The most competitive car seems to be the Ferrari F1-75, but the reference at the moment in Formula 1 is the Red Bull RB18. If the Italians are not able to capitalize on their technical superiority, which was seen in Barcelona and Monaco, the Milton Keynes team will have it in their power to continue to win victories with a single-seater that seems to be the point on which the rest look, including those of Maranello.
The background of the Ferrari F1-75 for the Monaco GP with the step (1) and skid (2)
So why was the red car faster than Adrian Newey ‘s creation despite being the machine that has inspired the others in various solutions on the grid?
Ferrari was perhaps the first team to understand porpoising in a season in which ground effect returned after a long cycle of single-seaters with flat bottoms. The Italians opted for a slightly higher front end than their rivals in the F1-75 , and this allowed for a less stiff suspension, which absorbed bumps better, so the tires could work in the correct window.
The start of the year went in that direction, although the red car was not spared from jumps on the straights. Ferrari found solutions before the rest to let the waves generated in the Venturi tunnels not cause loss of time, something very complex to do since the engineers cannot study the behavior of the cars in the wind tunnel due to the limits in the regulation (the wind cannot blow more than 150 km/h).
When aerodynamicists began to investigate how to neutralize the jumps, they tried to bring the bottom of the car closer to the tarmac, discovering a significant increase in downforce and, consequently, an increase in performance, as well as an improvement in lap times.
According to a reliable estimate, with a Formula 1 car 20 millimeters higher from the ground than the height studied in the wind tunnel, 10% of downforce is lost, which can cost up to a second per turn. It is clear that all the minds of the teams’ factories thought to increase the height to make them manageable for the pilots, but as solutions are found to be lower, knowing full well that to control the height it is essential that the settings are rigid, they risk putting more stress on the tires than was intended.
Reliability of these systems aside, research is essentially confined to the subject of the car’s background, and it should come as no surprise that Red Bull’s development has inspired its rivals.
The Maranello team brought its first package of improvements to Barcelona, with a new front end to increase performance, in addition to reducing air resistance and increasing downforce, making it possible to have a car that sits closer to the asphalt.
Higher flow diverter at the entrance of the Venturi channels of the Ferrari F1-75
Attention has, of course, been divided on the visible parts: the flow diverter outermost from the Venturi inlet has been moved slightly towards the frame, and is considerably taller.
The reason? The aerodynamicists led by David Sánchez had discovered that the “dirty” air from the turbulence generated by the front wheels ended up in the duct, creating a detrimental aerodynamic blockage. At the trailing edge, the center puff disappeared, leaving only an opening to the rear tire with a carbon center lug.
Technical detail of the rigid bottom of the Ferrari F1-75
The stiffer bottom made it possible to limit porpoising and therefore have a lower car, as, like Red Bull, Ferrari also adopted the “skid” just behind the blower. In the RB18 it has grown in size and length, while in the Ferrari the one tested in the Pirelli tests at Imola and in Free Practice 1 in Australia remained.
Detail of the central diffuser of the Ferrari F1-75 with the added keel
At the rear, the new diffuser has not gone unnoticed either: a kind of “keel” was glued to an almost flat central part. This modification was designed with Red Bull innovations in mind, which were introduced in the central area of the bottom.
Red Bull Racing RB18 bottom with keel steps
The RB18 already hid some differences since its premiere at the Bahrain Grand Prix. While Ferrari had an oval fairing design, the Austrian car was characterized by the presence of steps, both front and rear.
Despite a regulation that eliminates aerodynamic vortices, these “bumps” on the floor of the Red Bull have the clear function of generating them, with those at the front (numbers 1 and 2) with the mission of pushing the flow downwards, while those of the rear section (3) have the opposite objective to facilitate a better passage towards the diffuser.
Ricciardo’s McLaren MCL36 shows a scaled background in Monaco after his accident
Ferrari, but also McLaren, haven’t had too much trouble copying Newey’s concepts, even the Red Bull’s underbody is now stepped to reduce drag, leaving the gap to the F1-75 at just 3km/ h top speed.
Also shown in the background of the Red Bull is the metallic skid (4) that they tested in Maranello in free practice in Melbourne, and that they later took out in the Pirelli tire tests in Imola, provoking reactions in Milton Keynes.
Background of the Ferrari F1-75 used in FP1 in Melbourne and at the Imola test with Pirelli 2023 tires
What will be the next move with the Silverstone updates? The Ferrari car is very sensitive to changes, a sign that there is still significant room for growth in the car. The same thing happens at Red Bull, and you can understand, perhaps, the intransigent attitude of the smaller teams in not wanting to give the big ones the opportunity to recover the value of the inflation (around 7% on an annual basis) that is limiting purchasing power and, therefore, development by around 10 million dollars (about 9.3 million euros at current exchange rates).
McLaren MCL36 background with Red Bull style steps
