The 2020 Ferrari F1 car which will be discovered on February 11 will not show major revolutions, but will be revised in every detail compared to the SF90. As reported by Motorsport Italy, the SF90 already had a small bracket to lift the upper arm of the front suspension, but the new car will have a solution in line with Mercedes and Alfa Romeo.
Helmut Marko does not see Ferrari in the fight for the 2020 world championship, with the Austrian manager saying that the world championship will be an exclusive fight between Mercedes and Red Bull. Mattia Binotto, the Italian side’s Team Principal, on the other hand, hopes to do better than last year, while admitting that Mercedes maintains a certain advantage: “To open a winning cycle and be in front of everyone in a stable way, it will still take a few more years to be honest. But at the same time I know that as Ferrari we always have a moral obligation to try to win every year. So we have the goal of doing very well in 2020, we don’t start to finish second. However, if one has to say that he reaches that team maturity, that know-how, that sufficient and necessary running-in on all aspects, it is not done in two days.. “.
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the 2020 Ferrari F1 car will only be an evolution of the SF90: the technicians coordinated by Enrico Cardile (with the support of Simone Resta) have worked hard to eliminate the issues that have affected last year’s car, very fast on the straights, but with little downforce on corners.
And so it was particularly the front tires that suffered, which hardly could be kept in the right temperature window, causing overheating that affected the potential of the SF90 on some circuits where the single push of the power unit was certainly not enough to contain the Silver Arrows and the development of the Red Bull RB15 in the second part of the 2019 Formula One season.
Let’s expect, therefore, a review of those points of the SF90 that have revealed obvious shortcomings: those who have seen the drawings of the Ferrari 2020 claim that externally there will be no major changes, but in reality the 671 (this is the project name) will be totally different from the progenitor detail by detail.
If Mercedes will seek less downforce in order to increase maximum speed, Ferrari will focus on greater downforce and a more extreme suspension concept, introducing solutions that will only be used during the next season, given that the 2021 rules will prohibit them, a sign that there is ample room for growth on current rules. It is therefore clear that what we will see in the Barcelona winter tests will be already “mature” machines capable of showing their true potential immediately, given that the technical standards have remained the same (only a weight increase of 2 kg), as well as the highly criticized tires 2019.
To increase the vertical thrust on the front, the SF90 will follow the Mercedes philosophy by introducing a more striking cape than the one which appeared in Singapore on the SF90 under the nose: the greater surface in this area will be balanced by a nose of a smaller section, just as observed on the evolution of the W10.
But it will be necessary to have a careful look at the front suspension: the third element will be controlled hydraulically (for which the chassis cockpit under the vanity panel has been redesigned), but in general the kinematic mechanism of the arms will also be corrected for aerodynamic reasons.
We have always said that the SF90 was equipped with an “old” suspension concept. Perhaps it is more correct to say that he was not very brave: looking carefully at the 2019 images, for example, it emerged that the upper triangle was slightly raised compared to the attachment to the hub holder that had been seen in 2018, so the very small bracket remained hidden in the carbon basket, while Alfa Romeo showed a pattern also offset as Mercedes, McLaren, Racing Point and Williams had.
It is clear that Ferrari will go in the direction of the choices made by others also to gain some aerodynamic advantage: the upper triangle arm will be the first element that will separate the flows intended for cooling the power unit (the upper ones), from those that will feed the vortexes of the bargeboards (the lower ones).
Ferrari, after suffering with the management of the Pirelli tyres last season, preferred to develop and adapt its car to last year’s tyres, rather than taking the risk of focusing on 2020 tyres that would have required a specific analysis and study from scratch, although the 671 was developed in the wind tunnel also with the profile later rejected by the teams.
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