Alfa Romeo Racing has already planned the evolution of the C39 which finished in eighth place in the Constructors’ World Championship. The new car will focus on a reduction of the front drag with a new nose that must be homologated with a crash test.
Alfa Romeo will change the nose. The team from Hinwil has decided to use its development tokens for the 2021 Formula 1 season in the front aerodynamics of the C39 which will be completely revised with the adoption of a narrow nose to reduce the drag of the car, thus looking for greater aerodynamic efficiency.
The team from Hinwil will count on benefiting from the power increase of the new Ferrari engine which will be made available for winter tests in Barcelona from 1 to 3 March 2021, while it will try to assert the quality of its historic wind tunnel to make a performance leap that should allow the team led by Fred Vasseur to aim for more ambitious goals, after the eighth place in the 2020 Constructors’ World Championship obtained with just 8 world championship points.
It will not be easy since the AlphaTauri, seventh in the world ranking, has collected 107 points, thanks to the victory of Pierre Gasly in Monza and an AT01 regularly classified in the top ten.
The change in the aerodynamic rules approved by the FIA to preserve the Pirelli tires, will oblige the teams to find the right aerodynamic balance after the loss of downforce which will be determined by the cutting of the bottom and the abolition of slots on the pavement, as well as by the raised vertical bulkheads. 50 mm below the extractor and the reduction of the fins in the rear brake duct area.
It is not certain that all teams will be able to find the lost aerodynamic load (we are talking about 10%) so, with a limitation of the vertical thrust in the rear, it can make a lot of sense to seek better air penetration in the front, facilitating the search for a good balance, taking into account that the Pirelli 2021 tires will require an adjustment of the flows around the tyre as they have a stiffer shoulder and a rounder shape.
Jan Monchaux, Alfa Romeo technical director, commissioned chief designer Luca Furbatto to redesign the nose according to the latest dictates introduced by Mercedes and then taken up by almost everyone except Ferrari and its customer teams and Williams.
If Haas focuses on the 2021 gearbox, in Hinwil they are betting on the efficiency of the front, as had already been anticipated by Vasseur in Abu Dhabi, following in the wake of the aerodynamic development that has given more results.
The new nose will require passing a frontal crash test to gain FIA homologation, following what Racing Point, Renault and McLaren did this year, while Red Bull on the RB16 has benefited less than it was expected from the version of the nose with narrow pylons that was not used in racing, despite the numerous tests carried out in GP free practice.
The goal is to take advantage of the experience of a well-tried and close-knit pair of drivers like that of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, to look to the 2021 world championship with more optimism.
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