Bellies and anti-intrusion cones: Cardile explains the limits of the Ferrari SF-23 chassis

Differences in concept

In 2022 Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes presented themselves at the start of the new era characterized by the return ofground effect with three very different cars. F1-75, RB18 and W13 followed aerodynamic concepts with few elements in common and the start of the 2022 championship promoted Ferrari and Red Bull while rejecting Mercedes, too subject to porpoising.

In 2023 Ferrari and Mercedes insisted on their projects trying to develop them to close the gap with Red Bull. Adrian Newey recently stated that regulatory news in terms of the bottom and height of the car between 2022 and 2023 they may have helped Red Bull to overtake Ferrari in terms of effectiveness in fast corners, which in 2022 were a hunting ground for the F1-75. James Allison of Mercedes admitted that this correction of the regulations to counter porpoising has forced Mercedes to choose where to continue to look for performance, whether 'up' with aerodynamics or 'down' by trying to keep it as low as possible the ground clearance of the 2023 W14. In Brackley a conservative approach was preferred, a choice that did not pay off.

In Maranello we tried to balance the SF-23 between performance in fast and slow corners, but the result was losing too much aerodynamic load in fast corners. For 2024 Ferrari has a completely revised rear as well as a new chassis in store. This last modification could also allow for innovations regarding the sides, given that those of the SF-23 were more voluminous than those of the Red Bull for two reasons as explained by the technical director Enrico Cardile: “The limitations we had during the design phase mainly concerned the chassis – the words of Cardile interviewed by the German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport – the main difference between our car and Red Bull's was the design of the bellies. Ours were bulkier than Red Bull's. The reason is that we used part of the side fairing to better control turbulence from the front tires. With this type of lateral space, it was not necessary to build a V-shaped frame. We placed the anti-intrusion cone under the radiators, setting the structure at the maximum height allowed. This allowed us to design the front part of the underbody more favorably. For a different design you need to change some things. The design of our chassis limited us too much in positioning the anti-intrusion cone on the bottom of the car.”