No official statements were made, but Ferrari took advantage of the two-week FIA-imposed holiday to implement a crucial update, not on the SF-24, as the factory was closed, but in the wind tunnel. FIA regulations allow teams to carry out work in the wind tunnel when the facility must be shut down.
Ferrari used this opportunity to update the hardware of its facility, originally designed by Renzo Piano, with a significant enhancement: the Maranello team installed a more advanced rolling road. This upgrade is expected to enable the aerodynamics team, led by Diego Tondi, to conduct more detailed and accurate investigations than before.
According to inside sources, the old rolling road, which was once made of a metallic matrix, has been replaced with a road surface made of increasingly innovative materials. This change reflects the understanding that performance can be gained by updating the facility’s infrastructure.
The Maranello wind tunnel now features a new “rubberized” floor, which represents a significant leap forward in research capabilities. The reason is simple: ground-effect cars generate more downforce the closer the floor can get to the rolling road (a sophisticated belt on which the car’s wheels rest, moving at the same speed as the air, up to 180 kilometers per hour, blown by the fan onto a 40% scale model).
With the old metallic rolling road, as well as with less extreme solutions from recent years, the wind tunnel operators had to avoid pushing the search for minimal ground clearance too far. Any contact with the floor, which on the track produces spectacular sparks, could cause serious damage to the model, slowing down the development program and delaying the introduction of potential new aerodynamic update packages.
Thanks to the latest “plastic” materials, it’s now possible to have a rolling road that is highly resistant to wear, considering that the metallic matrix had almost zero wear and with a surface free of micro-roughness. This allows for cleaner airflow under the model, enabling the floor to be closer to the ground.
Wind tunnel investigations have become increasingly precise, with very complex aerodynamic maps. While research was once limited to studying the model facing the airflow head-on, it now includes analyzing the car’s behavior during yaw, with steering angles, simulating the car in a corner.
In these scenarios, the old rolling roads created significant friction on the small tires, the 40% scale tires provided by Pirelli that replicate the same design and deformation under stress as the real tires.
It’s therefore no surprise that tire wear in the wind tunnel has increased in recent years, and engineers are seeking solutions to preserve the demo tires, as teams are limited to 10 sets per year. Having new tires might seem trivial, but it can be a significant advantage in research, just as it is on the track.
Red Bull was the first team to adopt an advanced rolling road, followed by McLaren. The Woking team initially used Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne but has made impressive progress since utilizing its new wind tunnel in Woking. The MCL38 is now considered the benchmark car of the moment.
Ferrari, aware of the importance of achieving perfect correlation between wind tunnel data and track data, did not hesitate to carry out a major upgrade to its wind tunnel, which took two weeks and one day to complete. While the Racing Department staff were already back at work on Sunday, the wind tunnel remained closed until Monday.
Even the reigning world champions, Red Bull, have started constructing a new wind tunnel in Milton Keynes (where Racing Bulls’ aerodynamic team will also relocate), while Aston Martin‘s state-of-the-art wind tunnel in Silverstone is nearing completion. Sauber, in its transformation into Audi, will have a new facility by 2026. The race for technological advancement shows no signs of slowing down.
