Two Ferrari F1-75 cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in front of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull is a great start of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend for the Maranello team, in the first free practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
The gap of three tenths may be less relevant because the Dutchman was slowed down by traffic in the final sector of his fastest lap), but the improvement is clear in the top speed of the Ferrari car. The data is now based only on what could be seen in FP1, but the indication is clear enough to understand if the package of updates brought to the track ok the F1-75 has gone in the right direction.
The gap with the RB18 seems to have been reduced and the speed trap difference was 4 km / h in favour of Charles Leclerc, who was therefore faster than the RB18 at the end of the main straight.
Ferrari has redesigned the floor: the Maranello team has revised the flow deviators that are placed at the entrance to the Venturi tunnels the outermost part. From the image of Motorsport Italy’s Giorgio Piola it can be noticed that there is a much higher vertical bulkhead positioned slightly more inland with a clear function: that of preventing the trail of the front wheel from ending up in the last channel. As a result, Ferrari has removed with the new floor specifications some of the harmful turbulences that risk ruining the aerodynamic efficiency.
On the F1-75 the sidewalk has changed on the trailing edge which does not have the slots we were used to in the first five races of the season: these were used to partially unload the Venturi tunnels to prevent the F1-75 from suffering from too accentuated porpoising and forcing the Maranello technicians to lift the car off the ground with an inevitable loss of aerodynamic load. With the new configuration, Ferrari should be able to lower the car.
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The rear diffuser was also modified, resulting from the experiments carried out in the first free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix with a more streamlined keel in favor of a lower drag. At the rear there are two other significant changes: the external fins of the brake duct have been redesigned according to the changes that have been introduced to the floor.
Equally important is also the new medium-high load rear wing: the main profile shows a much less pronounced spoon shape and the movable flap has a greater chord and a more pronounced incidence, as pointed out by Motorsport Italy.
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