Several Formula 1 teams including Red Bull Racing and Ferrari have brought performance-related car upgrades to this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
Aston Martin has implemented the largest number of updates with nine, while Mercedes has also made a suite of changes for the first European round of the season. Some teams developed upgrades to be applied at the first six flyaway rounds, such as McLaren in Miami, but this weekend marks the biggest collective display of changes for the Europe-based organisations.
Reigning champion Red Bull has fitted its points-leading RB20 with performance upgrades to the floor, front wing and nose. The Milton Keynes-based outfit undertook CFD simulations to see how it could extract more load from the floor edge, and found that it could do this by repositioning a section under the rear wing. It also found that it could bring the upper surface of the floor down slightly to improve airflow to the components behind.
The leading edge of the front wing endplate has been repositioned and flap elements have been redesigned to extend the chord (the distance between the leading and trailing edges). Extending the chord means that Red Bull can extract more load from the flaps. As an offshoot of revising the flap elements, Red Bull also adjusted the nose box fairings.
‘I think the visibility of the upgrade is maybe not as apparent from outside, but it’s something interesting for us,’ said Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché on Friday, when Max Verstappen had a couple of off-track moments in practice. ‘What we put on the car now [and] how we develop the car will depend on our tools [and our] response to the performance.’
Ferrari is marking the first of two home races with a comprehensive set of updates. A key change is the introduction of a new sidepod inlet. The SF-24 started the season with an underbite-style inlet to direct air for cooling the internal components at the rear of the car. The new inlet, which now has an upper lip that protrudes slightly further than the lower one, is designed to improve flow quality over the floor edge.
Airflow-related changes to the floor edge and engine cover have also been made. The engine cover volume is smaller than it was before, improving flow quality towards the coke bottle-shaped rear section of the car. An expansion of the diffuser offers a load increase in that area. Ferrari has also updated the SF-24’s front and rear wings. The latter now has a swept flap tip and enlarged mainplane to endplate roll junction.
Ferrari started the Imola weekend strongly as Charles Leclerc topped both practice sessions on the first day of running.
On the Aston Martin AMR24, the central section of the front wing has a revised shape and relationship to the first wing element. This is designed to alter the loading distribution on the wing’s lower surface, and has led to a new nose being fitted.
Lower surface load has also been increased on sections of the floor, while the diffuser has been modified to improve airflow characteristics. A revised central trim at the centre of the engine cover is smaller than the previous version that Aston Martin ran with. This modification has been made for cooling purposes.
Additionally, the external fairings of the rear suspension have been revised. This appears to be an aerodynamic measure as the rear corners of the car affect air flow around the rear wheel.
Mercedes has brought two performance-related upgrades to Imola, as well as three circuit-specific changes pertaining to the 4.9km track.
Looking at the performance side, the Brackley-based team has made a minor modification to the floor fence alignment that is aimed at improving the quality of airflow to the rear of the floor and onwards to the diffuser. Mercedes has also modified the volume of the tunnels carved into the underfloor to generate downforce through ground effect. This changes the trajectory of the vortex generators positioned along the floor edge, increasing load on these parts.
Despite Imola being its home race, the RB squad is the only team that has not declared any updates for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Click here for a full list of each F1 team’s declarations.
