There is just over a month left until the presentation of Ferrar’s challenger for the F1 world championship. On February 13th, an ‘essential’ presentation will be held in Maranello – low profile, in line with the winter that Frederic Vasseur’s team is having, without too many proclamations – followed by a shakedown on the track at Fiorano, as happened last year.
A car that is always eagerly awaited, often the most awaited, even amongst the various disappointments for the Maranell-based team. It will be the third car, after the F1-75 and the SF-23, which will be born from the new regulations. It will not only be important for the 2024 season but also as a reliable base for 2025, the last year of this regulatory cycle.
The Ferrari aerodynamic concept used the front of the bellies to manage the wake of the front tires
At the start of last season, all the teams took to the tracks following the pioneers of the downwash concept, namely Red Bull, except three: Haas but, above all, Mercedes and Ferrari.
The technical offices of the latter, during last winter, had preferred to continue with their ‘unique’ concepts.
In Maranello with large bellies and rear inwash while the men led at that time by Mike Elliott with that zeropods concept, which had also frightened Red Bull so much in the tests in Bahrain in March 2022, now very distant.
However, soon, the technicians of the two top teams realized that both concepts were poorly developable, also due to the new anti-hopping regulations introduced by the Federation last season.
“In the pre-season tests, we realized that our concept was not the most performing, and we immediately revised our objectives in terms of aerodynamic development”, stated Cardile, the technical director of the Italian team.
Mercedes had already started evaluating other avenues in the last weeks of winter.
The excellent performance of the F1-75 had especially pushed part of the team to continue with that aerodynamic concept, which included a very wide front part of the bellies, useful for working the turbulent wake of the front tyres.
Simply, Ferrari used the belly inlet to push the turbulent trails generated by the rolling of the front tires away from the bottom – pushing them externally.
There was then a heavy inwash effect in the rear part, in that area called Coca-Cola, designed to bring the airflow to the upper part of the diffuser, maximizing its extraction.
On the contrary, Red Bull used the external flow conveyor extensively – practically at the regulatory maximum – to condition the trail of the front tyres, creating that important excavation under the bellies useful for bringing a better flow of air towards the rear of the car.
Having opted to maintain the same aerodynamic concept on the SF-23 did not push the technicians of the Italian team to heavily review the chassis last winter.
The anti-intrusion cone remained in a very high position, where the bellies were necessarily widened, as explained above, to have a cleaner upper part of the floor – aerodynamically speaking.
On the other hand, “the SF-23 was a car designed in continuity with the F1-75 and which had the aim of improving some of its limitations,” stated Cardile.
The chassis limits imposed by the choices made during the previous winter have limited the steps forward of the SF-23 in the current season, which, however, has approached the concept of Red Bull’s downwash bellies to understand them and understand them in view of 2024.
The bellies of the 2024 Ferrari will not have the tubs of Aston Martin and Mclaren but will be simpler
“The 2024 single-seater was born from a different project and was designed differently compared to the concept brought to the track at the beginning of 2022” said Enrico Cardile.
A car that will be able to count on 95% of new parts compared to the SF-23, but which, for much of the bodywork, will be an evolution of the update seen at Montmelò last season.
Steps forward were made possible by the elimination of the important chassis limitations of the SF-23, thanks to a revolutionized chassis, with the movement of the anti-knock cone to a lower position, but not only.
This allowed the Maranello team technicians to dig an important undercut under the belly, no longer using the front part of the same to move the turbulent wake of the front tires but concentrating on bringing a better flow to the rear.
It is no coincidence that the design of the outermost diverter positioned at the bottom entrance will be completely revised, with the use of a greater area and approaching what has already been seen on Adrian Newey’s car.
Many features that will be seen on the 2024 Ferrari have been taken from Red Bull. However, “the devil is in the details,” as AlphaTauri DT Jody Eggington rightly stated.
But not only that: also and above all in this regulatory cycle, it is essential to understand exactly that specific solution brought to the track by a team.
Copying without understanding is the wrong way to design an extremely developable car.
After having made many comparisons and analyses in the wind tunnel between the various solutions, Ferrari will not move on to the type of bellies seen on Mclaren or Aston Martin, which presented important aggressive ‘waterslides’ in the central part.
Ferrari will instead build upon the concept of the SF-23, although further evolved, with a more uniform profile in the descent, in short, more in the direction of the belly seen on the RB19.
Authors: Piergiuseppe Donadoni
Co-Authors: Giuliano Duchessa & Rosario Giuliana
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
