TECH CORNER: Ferrari set to debut an all-new floor at the Red Bull Ring

Having hardly brought any performance upgrades in recent races, Ferrari are set to introduce a heavily-upgraded floor on its SF-25 at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo explains Ferrari's latest upgrade.

After its Canadian interlude, the F1 field returns to Europe, resuming with the Austrian and British double-header. The first of these sees the teams head to Spielberg in the Styrian mountains, a few kilometres from Graz.

For the second time this season, Ferrari is running three drivers over the course of the weekend. In line with the regulation that each race driver must give up his seat for a Friday practice session twice per year for a young driver with fewer than two Grand Prix participations to their name, Dino Beganovic, the young Maranello Academy student, will drive Charles Leclerc's car in the first free practice.

For the Swede, it will not be a completely new opportunity as he has already driven the Monegasque’s SF-25 in the opening practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Although last year's Austrian Grand Prix played host to a sprint weekend, this season sees the Red Bull Ring hold a standard format. The standard schedule and the return to Europe mean that teams can easily bring new part to their cars this weekend.

Ferrari will be one of the outfits to introduce upgrades this weekend. The Scuderia has already revealed a new floor in the pit lane at the Red Bull Ring, during the first pit stop tests of the weekend.

This will mark the third time Ferrari shows off a new floor in 2025. The Scuderia made tweaks to the initial floor design at Bahrain. Since then, the Maranello-based outfit brought only subtle aerodynamic changes to the SF-25, with the most significant upgrades having been a brake duct design and a new front wing at Imola and Barcelona respectively.

The images published by FormulaPassion.it shows that there are a number of changes various parts of the floor.

The most visible change affects the floor fences. The fence profiles have been redistributed, with the outer fence having received a completely new shape.

Although it is less visible, but the floor body has gone through a complete revision. Ferrari explained that the floor body has received a reshaped boat and tunnel expansion.

At the back end of the floor, the diffuser has also been tweaked. The Scuderia noted that the area where the underfloor airflow expands the most, has been redesigned and now features a different diffuser volume.

The floor edge has also been redesigned. The front section of the floor edge wing has been re-cambered and is now shorter than the previous version.

Explaining the changes, Ferrari stated: "Not event specific, this floor package features updated front floor fences targeting an enhanced vorticity released downstream.

"The reshaped boat and tunnel expansion have been subsequently reoptimized, together with the floor edge loading and diffuser volume distribution, leading to an overall load gain across the car operating envelope."

Speaking of the Scuderia's plans, Ferrari ambassador Marc Gene reckoned: "We will have some technical innovations on Ferrari, without going into detail, which will certainly be announced on Thursday.

"But that will not be the key, because many times it is more important to optimize the package available. However, we will have some improvements already in Austria.

"We are on a track with very fast corners, with the exception of two. McLaren is the favorite, and I expect the four top teams to be separated by very little. It will be important to have a perfect weekend, as Vasseur said in Montreal. When something does not work well, fighting for the podium is complicated"

Despite the introduction of the new floor, both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton played down expectations for it.

“I don't think that it will fundamentally change [overall competitiveness],” Leclerc said. “What we are looking to do is to do small steps in the right direction and obviously try and understand what direction can we push in the future.

“I expect steps forward. Would it be enough to close the gap to McLaren? Probably not because for now they are too far ahead – McLaren and Red Bull.

"As I said many times, Mercedes is a lot more up and down so it's a bit more difficult to judge with them. But I think it will be a step in the right direction. How much, I don't know.”

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton commented: "A lot happened over the weekends and maybe one day we'll find out all the things that happened that bothered us. Whether it was team mistakes, car problems or driver errors."

"Behind the scenes, I'm working hard with Fred Vasseur and the team to try to implement changes and improvements so we can have long-term success."

"I'm working with Loïc Serra and the whole team on next year's front and rear suspension and the understeer issues, making sure they don't recur and making sure we learn from previous years and also from this year. All this so that next year is the best we've ever had. That's my main goal."