Technical Insight: Rear-wing updates for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull

This weekend’s British Grand Prix has seen the debut of some technical updates up and down the grid, though Ferrari’s rumoured B-spec package remains elusive still despite plans to originally debut it in Hungary last weekend.

Ferrari has introduced a new rear-wing as part of a low aerodynamic package – something you would normally see at a track like Spa-Francorchamps. The set-up sought by Ferrari is dictated by the fact that at Ferrari they know they have to play defensively at Silverstone – a track where the engine has a more dominant footprint on the aerodynamic load.

To compensate for the power unit’s shortfall and to counter the high drag of the SF1000, Ferrari is using a low-load rear-wing this weekend, even more so than what it ran in Austria which was a spoon-like rear-wing with medium to low aerodynamic load compared to Silverstone, with an almost neutral main profile and a reduced rope.

Mercedes is using a similar rear-wing seen in Austria/Styria, returning to the configuration with a single support pylon. However, to further discharge the aerodynamic load, Mercedes has removed the gurney flap (see arrow) that runs along the mobile flap of the DRS, to have an additional advantage in terms of aerodynamic efficiency.

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The rear-wing solution introduced by Red Bull this weekend is completely new, with a main profile that becomes more neutral in the endplate area, recalling the spoon shape. Compared to Mercedes and Ferrari this solution is less extreme, and offers more downforce. It is very similar, to make a comparison, to the rear-wing that Ferrari used instead in Austria. But the very different interpretations between Red Bull and Ferrari are an obvious sign that the SF1000 and RB16 are conceptually different cars.