Ferrari brings heavily revised front wing in Bahrain

Ferrari continues to develop their promising SF70H and they bring a new version of the front wing for the third race of the season in Bahrain which has several changes compared to the wing from Australia and China.

Bahrain has a lower downforce requirements than Australia and China, but the Ferrari changes don’t only reffer to the drag reduction – this is completely upgraded version.

The main change is in the horizontal slot at the bottom element which had a very large chord and almost zero angle of attack.

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Now the element is horizontally cut all the way from the end of the central, neutral section of the front wing which is the same on all cars, and before the slot started in the black area, close to the edges of the front wing (see picture).

Additional slot reduces the surface of the wing and the maximum downforce that can produce, but it increases the working range of the front wing in a variety of conditions such as the different ride height and riding over curbs and bumps.

In the newly created slot Ferrari has set up several small vertical joints that provide the necessary strength and comply the FIA flexibility tests.

Ferrari has changed the shape of the tunnel (turquoise) which begins with the lowest element and the upper element build a  increasing radius tunnel which helps turn the air flow around the front wheels.

As the width of the front wings is fixed (1800 mm), the new version has more space for the flat part between the start of the tunnel and the endplates (light green) because the tunnel (turquoise) starts earlier than on the old version.

Shape of upper (white) elements are also slightly different – they are now less sinusoidal and shorter to comply with the lower downforce requirements of the track in Bahrain, and their tips are now sharper which influences the shape of the vortices that are sent to each side of the neutral section (Y -250 vortex, as it is located at 250 mm on each side of the car center line).

Black upper element (marked purple) is also changed and lowered down to the position where it joins the white elements to adapt to the new form of the upper element and a lower downforce requirements.