Yesterday evening, the WRC 2022 season was presented at Hangar 7 Red Bull in Salzburg, Austria. -Sport Ford presented the respective cars and crews that will have to hunt down the Constructors and Drivers titles.
In an evening that has gathered almost all the protagonists of the premier class of the World Rally, there is a team that caused a sensation for having presented a very particular livery, which stood out for its visual impact and for the break with respect to tradition recent. This is M-Sport Ford. The Puma Rally1 Hybrid EcoBoost presented itself dressed in a Red Bull livery. Not only the classic bull on the sides, but also lots of purple and the apt addition of lightning to cross it: a clear reference to the hybrid propulsion that will be the protagonist of the WRC this year.
In all this it was less easy to find the news that the team unveiled just last night at a technical level on the Puma which, in Monte-Carlo, will be entrusted to Craig Breen, Gus Greensmith, Adrien Fourmaux and Sébastien Loeb. M-Sport was the only team to present itself with new features compared to the last tests carried out. Let’s find out which ones.
A new front splitter
The first new feature on the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid EcoBoost is the front splitter. This component was used for a few laps in the last test session by Craig Breen, before the car finished its day of testing in an escarpment due to a Northern Irish smudge, busy pushing to find the best set-up. ahead of the Rallye Monte-Carlo.
The different aspect of the splitter – which has the task of conveying the air under the car – seen last night is the part that joins the front wheel arches. In the version used for most of the development tests, the attachment to the wheel arches consisted of a vertical strip, with the splitter joining the wheel arch and creating an angle wider than 90 °.
The new solution, on the other hand, does not provide for any angle because the part between the vertical strip and the wheel arch has been filled, creating an upward slide, a sort of upperflap, which conveys the air right towards the wheel arch. Furthermore, the vertical bulkhead itself has been considerably reduced in size.
A less arched front wheel arch
In this case it is a novelty seen only yesterday evening, on the day of the presentation. The Ford Puma Rally1 presented a new design of the front wheel arches. Not so much in the front – the one that hooks onto the spltter – but in the back.
This modification should be a direct consequence of the first modification told, precisely the one related to the splitter, and sees the end part of the wheel arch much less arched and refined in the design.
In the version seen in the tests and also in the Ford Performance promotional video, where the Ford Puma Rally1 driven by Adrien Fourmaux was the star of the commercial, the component in question created a corridor for the air flows directed towards the rear-view mirror, also composed by a small vertical bulkhead which should have better conveyed the air towards the established point.
Now, however, there is no longer any slide, but a corridor without vertical bulkhead longer than before and flat, with larger and less arched dimensions. A simplification that, for example, had already been made on the WRC Plus in the last part of their life, i.e. in the 2020-2021 years.
Small news on the rear wing
All teams, as we know, are looking for downforce. The 2022 technical regulation was intended to make the cars more rough not only from the mechanical point of view, but also from the downforce point of view.
With the rear diffuser removed, the teams went in search of different solutions to recreate an effect that could be similar at least in part. M-Sport, in addition to using the stratagem also chosen by the competing teams – that is to exploit the hot air that comes out of the electrical package above the rear axle to create low pressure under the car and extract the air more quickly, thus creating more load and to remedy the absence of the diffuser – he also wanted to work on the rear wing.
The novelty is clearly visible to the naked eye, but only if you look closely at the large aerodynamic appendage. The component we want to analyze is the vertical bulkhead that closes the two cantilevered flaps that are placed next to the main plane and the two wing attachments to the Puma bodywork.
The two outermost vertical bulkheads are the novelties we are talking about. Until the last test session held in France, M-Sport used components that were completely smooth, and free of bends. Last night a small offset area appeared that creates an additional slide upwards. This is a choice made to increase the aerodynamic load in the area perhaps most penalized by the new regulation.
In short, a series of small interventions that, however, have revealed further refinements on a car, the Puma Rally1 Hybrid EcoBoost, with high ambitions. The goal is to return to fighting for titles on a permanent basis. To understand the level of the crossover (on the body of the Fiesta, it must be remembered) we will have to wait for the Rallye Monte-Carlo. But it is clear that M-Sport, also thanks to Ford Performance, did not want to leave anything to chance. On the other hand, you know: the devil is in the details.
Ford team
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
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