TD018 Flexi Wing: Ferrari SF-23's wing continues to flex

The historic Ferrari team seems to confirm the rumors we reported in recent days. The so-called “cognitive tools” used for simulation studies are working. This is evident from the excellent baseline setup with which the Prancing Horse arrived in Singapore. An SF-23 that is well-balanced, even on the narrow streets of Marina Bay. Although the characteristics of the track are quite different from Monza, the red cars appear to be very solid.

The ability to reduce the ride height provides a lot of downforce to the Italian car, which is highly advantageous on this track. Furthermore, there’s exceptional traction inherited from the F1-75, which proves to be a winning factor on this circuit. As for the front end, the suspension setup has sought to enhance this aspect, which is known to be one of the red car’s weaknesses. The race pace remains to be fine-tuned.

With full fuel tanks, the Ferrari suffered some overheating at the rear, which forced the “two Carlos” to limit their performance with a high quantity of fuel on board. Through the usual onboard analyses, we have detailed the behavior of the cars from Modena. However, there is an intentionally kept-aside aspect that we are about to comment on, even though for now, we can only speculate.

The Ferrari SF-23 continues to show some flexion on the front wing, even in Singapore.

Although the International Federation has introduced Technical Directive TD018 for this Grand Prix, which seeks to summarily ban any system that causes front wings to flex, during the free practice sessions, we noticed that many cars tend not to do away with this system. First and foremost, we should note that Article 3.15.5 mandates a test to prevent the aforementioned flexing. The test “states” that when a load of 60N is applied, the wing should not flex more than 5mm.

This is, in fact, a relatively “light” test, considering the kilograms that a wing can withstand at maximum speed. Therefore, it is very tempting for teams to try to circumvent this rule. There is another, even more specific test where loads of 1000N (approximately 100 kg) are applied at specific points on the front bodywork.

As we explained in depth during the past week on our pages, the FIA has deemed various solutions illegal. Essentially, they wanted to ensure safety by not allowing any connection between two wing profiles or towards a supporting partition to be designed in a way that would allow the airfoil to rotate around a pivot.

However, it seems that not all possible solutions have been banned yet. Indeed, by closely observing the various flaps of the front wing, we can easily see that these components are divided into two sections, right and left: the outer portions of the flaps attach to the endplate, while the inner portions anchor directly to the car’s nose.

Although these connections must be securely fixed, teams act on the area where these two divisions of the front wing meet. There are metal joints at that point that effectively slide over each other, allowing the main part of the wing to lower as speed increases. If the International Federation has intervened for safety reasons to prevent a wing from detaching under abnormal conditions, this “play” may still be tolerated.

The image above gives a good idea and leaves little to the imagination. These two frames were taken seconds apart. This is the front wing of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari SF-23. From the image, you can see that there are differences in the wing’s incidence on car number 55. The delta between the “at rest” configuration and the “in motion” configuration at high speed is smaller than what was seen on the Mercedes W14, but its presence is still noticeable.

As mentioned earlier, it is currently very challenging to understand the mechanisms that could somehow bypass the FIA’s measures. The fact remains that, besides the red car, other cars have also shown a certain degree of flexion. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the technicians led by former Ferrari driver Nicholas Tombazis will address this issue again. Or, simply, at least for this season, they will concede to the F1 technicians’ expertise.

Lastly, a clarification regarding the alleged novelty regarding the red car’s front wing. The FIA has reported that the Maranello team introduced a new specification of the front wing. By examining the component and making some comparisons, we notice that the differences from previous solutions are minimal. The version with the gurney flap on the edge of the last wing element had already been introduced in previous events, such as the Hungarian Grand Prix.

In the specification presented by the Italian technicians in Singapore, we can say that the gurney flap is no longer positioned on the part of the rear aerodynamic wing that attaches to the nose. In fact, the update consists of a slight reshaping of the last flap, which, however, remains very difficult to notice. In conclusion, if the specification was introduced in Marina Bay, it means that the red car’s aerodynamicists estimated that it could be useful for this particular Asian layout.