Scuderia Ferrari maintains a very low profile in the fight with McLaren for third place in the 2021 Constructors’ World Championship, but the Prancing Horse team works hard to leave no stone unturned to thwart Woking’s supremacy, although the tally of points in favor of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo has expanded to 13.5 lengths.
The Italian as, as has been confirmed several times, has anticipated the fourth power unit for Charles Leclerc in Sochi. The introduction of a part of the new hybrid system on the 065/6 engine has also allowed the aerodynamics to adopt a decidedly different shape of the rear cover as a design: nothing new, but simply the verification of two concepts that go by different paths to achieve similar results.
At a glance, looking at the images of Giorgio Piola for Motorsport Italy portraying the two SF21s in a rear shot, you can see that the red car of the Monegasque (below) has a “megaphone” radiator hot air vent certainly greater than the version more closed mounted to Carlos Sainz (above).
But we must not stop at first glance, because Charles Leclerc’s engine cover is much more profiled than that of the Spaniard who has an increased internal “air lung”. It may be that the hybrid more contained in size (and weight) allows for a more stringent packaging of some details and the dress that covers the mechanics may be more adherent to the advantage of a more efficient rear wing.
It is clear that the need to cool the internal combustion engine is the same so it should not be surprising that the hot air vent is larger. Maybe these are also experiments for the future?
