Scuderia Ferrari’s 2021 car will attempt to correct many of the SF1000’s flaws and, despite the restrictions dictated by the FIA rules that limit development, it will have to make an important qualitative leap.
Ferrari is aiming for a relaunch in 2021: the SF21 will be ‘daughter’ of the disappointing SF1000, but at least it should be born without a few of the “genetic” issues that characterized the car which allowed Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel to fight only for the sixth place in the Constructors’ World Championship.
Mattia Binotto does not want to create false illusions to the Ferrari fans, but promises a growth that will bring Ferrari back at least to being the third force behind Mercedes and Red Bull: “If we look to the future, we start talking about 2021. I think we need to be realistic: we can’t think of recovering all the performance gap that exists today between us and the best. A gap that is certainly too important to think of closing in a short time and in a complicated technical situation.” – he explained.
The team principal then highlights the intervention points on next year’s car:
“It is true that we will have a completely new power unit, because the regulation allows us this possibility, but many other components of the car have been frozen, starting with the chassis, one of the most obvious variables”.
“Even on the aerodynamic front, which remains free from constraints, we will still have fewer development opportunities both in the wind tunnel and in the simulations because the time available has been reduced to 60%. There are many limitations, but in 2021, in addition to a new engine, we will also have significantly revised aerodynamics compared to this year’s, thanks to which we hope to have solved the most important problems encountered on the 2020 car.”
It is no secret, in fact, that the two development tokens of Ferrari will be used to in the rear part of the car: the much desired tight (and more rigid) transmission expected as a chimera in 2020, will equip the SF21.
It will allow two advantages: the first aerodynamic and the second the modification of the rear suspension. What will also change is the carbon box that contains the titanium box of the actual gearbox.
It must be said that there have never been reliability problems in this area, but in Maranello they are convinced that something can be gained in the design of the Coca Cola area, to increase the load that is generated by the car body and the diffuser, more than from the incidence of the wings.
The new transmission will make it possible to move the attachments of the rear suspension with hydraulic control that are too unstable in height variations due to the Rake setting. The sudden load losses made the rear end very unstable, to the point of making the SF1000 undriveable for Sebastian Vettel who prefers a rear that is very glued to the asphalt.
The more streamlined transmission will oblige the engineers to review the exhausts that will have to be more “packed” to the 6-cylinder crankcase if they do not want them to protrude from the Coca Cola trend. A complicated but necessary exercise because it will thus be possible to at least partially reduce the aerodynamic “blocking” due to the radiant packs sandwiched in the sides.
The hot air flows too slowly from the vents, forcing the Ferrari to have too large openings that affect the aerodynamic efficiency of the red car by generating drag, which did not allow the SF1000 to reach a high maximum speed. As you can well understand, the changes are aimed at intervening in a particularly crucial area of the car, but at the moment not everything goes smoothly. The new tangle of exhausts shows a reliability problem in the engine bench tests.
There are some inssues that will certainly be resolved before the winter tests scheduled in Barcelona from 1 to 3 March, also because this year the FIA regulations impose a maximum number of pairs of exhausts (eight), while until this year there were no constraints.
The new thermal engine is already giving about fifteen horsepower more than the “deflated” unit of 2020 and the goal is to reach thirty before the homologation date thanks to the introduction of a new intercooler and the improvement of the hybrid with an MGU-K that will be able to increase the delivery time of electric power over the lap.
In short, the SF21, beyond the external similarity with the SF1000, should be a car with a more “healthy” gestation.
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