Formula One car development blog

BMW introduced a major development step on its car at Valencia, and the results were immediately there. The single point of Robert Kubica may not seem much, but at Bahrain there were still miles and miles away in the back of the field, while now Kubica could fight Webber, a race winner this year.

BMW Sauber decided gambled with KERS and failed badly, hence they decided to ditch it alltogether. The result now is a lighter chassis and much more sculpted sidepods. The team redesigned t... Read more

Kimi Raikkonen showed up on track at Valencia with a new nose design, or more correctly with Red Bull's nose bulges glued on top of the F60's usual nose shape. Many other teams - including Toyota - have tried this design idea to analyse its advantages but none have so far come up with such an elegant solution.

The different design is supposedly aimed to prevent air from flowing over the nosecone when the car is turning. The higher side surface will keep help to split airflow on both... Read more

McLaren is pushing ahead with its car development, and this time has come up with a revised aerodynamics package around the exhausts. The change resembles much that of Renault or Ferrari early on in the season as they decided that it is better to let hot air out of the sidepod sooner rather than later. Hence McLaren did the same, as the exhausts are now part of a large air outlet opening, following which the car's shell is much more tight. Still, the system is assymetrical with the ... Read more

Toyota is doing everything it can to find some extra rear downforce on its TF109. At the Hungaroring, a notoriously slow and high downforce circuit, the team added a BMW-style third rear wing element in the central 15cm of the wing. It is only in this area that move than 2 horizontal panels are allowed in the rear wing.

And as that didn't prove enough, another 2-panel wing was added above the rear light to push air up. Although less than in previous years, this item will also help t... Read more

Renault, just like BMW have found out the hard way that focusing too much on KERS during the winter has cost them dearly in aerodynamic performance of the car. The French squad is steadily improving with continuous updates and found out with Alonso that their latest package is an interesting upgrade.

The R29 does not have a specific problem but rather suffers a lack of grip, already since the first winter tests. Just like McLaren, the team therefore introduced a new front wing, a mu... Read more

Force India have shown their much improved pace at Germany that was largely thanks to its new aerodynamic package, including this totally revised front wing and endplate assembly. Although it is clearly a development of the previous version, the most inward, unmoveable part of the flaps have a changed profile to improve airflow along the inside of the front wheels.

The decked elements remained unchanged but it is now fixed differently with a seperate support (in unpainted black carb... Read more

Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa have run the German Grand Prix with different front wing profiles. Raikkonen's car was equipped with a version that has been used for a long time - upper part of the image - while Massa had a new upper flap section. With all the rest of the wing indifferent, the new upper flap features a cutout and is not folded back behind the base plane in its most inward section.

While this change will influence the air fed into the brake cooling ducts, both driver... Read more

McLaren have decided to continue to develop its MP4-24 in a little more conservative way as previous highly anticipated updates did not pay off. At the Nürburgring one of the new aerodynamic things was a revised front wing endplate which now includes small vents that catch air flowing along the outside of the wing towards the inside. The idea was pioneered by Toyota but has since March found many more followers.

Additionally, the team also reverted to its more traditional front whee... Read more

It was only back in Monaco that Red Bull introduced its revised package aimed to benefit from a new double decker diffuser, and now again the RB5 is fitted with an update. The element is possibly as good an improvement as the original DDD was.

This time around the new diffuser now spans the maximum width, while previously the team, along with Toro Rosso, was the only not to use this. All diffusers of the RB5 in the first 7 races were the width of the rear wing, with its endplate ext... Read more

BMW Sauber have introduced another update to the F1.09's front wing. Now that the team is completely focused on improving the aerodynamics of the car after ditching KERS, all parts have evolved from being simple to less simple. To no avail it appears though, as BMW was again in a troubled position during the British GP weekend.

The updates however include a new endplate which is slightly bent, allow a little more air to be accellerated under the front wing rather than pushed around ... Read more