With the presentation event of the SF21, Ferrari has unveiled several features of its car for next season. The car appears highly evolved compared to last season’s SF1000 , but there are still many unknowns surrounding the work done in Maranello during the winter. In fact, the Scuderia technicians have confirmed that the development tokens granted by the regulation have been invested in the rear area and in particular for the gearbox, in an attempt to design a more tapered rear for the benefit of aerodynamics. The leaders of the team, however, did not want to reveal the cards excessively and did not provide particular information in detail on which aspects were affected by the changes.
TheRace.com editorial team learned further details about the work done at the rear at Ferrari. Although these are rumors not yet confirmed, they could find support in the images that will arrive from the testing session in Bahrain already in the upcoming weekend. According to what was reported, the engineers of Maranello would have tried to emulate one of the solutions that was a succes for the Mercedes W11 in 2020, extricating themselves from the binding limits of the regulation to the changes that could be made without exceeding the number of tokens available.
Last season’s Mercedes sported an innovative rear suspension design. In detail, the rear arm of the lower triangle of the suspension assembly does not hook as usual to the outer casing of the gearbox, but to the rear impact structure. This configuration guarantees purely aerodynamic advantages, as the retraction of the lower suspension triangle removes an obstacle to the passage of flows passing between the wheel and the gearbox in the area known as Coca-Cola. All this involves an increase in the air flow in the rear and the energy with which the flows reach the environment behind the car, thus being affected to a lesser extent by the suction from the low pressure area of the diffuser, reducing the aerodynamic disturbance. In summary, the solution devised by Mercedes maximizes the efficiency of extraction of the diffuser and the generation of downforce from the floor.
In all likelihood the same configuration has been maintained on the W12 for 2021. Aston Martin has also adapted the Mercedes rear end, taking advantage of the possibility of transferring these components from one team to another, while curiosity remains as to whether Red Bull has also worked to conform to this trend. Ferrari, on the other hand, was unable to fully emulate the design of the Mercedes suspension, as it would have required updating both the gearbox and the rear impact structure to which the lower suspension arm should have been hooked, for a total of four tokens needed for changes (with only two being available).
The information gathered by the editorial staff of TheRace.com, however, tells us that in Maranello they would have tried to replicate the effect equally with the resources available.
Not being able to modify both the gearbox and the rear impact structure, the first would have been lengthened to move back the second, which instead remained unchanged in geometry. The more tapered and longer gearbox, in addition to freeing up a wider section for the passage of flows thanks to the reduced dimensions, offers a more rearward anchor point for the rear arm of the lower suspension triangle. In fact, with the exception of the internal components, the elements of the suspension group could be modified without the investment of any token. The result would therefore be an arrangement of the arms that would be close to that sported by Mercedes.
In Maranello, however, they would have coordinated the changes to the gearbox to make a further change. The differential gears have been be raised, at the cost of a slight increase in the height of the center of gravity position. All this would have made it possible to raise the drive shafts in turn for the transmission of engine power to the wheels, with the same intention of freeing up as much area as possible for the passage of flows, for the benefit of the efficiency of the diffuser and the generation of aerodynamic load from the floor. Since these are still unconfirmed rumors, the conditional is a must, but they still offer a clue on an aspect to be monitored with particular interest during the tests in Bahrain.
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