Ferrari recently helped motorsport’s governing body evaluate a more comprehensive wheel protection concept during testing at Fiorano, to see whether it could help reduce spray.
The design was much more spectacular than the original idea tested at Silverstone last year and Ferrari ran two cars in close proximity to see if the design had made any improvements.
The latest coverages were deliberately exaggerated because the FIA wanted to better understand how much visibility would have improved if there had been no wheel spray.
After testing, based on video analysis, the conclusion was that the benefit was marginal, as the diffuser still emits a huge amount of water.
The FIA’s conclusion was immediate: the wheel cover idea is no longer worth pursuing, so other options are being considered to try to help in treacherous conditions.
Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, FIA single-seater boss Nikolas Tombazis said the mudflap project was aborted because it was unable to produce the change in pace hoped for.
“We have always known that there are mainly two factors contributing to the spray cloud,” he said. “One is the amount of water that is collected from the ground by the diffuser, the other is the presence of the wheels.”
Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75 equipped with mudflaps
Photo by: Alessando Stefanini
“We thought we’d try to achieve total coverage of the wheels, even beyond what would be practical, to see what is the most we can achieve with this solution, to see if it’s the right solution or not.”
“The previous wheel cover test [fatto a Silverstone l’anno scorso] it was too much, too fragile and too small. And so I don’t think it would ever work.”
“So we went to the max to see what was the most we could get out of the wheel covers. And while they have a little bit of an effect, they don’t have a significant enough effect to say this is the solution. So we’re back to square one. “.
“Let’s say I think we’ve answered some questions. We know where we are at, but I don’t think the project will continue as such at the moment. Now we know we need to find other ways to protect races from cancellation.”
The influence of the bottom with the Venturi channels in lifting a significant amount of water has in the past led to thoughts of adding something to the diffuser to help retain the water in this area.
However, Tombazis is skeptical of this idea, as he believes that any intervention in this area would have a significant negative impact on downforce generation.
“In theory something could be done in this area, but it would be like removing all the downforce and so on. So it would be a big problem. It’s not an easy next step, to be honest. We need to discuss it.”
Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75 with mudflaps, Oliver Bearman, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Alessando Stefanini
“But basically, as a test, [il progetto Ferrari] it worked because it showed us what we were looking for. Sometimes the tests go well and say ‘great’, other times they go in the opposite direction and tell you that the direction you are going is not good and you need to go something else. That something else needs to be established now.”
Tombazis said he has some ideas about what could be done, but doesn’t want to make them public yet.
But he said the hope is that whatever the answer is, it will help on the rare occasions when conditions are particularly extreme.
“We have to think of different solutions,” he explained. Ultimately, what we want to avoid is a Spa 2021 situation where a race is cancelled, or significantly shortened, or significantly delayed.”
“Clearly, it will always be a compromise. The mudflaps themselves were pretty ugly, but if they made a significant contribution, we would have been perfectly happy to install them once a year if it made the difference between canceling a race or not.”
“We never wanted to say ‘every time it’s wet we put them on’. But unfortunately we have to try to think of other solutions.”
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