Ferrari shows up in Budapest without updates, but in any case with some precious adaptations to a highly loaded track such as the Hungarian one. In Hungary, the SF-23 mounts the new front wing introduced in Austria, suitably modified to allow the use of the maximum load configuration without compromising the balance. The front wing is also the subject of new deformation analyses, after those already carried out during the tests in Bahrain.
Fully loaded
In Budapest, racing is back in full load configuration for the first time since Barcelona. It was precisely in Spain that the Maranello team had introduced a new version of the high-load wing, characterized by a straight main profile and a single support pylon. The same version is now back in Hungary, paired with the cascading beam-wing from maximum loadpreferred to the more downloaded version used at Silverstone.
However, the possibility of increasing the load on the rear depends on the ability to balance it with the front. However, the perception is that so far the SF-23 has had some difficulties in this, being forced on other occasions to run more unloaded than expected to balancing reasons. In Budapest comes a little help on this front, with the extension of the Gurney flap for the full length of the front wing profiles to find more front-end downforce.
Look at the deformations
However, the element of greatest interest from Ferrari in Budapest is perhaps the sensor mounted during the first practice sessions. It is a double camera on the side of the nose, supported by a 3D printed support and used to monitor the bending of the front wing under the thrust of the aerodynamic load. Ferrari is not new to this kind of test in 2023. Already during the pre-season tests in Bahrain, the Reds had made some passes with two tie rods mounted on the wing precisely to record its deformations.
Mouths sewn in the Ferrari house on the occasion of this test, making it difficult to interpret its exact nature. A plausible hypothesis is that in Maranello there is concern or at least the suspicion that some excessive deformations of the wing compromise its performance. However, the possibility that the Cavallino is carrying out some experiments to exploit the bending of the wing to find speed on a straight line should not be excluded either. The most important piece of information that comes from Friday in Budapest, however, is one Ferrari returning to focus on updates and detailed testsafter a long period of general investigation into a car that was incomprehensible to its own designers.
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