The intense development process continues in Maranello to allow the SF-23 to express its potential in the race as well as in qualifying. To achieve this, the latest updates in Ferrari they don’t aim so much at improving the car’s overall performance, as at stabilizing it and making it less sensitive to external conditions. In Austria the Cavallino is presented with a revised underbody and with a new front wing, already on display outside the pits. However, the latter does not simply go in the direction of increasing local efficiency, but works in synergy with the fund to cure some defects.
New profiles
From the front view, the new wing of the SF-23 has slightly more loaded profiles than the previous specification. The change appears magnified by the different photographic perspective, but the impression is that Maranello has tried to increase downforce at the front end. In fact, on more than one occasion the Ducati suffered from understeer, preventing the team from increasing the level of load at the rear even on those tracks that would have required more downforce. Finally, it should be noted that on the new wing the Gurney flap is now moved to the outer part, probably to facilitate the channeling of internal flows towards the bottom and the Venturi channels.
Fund repercussions
The most important changes on the Austrian wing of the Red are concentrated in the external vertical drift of the endplate. The upper edge of the strip is now lower and rounded, moving away from the previous square geometry. The flap of the diveplane, on the other hand, abandons the S shape, moving to a simpler upwash design towards the top. Already here we can see a first attention to aerodynamic effects towards the rearas together with the geometry of the diveplane also changes the position and trend of the vortex generated along its outer edge.
The main novelty, however, is found in the lower lateral part of the wing, in the connection area between the profiles and the endplate. Indeed, it disappears the carving of the Mercedes school, which offered a lateral outlet to the flows, also useful for generating eddies. In its place, the profiles now extend all the way to the rear with a pronounced downward curve. The Cavallino has studied a different approach to mitigate the turbulence generated by the front wheels, exploiting the flows coming from the wing.
All this also leads to benefits downstream in the rear of the car, improving the performance of the fund. With the same aim, the curvature of the endplate has also been changed. Where previously the vertical fin pinched inward, it now veers outward, inviting wing flows to go around the nosewheel. Again the new wing of the SF-23 it has not been studied as an isolated componentbut as an update that was created to better interact with the rest of the aerodynamics, starting from the bottom.
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