Which Ferrari will we see on the track at the Red Bull Ring if the 2020 Formula 1 world championship can restart on 5 July with the Austrian GP behind closed doors?
The question is legitimate, if we consider that the FIA made official the World Council’s decision to extend the mandatory closure of the factories of the ten teams from 35 to 63 consecutive days, while for engine manufacturers the shutdown increases from 35 to 49 days in a row.
To give clearer information, we can say that the Scuderia’s power unit department will be active again on May 13, while the chassis and aerodynamics part will be able to start again from May 20, as reported by Motorsport Italy. Among other things, Ferrari was been the first to close alongside AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo, while the English teams had had the benefit of continuing the development of their cars because the restrictions of the Government of Boris Johnson had arrived late compared to CPDM by Italy’s Giuseppe Conte.
Having made these necessary premises, it is clear that the time available to review and correct the SF1000 car has shortened: the technicians under the orders of Enrico Cardile, David Sanchez and Simone Resta will have a month to try and improve the car which in the Barcelona winter tests did not particularly shine.
If Mercedes will have to work to ensure good reliability of the power unit, in the Racing Department of Ferrari they will work to find the missing performance of the 2020 car that will be destined to run with development constraints also in the 2021 season. In the short time available, therefore, it will be necessary to see which solutions theoretically foreseen for when the Spanish GP was supposed to take place, can now actually be used for the debut at the Red Bull Ring.
Charles Leclerc after the winter tests had pushed for the development solutions to go up the slope and Sebastian Vettel himself has not hidden that “… Mercedes has the DAS. It’s an intelligent innovation, so I think it’s a good idea, but we also have our own ideas about the car and I hope that when the season starts they can prove to make a difference. “
How many of these ideas will be on the SF1000 in Spielberg and how many, instead, will be seen only in the second cycle of two GPs in Silverstone or after? Today it is not easy to give an answer, although there should be some fixed points.
The 065/2 power unit should be available in Austria according to plan: the team will have to dedicate the first week to prepare the material and then carry out the durability tests in the following week for the resolution of the advanced unit. There is talk of the increase in temperature and pressure in the combustion chamber, which should translate in a gain of fifteen horsepower.
More complicated, however, to deliberate the package of innovations in the chassis field: it seems that part of the reasons why the SF1000 did not impress during the pre-season testing sessions has been identified. It does not only concern aerodynamics, but also mechanics.
We would not be surprised, therefore, to see the front suspension appear with the hydraulic control of the third element. A solution foreseen in the SF1000 project but which had not been introduced on the car because it would have been banned since 2021.
With the extension of the current technical standards, however, it will also be usable next year, so giving it up could have a double negative effect: not treating the current problems of the machine (the endemic understeer), also depriving itself of the important development opportunities in key next year.
But the development of such a complicated concept is not simple, so it is possible that the revised front suspension (not only in the hydraulic part) goes further, as well as something innovative that has not yet been seen on the Red car, while some changes of an aerodynamic nature should be discussed and approved. Not the whole package that was in Simone Resta’s plans, but some parts will be validated in the gallery and in the simulator after being promoted to the CFD.
It will be a Ferrari “puzzle” that we will see at the start of the 2020 Championship, but with a short season it will be essential to reach the best form as soon as possible, because the recovery time will be very tight due to a short calendar.
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