Gary Anderson’s take on Ferrari’s efforts to maintain its edge
Ferrari’s regained some momentum in its 2022 Formula 1 title fight with Red Bull, and the update package it’s brought for the Austrian Grand Prix should further that. Here’s Gary Anderson’s analysis of it
Ferrari has taken the fight to Red Bull very effectively recently, winning the last two grands prix.
It’s improved to the point where we can now say it has the fastest car in the 2022 Formula 1 field – one that now has reasonable straightline speed on race day and looks like it is on top of its tyre degradation.
But this hasn’t stopped Ferrari introducing some major developments, with a new underfloor and leading-edge splitter position and geometry that first ran on Charles Leclerc’s car during FP1 at the Austrian Grand Prix.
With the larger outer splitter (green), more airflow will be turned outward of the underfloor inlet.
The open area before the first splitter (blue ellipse) has been reduced, which will mean that with the larger outlet (blue arrows) more flow will be pulled through there at higher speed.
In reality, this will happen all across the the underfloor inlet and means Ferrari is producing more downforce from this area of the underfloor.
Doing this means that the rear section of the underfloor will be using flow more inboard and doesn’t have to be worked as hard, so it is possible to balance porpoising against performance.
Underfloor downforce is generated at something like a 10:1 downforce-to-drag ratio. Rear wing downforce will be at about a 3:1 ratio, so to keep the performance in qualifying and improve the efficiency for the race to improve the top speed, this is exactly the area Ferrari needs to be working on.
We still hear the car skidding on the track surface through the fast sections, but it doesn’t bang into it like some others.
