F1 | Ferrari: There’s a new moving walkway in the wind tunnel

No one has talked about it, but Ferrari took advantage of the two weeks of vacation imposed by the FIA ​​for a very important update. Not on the SF-24 since the factory was closed, but in the wind tunnel. The regulations of the International Federation, in fact, allow teams to carry out interventions in the wind tunnel when the plant must remain closed.

And the Scuderia took advantage of this to upgrade the hardware of its system designed by Renzo Piano with a very important intervention: Ferrari, in fact, equipped itself with a more modern moving carpet that should allow the aerodynamicists led by Diego Tondi to carry out a more in-depth and accurate investigation than was possible up until now.

According to rumors, therefore, the moving walkway that was once made of metal has been replaced and now uses increasingly innovative materials, in the awareness that performance can be found by adapting the structures.

The Maranello wind tunnel now has a new “rubbery” floor that should represent a significant leap in quality in the investigation work. The reason is quite simple: the ground effect single-seaters are able to generate more downforce the closer the floor is to the moving carpet (a sophisticated roller on which the wheels of the car rest, which travels at the same speed as the air – max 180 km/h – that is blasted by the fan onto the 40% scale model).

With the metal matrix moving carpet, but also with the less extreme solutions of recent years, the tunnel managers were forced not to exaggerate the search for the minimum height because a “belly” of the floor that produces spectacular sparks on the track, could cause serious damage to the model, slowing down the scheduled development work and delaying the arrival of any new aerodynamic packages.

Thanks to the latest “plastic” materials, it is possible to have a moving carpet that is very resistant to wear (the metal matrix had almost zero consumption) and with a bottom free of micro-asperities, so it is possible to generate a cleaner flow of air under the model, making the bottom closer to the floor.

The wind tunnel investigation has become increasingly precise with very complex aerodynamic maps. If once the research was limited to the model hit frontally by the air flow, now the behavior of the car in yaw is also being studied, with a steering angle, simulating the car in a curve.

In this case, the old moving walkways produced a strong friction on the “rubbers”, that is, the 40% scale tyres that Pirelli supplies to the teams and which replicate the same design and the same deformation under stress of the real tyre.

It is no coincidence that the consumption of tires for the wind tunnel has increased in recent years and technicians are looking for solutions to preserve the “rubbers” since the supply is limited to 10 sets per year. Having new tires may seem incredible, but it can be an advantage in research, just as it normally happens on the track.

Red Bull was the first team to equip itself with an advanced moving walkway, followed by McLaren. The Woking team used the Toyota tunnel in Cologne intended for customers, but since using the new wind tunnel in Woking it has made impressive progress, so much so that the MCL38 is considered the reference single-seater of the moment.

Here’s Toyota’s moving walkway in the Cologne wind tunnel

Photo by: Andretti Autosport

Ferrari, aware of how important it is to find a perfect correlation between the data collected in the tunnel and those on the track, did not hesitate to make a major update of its wind tunnel that lasted two weeks and one day. If the Racing Department staff was already active on Sunday, the stop in the tunnel continued until Monday.

The same world champion team, Red Bull, has started the construction of a new wind tunnel in Milton Keynes (where the Racing Bulls aerodynamicists will also converge), while in Silverstone the latest generation tunnel of Aston Martin is being completed. Sauber in full transformation Audi will equip itself with a new facility by 2026. The race for… technological rearmament does not stop.