F1, Ferrari: how SF-23 floor is changing

F1, Ferrari: how SF-23 floor is changing. How SF-23 floor is changing.

The official 2023 Formula 1 pre-season testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit has definitively revealed all the 2023 single-seaters, down to the last detail. The Ferrari SF-23 was already presented to the entire world on the occasion of the splendid presentation at the Fiorano circuit last week, but the floor was jealously covered when the Red was shown to journalists. The start of track activities in Bahrain has confirmed a revised floor for the 2023 Ferrari Formula 1 car, which no longer includes one of the key characteristic solutions seen last year on the F1-75 challenger.

In the rear part, the footplate disappears, the opening present on the 2022 single-seater which helped to convey air from the upper part into the underbody near the rear wheels. The solution had gained considerable popularity on the starting grid, and was rapidly replicated by the competition. In the same area, however, the SF-23 has a clean and linear bottom, where along the outer edge the characteristic opening of the F1-75 is absent. In addition to the natural development work, the 2023 regulations also had an influence on the modification, which imposed a rise of the rim by 15 mm.

However, moving to the more advanced part of the SF-23, the geometries of the floor begin to get complicated, right in the vicinity of the area dedicated to the lateral extraction of air from the Venturi tunnels. While the F1-75 was perfectly clean in this area, its heir is instead more detailed, denoting all the attention dedicated by the Maranello staff to this crucial area of the car.

However, the complexity of the Ferrari floor remains distant from the enormous detail work carried out in the same area by Red Bull, at least on a visual level. Yet it should be remembered that the geometry of the Venturi tunnels on the SF-23 has changed profoundly, with the Italian side abandoning the update design introduced at last year’s French Grand Prix. Furthermore, it cannot be excluded that during the tests in Bahrain the Ferrari and Red Bull floors could gradually evolve. Already in 2022 the two teams in fact gradually introduced small innovations, once the studies on the starting specification had been completed, as explained by Carlo Platella for formulapassion.it.