Originally Posted by
ramesh
Gary Anderson About The New Ferrari
For Ferrari to mount a real season-long challenge to Mercedes for either championship, it needs to be on top of the reliability problems that cost it last year. And it needs the drivers, especially Sebastian Vettel, not to be quite so hot-headed.
On top of that, Ferrari needs a car that is a bit faster, especially at the higher-speed tracks. After all, at the end of last year its average performance over the season was still 0.178% down on Mercedes. That's a lot better than the 0.866% deficit of 2016, but to put up a season-long challenge it needs to be nip and tuck between the two every race. Plus, there might just be another team or two joining the party, so it's not just about Mercedes.
Looking back, there were 11 different winners in 1982 and 30 years later, in 2012, the season started off with seven different drivers winning in the first seven races. I'm not saying we'll see that again, but we can keep hoping for it and there's a chance it could be a bit more competitive up front. Then, being competitive every race is doubly important.
Looking at the Ferrari's front wing assembly, it is the de rigeur multi-element design that all the cars have. Six or seven elements seems to have become the norm and the placing of the slot gaps between each element is down to how an individual team views pitch sensitivity.
Most teams understand that consistent aerodynamics are much more important than peaky downforce, but the big question is where do you draw the line between consistency and out and out downforce?
The add-on vanes on the forward upper outer corner are the first ones that I can see make reasonable sense. Normally, they are vanes of all different shapes, curves and sizes but on the Ferrari they are fairly uniform. The vanes are there to set up a turning moment on the airflow that would normally hit the front tyre and then just send itself wherever it fancied going. This is quite a neat little package of components.
The front wing mounting pillars are three dimensional with two vertical slot gaps. They are fairly invisible from the front view, but they are there to pull more airflow between the FIA-defined central wing section and the bottom of the nose.
This flow then gets pulled through via the S-duct to the top of the chassis. All this increases the mass flow underneath the chassis and the exit of the S-duct reduces the lift on the upper part of the nose/chassis intersection.
I don't see the sidepods as a big step forward from what Ferrari had last year. This is where you can make significant differences because of the freedom in this important area of the regulations
Below the driver's feet area of the chassis there is a three-element vertical turning vane. This picks up the airflow underneath the raised section of the chassis and sets up a turning moment to sweep it outwards. After that, there are the bargeboards.
On the Ferrari, the bargeboards are mounted quite well forward whereas on the Mercedes they are tucked in quite close to the sidepod leading edge. These evolve from a single element component into three elements at the top edge. This is to allow them to work the inner surface of the bargeboard harder in that area. The lower edges are mounted on some delta-style horizontal turning vanes going from the T-tray part of the floor to the outer corner of the sidepods.
These components are there to prepare the airflow for the leading edge of the underfloor. The vertical components mounted on the outer corners do not go all the way down to the forward-facing horizontal fin coming out of the lower front corner of the floor.
All of these components are there to reduce the effect of the turbulent wake coming off the trailing edge of the front tyre and to help manage the airflow coming around the leading edge of the sidepods and underfloor.
The horizontal wing section evolving out of the top outer corner of the sidepod again just alters the airflow slightly coming off the top of the front tyre to improve the airflow over the top of the sidepods.
All the components from the front-wing mounting pillar to the last turning vane on the corner of the sidepod work together to modify the airflow to the leading edge of the underfloor. This means together they are probably responsible for something in excess of 20% of the car's overall downforce.
It is very difficult to say who has pushed the boat out furthest in this area, Mercedes or Ferrari. But I have to say that I expected more from Ferrari because I don't see this as a big step forward from what it had last year. This is where you can make significant differences because of the freedom in this important area of the regulations.
Ferrari has twin radiator inlets. One is forward facing, which is by comparison fairly small, and then another one is in the top leading edge surface of the sidepod. The undercut section of the sidepod blends into the chassis side nicely, separating the airflow into what is required for cooling and what is required to produce downforce.
You can see a similarity between the Sauber and the Ferrari in this area. Also, the vane on the top surface of the halo is very similar to both the Sauber and the Toro Rosso.
The wheelbase looks a little longer than 2017. That is not the wrong thing to do and if I was Ferrari I would have added a bit more - maybe not quite as much as Mercedes but it gives some extra space to better manage the airflow between the rear of the front tyre and the sidepod leading edge. Also, for the fast corners it makes the car that little bit more forgiving.
Ferrari looks as if it is running a little more rake (higher rear ride height) on the car. This is not as much as we have seen on the Red Bull, which does exploit rake to the maximum.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari have stuck with their 2017 packaging philosophies, with a little bit of overlap. So, it will be very interesting to see who has made the most progress.
From what I have seen so far from the top three teams so far, I think I would stick my neck out and say we might just be in for a predictable season, but track testing will reveal a lot more.
So, before placing any bets, let's wait to see what happens in Barcelona testing.
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