Ferrari unveil three upgrades to aid Lewis Hamilton at F1 Saudi Arabian GP
Upgrades for F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix revealed for Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull
Ferrari have brought three upgrades to the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The tweaks, in addition to the major floor upgrades that arrived a week ago in Bahrain, are a further attempt to help Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
In Saudi Arabia this weekend, Ferrari have focused their attention to the rear wing and the beam wing.
The updates to the SF-25’s rear wing are to improve drag reduction.
The first is a decambered, shorter chord top rear wing flap element.
Ferrari describe its purpose: “Adapting to the peculiarities of the Jeddah circuit aerodynamic efficiency requirements, this option is adding granularity in the available downforce level options on the baseline rear wing.”
The second and third updates are linked. Ferrari are bringing an offloaded top rear wing and an offloaded single element lower beam wing.
They describe: “This top wing and lower beam wing options are carried-over components from last year’s low/medium downforce events, and provide a larger step compared to the flap described above.
“The lower beam wing can be combined with different top wing assemblies.”
A week ago, Leclerc was fourth and Hamilton fifth at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
It was their best result of the season, bringing optimism that Ferrari’s floor upgrade had its desired effect.
However, those results are still some way short of the hype surrounding Ferrari who won grands prix last year when they signed Hamilton.
McLaren and Red Bull upgrades
McLaren have brought a reshaped diffuser “to improve overall flow conditioning in this area, with the aim of gaining aerodynamic performance”.
They also have a revised rear brake duct winglet arrangement which they hope “results in an improvement in local flowfield around the rear corner translating to an increase in aerodynamic efficiency”.
Red Bull have brought an enlarged central exit.
“Demands of circuit in Jeddah with the forecast ambient temperatures require the use of a larger topbody to reject the heat needed for cooling,” they explain.
Red Bull also have a reduced chord and camber lower or beam wing.
“A step to reduce the downforce at a given speed to observe the lift/drag requirements for this circuit,” they said.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
