The 2023 Formula 1 championship officially began with the pre-season testing session that is taking place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir and the most important changes in terms of rules and technical regulation can be found along the floor edge wing. This element of the rear area of the car has to be raised by 15mm compared to the previous Formula 1 campaign in order to reduce the porpoising phenomenon, which was a major issue especially in the start of the 2022 F1 season.
By raising the floor edges, there is less load from the floor of the car and, as a result, porpoising is reduced.
The new floor edge wing of Red Bull has new and very particular shapes. In fact, after the external bulkhead of the Venturi inlet, a wavy pattern of the edge of the floor can be seen. Subsequently there is the division into two flaps. With this solution vortices are therefore generated with the goal of aerodynamically sealing the floor in such a way as to avoid losses in terms of aerodynamic downforce. Since the floor edge wing is raised compared to last season, it is more complicated for the teams to generate the same downforce as the cars of 2022. More complex geometries are therefore sought in order to obtain (at least) the same load values as last season.
Continuing towards the rear, you notice a carbon appendix anchored with hooks to the structure of the floor. This solution takes up the one introduced by McLaren in 2022 and then used by many other teams. Red Bull revised it while maintaining the same aerodynamic concepts. The task, in fact, is directed towards the generation and control of the interconnected system of vortices. The latter will then interact with part of the floor and with the rear wheels, as explained by f1ingenerale.com in a recent article.
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The Ferrari solution is apparently simpler in form. However, simplicity does not necessarily mean it is less efficient. An aerodynamic detail (in this case) must then interact with the whole car. The floor edge wing of the Ferrari SF-23 challenger has a wavy shape and without cuts along its entire longitudinal extension. The objectives are the same as those described for the specification adopted on the Red Bull RB19 car.
It should be underlined that some changes can be expected from all the teams in this area both during the pre-season testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit and during the season, this being crucial for managing the load produced by the floor.
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