The first European weekend of the F1 season is always crucial from a technical point of view. Various teams often debut large upgrade packages on their cars. This is the case of Ferrari and Aston Martin, who will respond to the upgrade package McLaren introduced last round.
NOT JUST MCLAREN AND FERRARI: ASTON MARTIN ALSO MODIFIES THE SIEDPODS AND FLOOR
Aston Martin already introduced an important upgrade package in Japan. This is similar to what Ferrari initially planned before deciding to go all-in for the Imola GP. What debuted at Suzuka was the appetizer of what the Silverstone team will bring this weekend. Caution has underscored the team’s approach so far in 2024. After making their first step, Aston’s second major update on the Silverstone team’s car will debut.
The package will also involve two of the parts already updated in Suzuka, which are the most important macro parts of these new-generation single-seaters. These components are, of course, the sidepods and the floor, although innovations can also be expected on other parts of the single-seater, such as the front. The AMR24, which will debut in Imola, like Ferrari, will see its biggest changes in the interaction between the floor and sidepod.
AMR24 bellies updated at Suzuka
In recent months, several teams have attempted to minimize the effects brought about by the change in the design of the undersides. However, it is now clear that the upper part of the car is fundamental when wanting to improve the performance of the floor. “Whoever says that the interaction between the bodywork and the sides has no effect in the current regulations is telling lies,” said Andrea Stella a few months ago. He went on to add more detail:
“Every aerodynamicist knows perfectly well that the two macro components work together. We are all converging towards wide bellies because they favour the suction of the bottom and act almost like an aerodynamic miniskirt,” stated the ex-Ferrari engineer.
ASTON MARTIN, LIKE FERRARI, DOWNPLAY THE IMPORTANCE OF UPDATES – FEARING INACCURATE CORRELATION
At Silverstone, they don’t want to go so far as to say that the new AMR24 is even a B car. However, there is enormous anticipation to see if the wind tunnel’s data is confirmed on track. Like Ferrari, Aston Martin is weary about raising expectations.
This is especially true after the technical decline experienced last season. In 2023, the Silverstone team’s upgrades never worked as intended. Therefore, their attempts to minimise the importance of these updates is understandable.
With these new-generation cars, losing the correlation is always a risk. This was always highlighted by Andrea Stella of McLaren pre-Miami. The Italian team principal has overseen his personnel at Woking to navigate all these pitfalls.
“The updates that we will bring to America could take us a significant step forward if we find the right correlation with the numbers in the wind tunnel and the CFD. All of this is always a big”if”. Because, even if the correlation rate has been good in the last twelve months, there are always possible surprises,” said Stella. In fact, these new-generation ground-effect cars have a load that is very sensitive to ride height.
“With this generation of help, it is very difficult to find the right balance. This is because much of the aerodynamics is dependent on that small space between the road surface and the asphalt. And it has become more complicated to predict what will happen,” said Andrew Shovlin of Mercedes.
According to many team workers, finding aerodynamic load in the tunnel is not that difficult. However, the challenge is to try to obtain it across all types of corners and maintain a constant balance. This is the biggest important problem of the Mercedes W15, which sacrifices either low or high-speed performance depending on the specification.
“How the car behaves on the track is no longer so easy to reproduce exactly in the simulator. And this is precisely why it is more difficult to have a perfect correlation compared to the older generation of cars,” concluded the English engineer.
