Formula One car development blog

Toyota is obviously lacking downforce and overall grip at Monaco, even after several updates. The team introduced a new rear and front wing and have altered their sidepod vanes by adding a winglet on the inside of the panel. The upper part of the image shows the assembly at the time of the Malaysian GP where the vane is built for flow conditioning, similar to BMW, Ferrari and McLaren. The new item in the lower part of the image has a smaller vane and added winglet, similar to what B... Read more

In an urgent challenge to improve the performance of their R27, Renault have followed suit with McLaren and Ferrari to add a mid-wing. The two leading teams have been running these since the beginning of the season, and Renault introduced the item in Spain. It still proves to be useful for a high downforce circuit like Monaco. Contrary to what some may expect, the mid-wing itself is not designed to generate but instead helps to improve airflow onto the rear wing, thereby increasing ... Read more

BMW have quickly improved over the winter to become the third team in F1. Yet it is not enough and improvements are coming quickly to close the gap with the leading teams. At Barcelona the team had a new main plane ready for the front wing. It was strangely not tested before during the Barcelona test but instead Mario Theissen only made an announcement on Thursday that the team would run a new item Friday morning. The new main plane is more edgy in the middle than before and aims to... Read more

In an attempt to regain some pace from last year, Renault introduced several updates for the Spanish Grand Prix. One of these changes are the modified exhaust covers that are now smaller at the base. The arrow denotes the new version that is designed to improve the airflow towards the rear wing. The smaller base size will decrease the air cooling along with the exhaust pipes but lowers the drag.

From all the updates at Barcelona, Honda came up with the weirdest looking of all. Instead of an added plane on the front wing, Honda have not been looking for front downforce. Instead two giant extensions were developed on top of the nose cone. These are positioned and curved so that they improve airflow towards the driver's helmet and further downward onto the rear wing. As this may affect driver visibility or may be dangerous in case of an accident it is still unsure at this time... Read more

Ferrari have released a complete new aero package for the rear of their car during the Barcelona testing. While the team is said to have a brand new cooling system in the car, apparent aerodynamic changes were added to further support the increase in efficiency. The engine cover is now more curved in the upper part. Since FIA regulations state that the airbox must have a specified minimum surface and because Ferrari engineers cut out some carbon in between the rear wheels some surfa... Read more

After McLaren showed up at the Spanish test with an upper element on their front wing, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Honda were the only teams that didn't have any form of upper element on their front wings. Spyker and Super Aguri are both running somewhat old fashioned items as the others have elements running from the endplates to the nosecone (or over it in McLaren's case). This new Red Bull wing changes this with a design that appears to be a mixture of the Renault and Williams versi... Read more

As all teams have brought updates to Barcelona, Ferrari and especially McLaren are catching most sights. The Woking based team have developed a front wing with a "bridged" upper element over the nose cone. While most other teams attach their upper flaps onto the nose cone McLaren may have developed an improvement to that. The new layout obviously has increased potential if air above the nose needs to be conditioned. It also allows changing the angle of attack of it, contrary to the ... Read more

Toyota appeared at yesterday's Barcelona test with an updated chimney. While previously (upper part of the image) it was quite bulky and possibly hindering efficiency of the winglet just behind it, the new one is more curved. Just like about every bodywork element the curves are designed to follow the airflow in order to decrease drag. At Toyota the chimney is still connected to the winglet. The new solution appears to be quite more elegant than the outdated design that was present ... Read more

As of the beginning of tyre testing with Bridgestone, Renault realised the weight bias had to move forward compared to what the team used with Michelin. However, as testing went on, it appeared more was needed, and so the team decided on a redesign of the highly efficient nose to a cone with more internal volume. The nose of the R27 (above part of image) resembles more to the nose of the R25, which afterall was the predecessor of the R26 (lower part of image). The solution that Rena... Read more