways to mark the option tyres so that they are visibly while the cars are driving. The Australian race showed that the big white circle painted on the sidewalls of the tyres was not a very good solution. Two alternatives were tested in Sepang. One consisted of a bigger red dot on the sidewalls, while the other was to paint one of the tyre grooves white. As the image shows this is by far the better solution. Bridgestone has therefore decided to use t... Read more

McLaren continue to develop their new mirrors located hidden behind the front wheels. Lewis Hamilton's car was first seen with the two extra mirrors at the latest Bahrain test. While the usual mirrors were still present, the outboard ones were fitted to the sidepod vane. It was a similar solution to what Renault had come up with. The similarities continue however as during the Sepang test, the outboard mirrors had an extra support to prevent the mirrors from shaking under high speed... Read more

Although the newest Super Aguri is definitely a derivative from the Honda RA106, the team have developed the aero package over the winter. One of these new things included a new double front wing. The lower part of the image shows the new wing. It has a surprisingly flat upper panel compared to the Renault or Ferrari versions. The drivers hit the track with it on Friday but later in the weekend switched to another, simpler wing. The upper image is the front wing driven in the race a... Read more

As reported earlier in this blog, Renault have integrated their rear view mirrors onto the sidepod panel. Ferrari gave the example of hiding the mirrors behind the front wheels in 2006 after which several teams adopted the idea in their 2007 competitors. The initial Renault design as it appeared at the launch and winter tests apparently proved a little too weak in order to maintain good driver visibility at high speeds. The team have therefore added a small extra support for the mir... Read more

All aerodynamicists in F1 agree that these days the performance gains come in details, rather than revolutionary designs. Now McLaren have relocated the front nose camera position to gain an extra bit of speed. Ferrari have also adjusted the location of the camera so that it would not prevent the front wing from working efficiently. In fact one might even think that it helps the front wing in some cases. Since engines are now hardly different in terms of power output, every little a... Read more

As Bahrain was the final test before the start of the season, teams had to finalise their setup for the initial GP at Australia. Unsurprisingly that led to aerodynamic changes all over the cars, with Scuderia Toro Rosso adding an extra fin on the front wing endplates. Knowing that simple changes of the FWEP can lead to downforce differences up to 5% of the overall it is obviously an area of focus for the teams. The extra fin and the lower plane of this end plate are bent up slightly... Read more