Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto, among the contributing causes that sent Ferrari into crisis at Paul Ricard, named the wheel rims. But the Italian side cannot simply put the blame and responsibility for a debacle like the one in the French GP only on the rims, with Carlos Sainz 11th and Charles Leclerc 16th, even lapped. It is clear that other teams have developed the rims to be able to fix, at least in part, the problems related to tire management.
Scuderia Ferrari at Le Castellet went into crisis with the overheating of the tires and lost, compared to their performance in qualifying, about a second and a half in comparison with their direct rivals. An enormity that cannot be attributed to the wheels, but the words of the team principal have placed the focus on an accessory that the opponents have been able to evolve with more radical solutions than those of the Maranello team.
The fault is certainly not of OZ Racing, who supplies Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari: the Italian company, in fact, is able to produce forged magnesium wheels with designs and, above all, surface treatments that are very different.
Last year, in order to fight the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, the FIA decided to freeze the development of many parts of the 2020 cars and among these there were also the wheel rims.
The top teams have decided to spend their development tokens elsewhere, so the rims have remained the same as last year. And it is interesting to see how each team has developed very different solutions both in front and behind precisely because they can contribute to triggering tire temperatures for the flying lap or to control overheating.
Two functions that do not go hand in hand and can be considered almost antithetical to each other. Ferrari chose clear rims with a heat-reflective treatment, but the shape of the wheels remained basic, without the sophistication of Red Bull and Mercedes.
Red Bull, for example, uses rims similar to Ferrari’s at the front, but with different internal treatments, while at the rear it has a peculiarity: the external part is clear, but highlights a central band with many radial ribs, while in the inside there is a black chemical treatment that facilitates the stabilization of the temperature of the rubber, transferring the heat produced by the braking system to the rim and from the wheel to the gas contained in the rubber thanks to those zig-zag reliefs that can be seen in the photo by Giorgio Piola.
Mercedes, on the other hand, has focused on dark and rusticated rims: the Brackley team was the first to introduce this solution in 2019, which then went a bit further and Ferrari itself used them on the SF90, abandoning them on the SF1000. Obviously, this solution could not be missing from the Aston Martin AMR21.
Carlos Sainz explained that in Maranello in the three days spent in the factory after France, Ferrari has launched short, medium and long-term plans to solve the problem that has plagued the Reds at Paul Ricard, a sign that the issue is not limited to only to the wheels, but it concerns the whole concept of the car. Starting with the camber angle that will be changed already at the Red Bull Ring. To begin with …
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