TECH DEBRIEF: Ferrari ditches experimental floor at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
Having tested a heavily-revised floor in the opening practice session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Ferrari have elected against running the upgrade in the remainder of the weekend. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.
Ferrari had been expected not to introduce any new parts in the remaining three races of the season, which meant that it was surprising to see the Scuderia submit a new upgrade before the action kicked off at Las Vegas with the first practice session.
In fact, the team brought two modified parts to the third US race of the season - a circuit-specific one and a general update. The former was a modified front wing which features a trimmed flap section which allows the team to achieve the necessary balance between the front and the rear axle of the car at a circuit where the majority of the teams are running a low-downforce rear wing.
As for the front wing modification, the Italian outfit noted that "the depowered front wing flap provides the required aero balance range associated to the optimum downforce level anticipated for Las Vegas. Different trims are available to allow modulation."
While the tweak to the front wing is a standard change on low-downforce circuits, the modified floor caught the F1 paddock by surprise as no team is expected to bring any new parts at this time of the year under the current financial regulations that heavily restrict teams in terms of their technical on-track experiments.
The Maranello-based outfit elected to run the new floor only on Carlos Sainz’s car in the opening practice session. However, the Spaniard's car was equipped with the standard version of the floor in the second practice, which suggests that the team will stick to the old floor for the rest of the weekend.
The illustration created by Rosario Giuliana shows that the modified floor features a raft of tweaks. The floor edge wing has been heavily modified, while the venturi inlets and the diffuser ramp are also different.
Commenting on the changes, Ferrari noted: "Not event specific, this update features reworked front floor fences targeting an improvement of the losses travelling downstream. The front floor body volume has subsequently reoptimized, together with the floor edge loading and vortex shedding into the diffuser."
Speaking of the changes, Ferrari senior engineer Jock Clear said that motivation for Ferrari to run a new floor is to test windtunel-to-track correlation.
“It is literally [for] FP1 so it will come off [after]. We’ve only got one of them. It doesn’t bring performance, it’s just a very localised test.
“It’s just with a view to correlating the tunnel. Obviously, that has implications for ’25 because that’s the tool you’re developing everything on but it’s very much a correlation process," concluded Clear.
