New Ferrari car: outwash to reduce drag, new sidepods and repositioned roll center

Gossip in Formula 1 is not worth a lot, especially if the car’s body is adorned with a Prancing Horse on a racing red background. We are at an advanced stage of the design stage and although there are still a few weeks left for the finishing touches, the long-awaited moment to unveil the latest Ferrari car to the world is about to arrive.

it is useless to go around it: expectations for the 2023 Formula 1 season are very high. After the umpteenth world championship filed under the heading “failure”, the desire for revenge reigns. The departure of Mattia Binotto and the relative hiring of the French manager Frederic Vasseur, added to the new 675 project, expects only one result: to win again.

Given the continuity of the regulations with respect to last season, the Ferrari technicians have made great efforts to produce a car up to par. There are several innovations, despite the desire not to distort a concept which, basically, proved to be more than positive during 2022.

We all agree on the fact that we will not see a significantly altered shape of the Ferrari sidepods. Nonetheless, it was precisely in this portion of the car that the Prancing Horse engineers decided to invest time and money in an attempt to recover aerodynamic load at the rear.

As pointed out several times by the funoanalisitecnica.com team during the previous year, the F1-75 had a rather advanced center of pressure. A factor that made it very competitive on some tracks such as Silverstone, a circuit where having excellent front grip is essential for obtaining good lap times. While on other tracks, this feature has created quite a few headaches for the rear. At low speeds, in fact, the car behaved very well. However, when the km/h increased, the lack of load appeared clear.

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Precisely for this simple reason, the new aerodynamic look of the Ferrari 675 provides for more tapered sidepods towards the rear, while maintaining the “excavations” in the upper part. The goal is to increase the air flow that flows above the diffuser. In addition to this, there is also the modification concerning the initial area of the sidepods, where we will be able to observe an increased “snare” capable of channeling a higher air flow towards the rear axle, similar to what Red Bull did last year. To carry out such an operation, the Italian technicians made some changes to the internal distribution of the elements, changes that could not be implemented during last season.

Then there is a crucial factor that Ferrari has paid attention to, identified as one of the main problems of the red 2022 edition: excessive drag, an element that has too often inhibited the technicians in finding the correct set up. With the goal of reducing drag, an attempt was made to clean the flows enveloping the siepods. In this regard, it should be emphasized that the voluminous sidepods that characterized the F1-75 are not the major cause of the drag generated by the car. Conversely, wider sidepods can help dispel the turbulence generated by the front wheels.

But then why was the Maranello car unable to produce an adequate aerodynamic penetration coefficient? The simplest explanation consists in associating the greater resistance with a lower efficiency in the management of the slipstream with regard to the front wheels, certainly better than the W13, but lower when compared to that generated by the RB18.

From a similar context we can extrapolate a reasoned consequence, which prompted the engineers in red to rectify the lower area where the “old” bargeboards were positioned, so to speak. The aim is to increase the outwash effect, a crucial issue in current Formula One cars.

F1. Ferrari 675: transmission and rear suspension
The rules and regulation for the the 2023 Formula One season requires an increase in the minimum height of the base from the ground by 15 mm in the outermost portion. While the modification that affects the diffuser stands at 10mm. This provision imposes a different floor slide, substantially more distant from the reference plane (asphalt). The directive that acts on the technical regulation first of all produced a review of the gearbox, a mechanical element that resides precisely in that area of the single-seater. Redesign that obviously will not affect Ferrari alone, but also various teams that make up the lot.

The scenario just described by funoanalisitecnica.com forced the men of the historic Italian team to make the diffuser of the new car work with increased ground clearance. As we can easily imagine, there were many pitfalls in this regard. Nonetheless, according to the information reported by the Formula One Technical Analysis, the changes implemented after having redesigned part of the floor largely satisfied the engineers.

Considering the new heights from the ground for the 2023 Formula 1 season, the Ferrari specialists, evaluating the Red Bull setting with extreme importance, managed to modify it to adapt this philosophy and make it practical on their single-seater. All to avert a “depressive peak” and minimize the tedious and infamous porpoising effect, a context that should guarantee a wider range of set ups.

As far as the rear suspension system is concerned, although also in this case there will be no upheavals to exploit all the know-how “collected” during the 2022 world championship, some targeted modifications will make an appearance. We are talking about a correction relating to the kinematic mechanisms and in particular the reciprocal position between the center of mass and the center of roll, an essential factor for the administration of the compounds.

The will of the technicians consists in providing the 675 project with a wider suspension tuning window, capable of best adapting the car towards tire management, a focal point which too frequently has greatly limited the race pace of the F1-75. An area in which Ferrari thinks it can make a clear step forward.

F1. Ferrari 675 power unit: reliability and increased power
Depowering an engine during construction to give the car the correct reliability is a real technical defeat. The headache that actually negatively affected performance concerned the peak of emissions recorded inside the pre-chamber, capable of producing great technical and mechanical stress.

Through the regulation clause granted by the federation, Scuderia Ferrari worked on the ignition delay to smooth out the heat curve produced. The objective was achieved by intervening on the atomisation of the mixture to obtain a more turbulent jet inside the chamber.

The system called TJI (Turbulent Jet Ignition) has been further perfected by exponentially increasing the turbulent capacity of the power unit.

In addition to the “correction” which actually favors self-ignition in various points of the combustion chamber, a factor which increases the thrust on the piston eliminating the problems suffered, the technicians worked on the engine architecture. The intervention allow for a further handful of horsepower which, added to the “unexpressed” ones in 2022 to improve reliability, will give the Ferrari 675 a significant boost.

F1. Ferrari 675: improved weight and handling
Although at first glance the next work of Italian mechanical engineering will not seem so dissimilar from the previous car, in writing we have nevertheless put under the magnifying glass the innovations that will be proposed starting from the pre-season tests in Bahrain, set for 23/24/45 of February. In this respect, it is worth noting the great refinement work carried out on the components of the single-seater.

Aware of the importance of knowing how to best manage the incidence of kilograms on a Formula One car, the Maranello team’s technical department has made great efforts implementing a “slimming plan” on the 675. In balancing the car, in fact, it can determine the value of the ballast which, placed in strategic points, will be able to favor the balance of the car, facilitating handling for the drivers.