Formula One car development blog

Scuderia Ferrari have introduced another part to their F138, namely a new sidepod panel with a small bridge bending over the sidepod shoulder. The item was previously tested during free practice sessions, but before the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend never made it past Friday evening. At Autodromo Carlos Pace however, both cars had the new element fitted during qualifying, hence they will also be used during tomorrow's Grand Prix.

The item is designed to better control airflow over t... Read more

The Singapore Grand Prix weekend has repeatedly been dubbed as the decisive point in the season for Ferrari to see whether or not it should continue to develop its F138. In a final attempt to keep in the championship race, the team came up with a raft of updates and will evaluate after the race if it was enough to stay in the hunt for a championship. Initial Friday sings though show that Ferrari may have dropped back to the pace it had at Hungary and other high downforce tracks in t... Read more

Ferrari have traditionally put a lot of effort into their home Grand Prix package, and this year is no different, although it seems that the other top teams have put in quite some effort as well. Contrary to Spa-Francorchamps where one needs great front stability along with less drag, Monza is even more about drag reduction and top speeds, as there are less corners that require a large amount of front downforce.

Just like many other teams, Ferrari brought a new front wing that featu... Read more

Ferrari were extremely busy testing several aerodynamic configurations of its F138 during the first practice sessions of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend. Some of the switched components include a new nose with bulge underneath, a lower downforce front wing and the sidepod panels that curve over the top of the sidepods. All this in combination with the longer vs shorter sidepods, something that the team have trouble with deciding which is in fact the best option to go for. Even both ... Read more

Although the aerodynamic differences are much more subtle than they were 10 years ago, teams are still bringing high downforce packages on their cars at Monaco. Ferrari is no different with a new monkey seat and high downforce rear wing. To indicate how the difference is in the detail, the rear wing used at Monaco is actually nearly identical as Massa's rear wing at the Spanish GP at Barcelona, a track that has a much higher average speed than Monaco. Fernando Alonso on the other ha... Read more

Despite only having a 7 day gap since the Chinese GP, Ferrari have brought another update to their F138. The team fitted new sidepod panels on both their cars during the entire weekend, increasing the volume of the sidepod around the UPS logo. The difference is clearly visible when you focus on the joint of the foremost panel - with the Shell logo - that was unchanged and the new panel with UPS on it.

The previous design had fairly visible downward ducts, still somewhat similar to t... Read more

Ferrari have used their new front wing debuted at the final Barcelona test throughout the entire Australian GP weekend, showing it confirmed the new part to be an improvement for the car. When comparing this to last year, where the Scuderia had various new parts tested that eventually failed to work in real life, the new parts coming from Toyota's wind tunnel appear to be working straight away. This alone is a great sign for Ferrari that will build confidence within the team.

The ne... Read more

Ferrari have introduced their updates exhaust one day ahead of schedule. Luca Marmorini earlier spoke out of his worries about introducing such a new layout so close to the end of testing, but it appears that Ferrari have managed to speed up the manufacturing process for this particular item. As such, while Felipe Massa was running on Thursday with the same exhaust layout as the car was launched, Fernando Alonso's F138 is now fitted with the update.

The new sidepod bodywork aims to ... Read more