The fourth round of the 2022 Formula One season marked the break even point between Red Bull’s performance and the need to introduce the first major developments on the Ferrari F1–75. The last stage of the world championship was characterized by the superiority of the RB18 in changing weather conditions, expressed on any type of surface and on the entire range of tires, highlighting the importance of the single-seater development plan in the long-distance battle with the Maranello team.
Precisely on the occasion of the first European stage, the Milton Keynes team brought to the track a “lighter” version of its car, the result of a significant weight loss which, in fact, increased the performance of the car by minimizing what of the major issues of Red Bull in the start of the 2022 season. The particular weather conditions of the Imola weekend, together with the unfortunate incidents of the Ferrari drivers, do not allow definitive evaluations regarding Red Bull’s upgrade. However, Ferrari is alow aware of the fact that its string basic specification of the F1-75 car must be supported by developments that evolve its performance, as reported by team principal Mattia Binotto in his latest statements.
“We will not have the main update in America, but we will bring some new parts. We will adapt our car in terms of downforce and continue to work on porpoising. It is visible and there is also performance potential to be extracted there ” – he explained.
The Italian team, like the AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Alpine teams, took advantage of the Pirelli test session for the 2023 tyres, scheduled on the Imola track during the week, testing a new “floor” with micro-aerodynamic updates, in order to evaluate the anti-bouncing effectiveness with a total of 118 laps.
The “bouncing phenomenon”, better known as aerodynamic bouncing, is seen as a handicap which without a doubt has to be solved. In Imola, a choice was made on very rigid structures that produced less effectiveness in absorbing the roughness of the track and in passing over the curbs. A higher bouncing frequency corresponds to an unstable dynamic behavior that is more complex to manage, as in the case of the Mercedes W13, a situation that derives from the specific conformation of the “floor” and the height from the ground adopted.
On the F1-75 the trigger threshold relating to porpoising occurs at very high speeds, thus allowing effective braking which restores the balance of the car and ensures a better behavior when entering corners. A definitive fix of the bouncing will allow Ferrari to express the full potential of the 066/7 power unit, especially in long-speed straights and in fast corners.
In this first part of the 2022 Formula One season, the contrast between two old school concepts in the aerodynamic field reappears. The RB18 of the genius Adrian Newey represents the best interpretation of the new wing cars from the point of view of aerodynamic efficiency.
This contrasts with the F1-75 project, created by duo Enrico Cardile / David Sanchez, which bases its competitiveness on the particular shape of the sidepods in the upper part, which collects air and directs it under the rear wing and towards the “beam wing ”generating a very high value of vertical thrusts.
Ferrari has created a single-seater in some respects quite innovative that has been able to establish itself similarly to the SF70-H, a car that stood out for its originality in the interpretation of the sidepods, with a high entrance of the sidepods and an upper anti-intrusion cone moved to the lower limit granted by the technical regulation. Solution that proved great and was then copied by various competitors.
Despite a less competitive power unit than Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel managed to take two wins and two second places in the first four Grands Prix of the 2017 season, the result of an extremely balanced car with high downforce. The SF70-H is an example of a car that was designed well, but which due to an absurd idiosyncrasy was very limited in development precisely due to the original aerodynamic philosophy adopted by Maranello’s aerodynamics.
Over the course of the season, developments aimed at ensuring greater aerodynamic efficiency did not produce the desired result and in low-medium load tracks it always paid the price compared to the Mercedes W08.
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The F1-75 partly reflects the heritage of the SF70-H in terms of base specification strengths and downforce, as explained by funoanalisitecnica.com. Therefore, in a certain sense, it is legitimate to ask what margin of development a single-seater can have that has its strong point in the particular shape of the car body, penalizing in terms of aerodynamic efficiency.
Is it possible to assume that, in its basic specification, the F1-75 project is already in full maturity and therefore with less room for development? At the moment, the search for maximum speed is placed in reducing the severity of the porpoising phenomenon, in the development of new wing surfaces and in the progress of the already excellent power unit, as the development of its hybrid component can be implemented until 1 September, the date of the so-called freezing for turbo-hybrid units.
At the same time at Red Bull, the making RB18 lighter has favored the handling of the single-seater in the low-speed corners, segments in which Milton Keynes’s car suffered heavy gaps compared to the F1-75. Just think of the last sector of the Melbourne track.
The next stages of the F1 world championship, and their respective development plans, will clarify whether the balance between Ferrari and Red Bull, the two teams that will presumably fight at the top until the end of the championship, is destined to be the leitmotiv of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
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