After only two races since the start of the season there is already talk of updates. Being the start of a new era of F1 it is normal that the cars have a lot of room for improvement. Despite the stringent $142m budget cap, the teams are working to bring innovations to their single-seaters to improve the car's weak points.
The updates are aimed at changing the areas that generate the most downforce in this year's cars. Most of the downforce (60%) comes from the venturi channels, therefore from the bottom of the car and its height from the ground. Not only that, unlike in previous years, the rear wing plays a fundamental role in generating aerodynamic load or, conversely, in being used more freely to overcome aerodynamic blockage on the straight and in the DRS area. Furthermore, the weight of the car is also an element that should not be underestimated this year, with the teams trying to get as close as possible to the minimum threshold of 798kg.
Ferrari
Ferrari will be very similar to the last races in Australia, the front wing will be unloaded on the last flap like that of Jeddah, while the rear wing will be even more unloaded than that of Jeddah (the spoon effect is less accentuated) and the suspensions will calibrated during free practice: there are two possible suspension configurations, harder, to better tackle the curbs in Melbourne.
Important updates are expected in Maranello at Imola and Barcelona. Indeed, Ferrari is testing 5 new funds and one of these will be selected for Imola. The new Ferrari bottom has the aim of reducing porpoising, but at the same time guaranteeing a lower ground clearance so as to make even more use of the venturi channels and therefore generate more aerodynamic load. If this Ferrari update is valid, the Maranello team will recover in top speed because porpoising will be reduced and in addition it will be even stronger in corners by further exploiting the venturi channels thanks to the lower ground clearance. We are also trying to reduce the weight of some components for a total of 3kg. These innovations will give Ferrari great benefits, considering the fact that Red Bull is already at the limit on these aspects, while Ferrari has a lot of profit margin.
Red Bull
Red Bull already has a well-balanced car that goes fast on both high-load and low-load tracks, even if the Milton Keynes car has a basic problem: it is much heavier than its competitors. The Red Bull RB18 weighs approximately 810kg, therefore 12kg more than the minimum threshold. This "overweight" is justified by a much heavier bottom than Ferrari, but which allows for less ground clearance and better use of the aerodynamic load of the venturi channels, consequently being able to "unload" much more than its competitors 'front and rear wing. At Red Bull they are already working to reduce the total weight of the car by approximately 8kg and therefore bring an update of the car to Imola, even if this investment will cost a lot and will have a big impact on the budget cap. The cost should be around 250 thousand euros for each kilo, therefore a total of over 2 million euros. For now this is the only upgrade from the Milton Keynes team.
Mercedes
Among the top teams, Mercedes is the one that will bring the most updates, and therefore that will invest the most considering the budget cap, between Australia and Barcelona. In Australia, an update to the rear wing is planned, making it lighter to avoid the aerodynamic blockage on the straight that has limited Mercedes so much in recent races. We saw in Jeddah that Mercedes modified the rear wing by cutting the flap higher, placing it as horizontal as possible, in order to reduce drag. Despite this, the modification to the rear wing brought to Saudi Arabia did not give the Stuttgart company the desired results. We'll see if in Australia the new rear wing, which is assumed to be smaller than the previous one, will give benefits. Also in Melbourne there are updates to the front wing with the last flap less curved to reduce drag; and at the bottom, although it won't be an update to limit porpoising, but rather to increase downforce at the bottom of the car.
An upgrade to the hybrid part of the power unit is also planned in Barcelona, which will have an effect of around 2 tenths per lap in improving the performance of the Mercedes engine.
These are the main updates that will bring the top teams to Australia and in the next races, we'll see which of these prove to be decisive.
