Ferrari, F1-75: new floor can better manage turbulent flow

Scuderia Ferrari believes in it: at Suzuka, a track which on paper is better for Red Bull, the Italian side has brought the new floor specification, which has been updated and corrected some limitations after the instability that the F1-75 showed following the French GP, perhaps even causing even greater tire wear, Ferrari’s major issue in the last few months.

Yesterday we took a closer look at the update in front of the rear wheels with the changed location of the stiffening tie-rod from the floor to the rear diffuser ramp which has been redesigned, but the important update is observed in the front part at the Venturi channels.

The Scuderia made some changes in the design of the barge board that characterizes the outermost bulkhead of the floor which is the most advanced element on the F1-75. Now this detail is revised with a flow trend that has been changed because the upper trailing edge has been raised slightly and it is also possible to notice an elongation of the flow diverter with an addition of composite material in the final part of the fin, while the lower form has also been revised.

Ferrari, therefore, is trying to understand how it can better manage the turbulence that is generated by the rotation of the front wheel and which generates dirty air in the Venturi channels.

There are those who prefer to let a part of the dirty air into the first channel, since that air is then expelled laterally to end up outside the rear wheel and others, on the other hand, who prefer to direct it outside the floor, conditioning more the course of the fillets that pass over the floor.

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The changes, therefore, are aimed at defining the most efficient solution in a point of the car that can be crucial for extracting performance. Too bad that the Suzuka rain did not allow Ferrari to make precise aerodynamic assessments on the new solution, in direct comparison with the old one, but the indications that had emerged from the Fiorano demo test with Carlos Sainz were clearly in favor of the update which was based on data from the wind tunnel.