Analysis of Ferrari's Canadian GP upgrade package

Motorsportweek presents a short analysis of Scuderia Ferrari’s upgrade package for the 2017 Canadian GP, highlighting that the Maranello team’s lower drag aero package brought to Montreal had a number of small detailed changes that had the purpose of improving the car’s overall aerodynamic efficiency going forward, but at the same time optimising the SF70H car for the specifications of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The bulk of the update, and the most visual change, was the spoon-shaped rear-wing, a profile used by Mercedes during the first few round (and one that the Silver Arrows returned to for Montreal as well). This profile uses a lower angle of attack at the wing tips, which cuts drag in two ways: there is less blockage to the oncoming flow and the pressure gradient between the upper and lower surfaces of the wing is smaller, so the tip vortex is reduced in strength. However the wing overall – when considering the endplates, the accompanying winglets below and the way the wing is mounted – differs significantly from the Scuderia’s title rival:

To begin with, the Italian team has chosen to mount the wing to the rear crash structure using two pylons. More importantly, though, Ferrari have moved away from the swan-neck layout used on the previous wing, which was believed to allow the wing to bend backwards under extreme loads experienced at over 190 mph to increase straight line speed. Instead the pylons connect directly beneath the main plane, with one of the two monkey seat winglets bolted to them. Ferrari have also aligned themselves with the rest of the field by adopting open-ended louvres. These louvres are a common sight and have been around in Formula One for many years, being designed to bleed air between the two sides of the endplate and control the wing tip vortex.

Last season Toro Rosso revealed the open-ended design and this has since been copied by most teams. A revised DRS actuator housing design completes the new wing assembly. Having debuted a double T-wing at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, the single element wing used for the majority of the season so far returned in Montreal. As for the rest of the car, a fourth scalloped slot was added to the floor in front of the rear tyre to further control the lateral flow that ‘squirts’ from the rotating mass to the diffuser, and detail adjustments to the bodywork were made around the SF70H’s complex sidepods to provide the rear aero components with cleaner flow.