After a two-week break following the last round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, teams brought to the track their latest updates, taking advantage of the break in order to work on a series of tweaks with the goal of further improving their pace and performance.
For Scuderia Ferrari the first things that is clearly visible is the revised front/mid floor and tweaked diffuser, which were seen in the Paul Ricard pitlane yesterday. The Italian side confirmed earlier today that the updates were part of a normal development cycle, and would be carried forward for the next events.
“It aims at improving the overall aerodynamic performance through the entire car operating envelope and is not specific to the Paul Ricard circuit,” – Scuderia Ferrari said in the official explanations that starting with this year have to be submitted to the FIA ahead of evert race weekend.
Red Bull
Ferrari’s title rivals Red Bull have also introduced some changes to the key area of the floor, with revised fence geometries that extend to the edge. The Austrian side explained that “the fence layout has changed to redistribute the local pressure distributions to improve load while maintaining the flow stability.”
At the Paul Ricard circuit, the RB18 will also be fitted with a revised upper wing cascade behind its rear brakes. The goal of this update is also to generate more downforce but without disrupting the lower wing cascade or the adjacent brake duct exits.
Mercedes
Mercedes, which is set to use a revised cooling duct on its nose based on the images from yesterday in the pitlane, has also introduced updates to the floor edge and the front brake duct.
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On the floor there is a reduced curvature on the edge ahead of the rear tyre. Mercedes pointed out that this: “reduces local floor load by reducing the local camber [thereby] improving flow into the diffuser, which is turn increased diffuser load.”
The addition of internal louvres at the front brake duct exit are have the goal of helping with the cooling process, given the fact that the very hot temperature forecasted for the French Grand Prix weekend will play a major role in the performance of the teams, with possible overheating issues a big concern for this weekend.
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