Although less than a week has passed since the first Grand Prix of the 2020 season at the Red Bull Ring, there has been no let up in aerodynamic development.
Ferrari suffered in Austria with Sebastian Vettel failing to escape Q2 whilst Charles Leclerc scraped through in tenth. Although the Monegasque racer scored a podium finish, Ferrari’s performance left many disappointed.
In reaction, upgrades destined for round three in Hungary have been fast-tracked for this weekend’s Styrian GP, with our technical writer spotting a revised front-wing set to be run on the SF1000.
The wing continues with the outwash approach originally adopted by Ferrari, but goes a step further in the hope of reducing the drag the SF1000 generates – a major flaw of the car which is most noticeable in its top speed, which was the slowest on the grid last weekend.
With the data already collected at the first race, for the second in Spielberg Ferrari hopes to improve its straight-line speed, and the new front-wing seen today shows a more downward spoiler design in the endplate area (1), especially the fifth element (top), which shows a sharp downward curve compared to the old solution seen at the last grand prix (inset).
The main plane in the outermost area also shows a slightly different design, while the endplate ‘sidewalk’ (2) has a more arched shape, compared to a squared section previously (inset).
Ferrari will certainly carry out comparison tests on Friday during practice, and we will see if the first updates brought to the SF1000 will help, with the speed trap likely to answer that question, though straight-line speed can come at the cost of downforce and therefore cornering speed.
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