Scuderia Ferrari team is struggling to find its way and challenge at the top, despite the high expectations before the start of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign. The Maranello team is trying, but at the moment things don’t seem to be working at all. The step forward at the Baku City Circuit did not find continuity in Florida. On the contrary, the performance showed the same problem: the inability to express the full potential of the SF-23 car, floating in a context that we can define as ambiguous.
We refer basically to the understanding of the use of tires. A random condition that, in spurts, without understanding why, has worked. While at other times, almost always, it has generated a negative condition capable of negatively affecting the race pace.
To this we must add a not too happy weekend for the drivers. Some mistakes dictated by the desire to reduce the gap to their opponents. After all, nobody likes to lose and driving a Ferrari to finish sixth, for example, cannot and should not be satisfying. Even if the SF-23 is not up to par with the top cars.
To try to reduce this limiting condition that has in fact directed the 2023 racing campaign towards yet another sporting failure, the technicians from Maranello are making huge efforts. Recovering the huge gap on the solid Red Bull is utopian. We agree. However, giving meaning to the 2023 Formula One season, in May, is still possible.
To do this, the first updates have arrived, awaiting a clearly more substantial package that, in the hopes nourished by the Ferrari Racing Division, should solve or at least partially correct the native problems of this car. In addition to the modification in the central part of the floor already analyzed through our pages, today’s article focuses on a further modification in the front part of the floor, as explained by the Italian website FUnoanalisitecnica.
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Therefore, let’s take a closer look at this additional update. Observing the shot taken by Nicolas Carpentiers, we notice a different shape of the leading edge of the floor. Its shape defines a certain path that the engineers of the Maranello team have decided to undertake in this phase of the championship.
Making changes in this specific area of the car’s underbody allows for a certain distribution of the load along the Y-axis, which is perpendicular to the centerline of the car. In the version used up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, this profile was quite high in the area adjacent to the chassis, and then dropped sharply downwards.
Such a characteristic offers more downforce in the inner zone through a greater local pressure. This gradient produces a superior outwash effect, as the fluid naturally moves from an area of higher pressure to one with lower values, according to FUnoanalisitecnica.
Furthermore, the leading edge has an important effect on the pressure deltas existing on the four vertical fences allowed by the regulations. The load distribution will then determine the force of each single vortex that detaches from these vertical aerodynamic appendages. A greater pressure delta between the inner and outer zones, therefore, determines a more energized vortex on the fences.
Ferrari increases load on the front
The setup used up to the fourth round of the 2023 Formula One championship leaves room for a Red Bull-style scheme. The new version has a more horizontal shape and tends to descend only in the final part. This means that we will have a higher pressure delta only in the outer zone. The outer fences will therefore have a more energetic vortex structure responsible for generating the outwash effect.
At this point, a question arises regarding the motivations that led the engineers of the red car towards such a modification. We recall that the fences direct the fluid outward from the car, generating lateral extraction. For this reason, acting on the outer edge at the entrance to the underbody means varying the structure of the vortices on these vertical appendages to improve the load produced in the front area of the car.
This local depression, which has been theoretically improved, also guarantees a superior flow of clean air inside the underbody. This is because, through this rectification, the suction in the area defined by the leading edge, increases automatically. It remains to be seen whether the alteration of this component has achieved the intended purpose. We await confirmation at Imola.
