After being beaten in Baku’s race, Ferrari heads to Singapore with one goal in mind: ‘re-take’ the win that was lost last week. The many slow corners, traction zones and DRS straights in the Marina Bay circuit are expected to suit the strengths of the SF-24 very well. The cars will feature high-downforce setups, and the low-to-medium wings seen at Monza and Azerbaijan will be scrapped. Tyre management will be a big factor in Singapore’s night race, but the crucial phase of the weekend will undoubtedly be Qualifying in order to set the pace from the front on Sunday. In recent weeks Maranello has been pushing a lot on upgrade wise and today a new front wing – originally planned to make its debut in Austin, Texas – was fitted on both SF-24’s on Thursday.
Ferrari’s new front wing has been redesigned in different aspects, including a greater focus in its flexibility
The engineers directed by Diego Tondi back in Italy have been working extensively on the design of the new front wing unveiled in Singapore. The new specification is easy to spot in the pit lane: compared to the previous design it has undergone modifications in many areas. Starting from the main plane we can spot the first differences: in the central part of the element it is possible to see a more pronounced spoon shape. The goal is to make way for an opening underneath the nose to direct an air channel to the underbody of the car, leading it to the entry of the Venturi tunnels.
Furthermore, the changes also affect the design of the front wing flaps: engineers from the ‘Prancing Horse’ were focused on achieving an upwash effect in the central area of the flaps, which then rapidly fall on the sides of the elements in order to increase the outwash effect of the wing. It’s interesting to notice that this solution is an echo of what Ferrari themselves had introduced on the SF-23 at the beginning of last season. The solution was discarded once the Austrian-spec front wing made its appearance in the middle of the season. The wing doesn’t just present solutions and ideas from the past, but it also demonstrates that Ferrari is keeping a close eye on their rivals. The junction between the flaps and the endplate is inspired by what the engineers at Woking did with the front wing introduced in Austria this season.
The changes are not only aero-related, though. As revealed by formu1a.uno, Ferrari has started studying the flexibility of carbon-fibre elements such as the front wing after weeks of inquiries and dialogues with the FIA. This activity has been going on in Formula 1 factories for a long time, and is being pushed further to the limits by the teams who can afford to bring these concepts to the next level. It is obvious that up until now the SF-24’s front wing has been the stiffest out of the four top teams, but Frederic Vasseur and Diego Tondi have now decided to start pushing on this front and the intention is to follow their rivals. The development in this area wouldn’t have been possible without Vasseur’s recruitment process, which has seen the ‘Composite Materials’ department grow and reinforce itself over the past few months: arrivals from rival teams have brought an important know-how. With only one specification studied to push the boundaries of flexibility it is very difficult to reach the level of McLaren and Mercedes, who have been exploiting this phenomenon for some time, but from Ferrari’s point of view it’s a first step. This direction will be pursued by Ferrari next year as well, unless the FIA decide to set different limits on this topic.
