Originally Posted by
ramesh
Ferrari reveals its tech strategy for toppling Mercedes
Ferrari has come closest to toppling Mercedes over the past two Formula 1 seasons, but failed to keep up its momentum each time. Has its off-season shake-up had the desired effect and made its 2019 car the one to beat?
By Gary Anderson
Published on Friday February 15th 2019
RSS feed
Latest
News
Trending
Plus
Jonathan NobleHow Ricciardo already has Renault 'bouncing'
Technical analysisFerrari reveals its tech strategy for toppling Mercedes
Edd StrawThe F1 driver clash nobody is talking about
Technical analysisHas McLaren learned from its mistakes?
Technical analysisHow Mercedes is pushing for perfection with W10
Gary AndersonAggressive Red Bull design shows Honda's progress
Karun ChandhokChandhok answers F1 2019's big questions
Share this article on Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Ferrari needs to start this season strongly. It has done this over the past couple of seasons, but this year it needs to maintain that form right to the chequered flag at the final race. Ferrari has nearly always had a fast enough car to be up there with a chance of big points, but it must reduce its mistakes both on and off the track.
At least this year's car is different. Ferrari once again has gone its own way with many features - the most visually obvious of which is the front wing. It's similar in concept to what Renault has been trying to achieve, although Alfa Romeo has taken this to a whole new level.
For 2019, the exhaust outlet location has been positioned to reduce the potential for exhaust blowing, but the wastegate outlets have more freedom. Ferrari has tried to get a little extra performance from these
It's too early to say who's right but the means of determining the outcome will be very simple. If you haven't got the components in place to generate enough downforce, then it's going to be difficult to find other elements to make up for the front wing's lack of performance.
A five-element wing with a simple endplate design is the norm now because that's what the regulations dictate. Ferrari's first three flaps connect to the mandatory single central wing section, then all the flaps sweep rearwards to meet up with the endplate.
The inner section of the flaps sweep downwards more than most other teams, acting as more of an inner endplate, which will also contain vortices that are generated through the main plane tunnel at this intersection. The outer ends of the flaps, where they sweep downwards to the endplates, are strange.
Yes, producing downforce in front of the tyre will always be difficult, and it's even more challenging to produce it when the tyre is constantly at a different angle because of steering - but not doing it at all must incur an overall loss. Time will tell who's got it right, and who needs a few development bits pretty quickly.
The rest of the car is more of a development based on what they learned from last year. As with most other cars the rear view mirrors are mounted very far out, giving them more opportunity to use the mounts as aerodynamic turning vanes.
The triangular roll bar and airbox intake looks smaller than most other cars. This roll bar geometry is best for the loads it has to withstand, while normally a reasonable amount of the airflow going through this opening is used to cool parts of the car's systems. But this does mean those radiators need to be mounted fairly high up, raising the centre of gravity of the car. Since the roll hoop is the highest part of the car, a lighter rollover bar concept and lowering the cooling components would have a significant influence on the centre of gravity height.
Ferrari has been more than a match for Mercedes over the past couple of seasons - thankfully, the team has elected to stick to its guns, using the same nose design developed incrementally in recent years
Combine that with the fact that the main radiator inlet ducts look a little bigger than last year, allowing for extra cooling in that area, and I think we can assume they've put some extra effort into the mechanical side of the concept.
One of the other interesting features is the twin exhaust wastegates mounted above the actual exhaust outlet. For this year, the actual exhaust outlet location has been positioned to reduce the potential of exhaust blowing on the underside of the rear wing, but there is still some freedom over the location of the wastegate outlets. So Ferrari has tried to get a little bit of extra performance from their location. Most Ferrari teams will be doing the same as I'm pretty sure it would be one of the parts both Haas and Alfa Romeo buy directly from Ferrari.
Before I can really give an opinion on where any of the teams stand this year I would like to see their cars in a little more detail. As I often say, it's the sum of the total that gives the overall performance, so it's about making everything work together.
You won't have to wait long for that because I'll be at Barcelona on Monday with my trusty stopwatch. Together with the rest of the Autosport team, I'll be bringing the facts and figures as it all unfolds. It's all about to kick off, and I can't wait.
Jake Boxall-Legge on Ferrari's design intricacies
Is this the car that's going to end Mercedes' run of dominance? Ferrari, having come out of the starting blocks faster at the start of last year, lost its way in the second half of 2018 - Sebastian Vettel's moment of brain-fade at Hockenheim's Sachs Kurve represented a tidal shift in the battle for the championship. From that moment, the advantage moved in favour of Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari made too many mistakes last season, as the weight of expectation forced Vettel into multiple errors when his championship challenge began to fade away - ultimately ending in Maurizio Arrivabene's head becoming acquainted with the chopping block. In his stead, technical director Mattia Binotto stepped up into the team principal role, hoping to improve the Scuderia's fortunes.
Within this welter of changes, the SF90 thankfully seems to be a continuation of Ferrari's design ethos. It's been more than a match for Mercedes over the past couple of seasons - sensibly, the team has elected to stick to its guns, using the same nose design developed incrementally in recent years.
The front wing is in keeping with current trends; the inboard section of the flaps are higher up than the outboard portion, allowing the airflow to slide down and induce the outwashing characteristic that the teams are so keen to retain.
While the intent of the regulations has been to reduce outwashing, the teams have channelled much of their resources towards mitigating the effects of the changes - and Ferrari has created a twist in the elements to promote further outwashing. At the point at which the elements meet the endplates, they have a visibly reduced angle of attack; ultimately this reduces downforce but offers more control because the airflow is less prone to separation.
The inboard section has been tunnelled as much as possible to produce the vortices off the neutral section, and the mounting pylons feature three slots to work with that further. The outwashing endplates feature a small dip in the top edge towards the trailing edge, helping air spill over the top earlier on before moving around the front wheels.
Keeping the front suspension components as low as possible minimises the blockage to the sidepod inlets, which are a continuation of the high-positioned intakes which use the crash structures to bound the horizontal limits. This includes the extended inlet aperture on the top of the sidepods, broken up somewhat by the crash structure winglet mounted at the top.
The bargeboard section underneath looks tidy, featuring a series of turning vanes around the bottom area to pull airflow around the face of the car and fire it along the top edge of the floor. There's a similar design to the sidepod bargeboard area compared with last year, albeit lower down to satisfy the new regulations, seeking to collect up the flow off the front tyres and control the pockets of turbulence into something more workable for the rest of the car.
As hinted at by the unveiling of the Haas VF-19, Ferrari has refined its packaging and, as a result, the bodywork is even tighter. At the launch at Maranello, Binotto waxed lyrical over the refined engine cover bodywork and intake, which have been tightened up as much as possible to limit the disturbance to the rear of the car.
"If you look at it in all the details, certainly we've tried to push very hard, being innovative," he said. "The rollhoop is very narrow, and if you look at the bodywork at the back it is very slim. In terms of engine installation and power installation packaging a lot of effort has been done, and I think the final shape is the result of all this effort."
A second inlet is included below the first triangular shape at the rollhoop, offering cooling to the ancillary power unit components without too much of a drag penalty. As a result of Ferrari's packaging, more space has been afforded to the fin at the back to minimise the mixing of airflow either side of the intake - reducing the turbulent zone behind.
As the sidepods fold into the rearmost section, the flared outlets used for cooling are limited in size, underlining Ferrari's gains with its power unit over the off-season. The floor features three banks of longitudinal slots along the edge to seal the floor and send some airflow around the rear tyres, while the rear of the engine cover features a double T-wing, looping together at the ends to clean up flow ahead of the rear wing.
At the rear wing, there's six strakes overhanging on the endplate, cleaning up the wake from the rear wheels and producing a tip vortex to improve rear-end stability. This is something Ferrari used last year, part of its Singapore update package that was eventually rolled back ahead of Sochi having failed to perform in the manner expected. Evidently, the team has still found value in its inclusion and will hope a second tilt at the split endplate design will yield greater dividends.
The wing mounts are consistent with current trends, minimising disruption to the suction surface, and the DRS actuator housing is very neatly sculpted to ensure the central section can work efficiently despite the furniture in front.
As testing begins, it won't be surprising if Ferrari emerges strongly, continuing its evolution of a successful F1 concept. But Mercedes was relentless in its development towards the second half of 2018 and, if it does so again, Ferrari is going to have to show the guile and determination to match it.
The Scuderia has come close to honours in the past two seasons. Will it be third time lucky?
Bookmarks