F1 Tech | McLaren and Ferrari with re-volutions, Red Bull with an e-volution

McLaren started where they finished

Starting with the defending World Champions, McLaren evolved their car in line with what they’ve been doing for the last couple of seasons: the MCL39 looked very balanced on track and very good both on race pace simulations and qualifying simulations. The car showed many innovative solutions both in the suspension system and in the aerodynamic changes adopted (for a deeper technical analysis click here). 

The team spent 3/4 of the day understating the MCL39, doing short runs with both drivers to test all the different mechanical configurations and settings on the electronics. After that, Norris tested two different rear wing specs and two different beam wings: one of medium-high downforce and the other one of medium-low downforce spec (hypothetically the lower downforce package will be used on tracks like Melbourne and Jeddah, while the medium-downforce one will be used in China, Suzuka and Bahrain). 

These routine tests are extremely useful for the engineers to understand how the car reacts to the changes of set-up and have a clear idea of how the car behaves on different configurations, and at different ride heights. Norris did a couple time attack attempts in the afternoon, before switching to higher fuel race pace simulations, both on the C3 and on the C2 (around 13 laps on both sets) with a very good tyre degradation. It’s important to underline that all drivers set times about a second slower than the usual lap times set during the race last year, but the trend shown was really impressive, as the British driver was able to set impressive times lap after lap. 

The first day for the Woking-based team has been very positive, with less laps completed than rivals but with a very good step forward even on what should have been a less favourable circuit (during the last few seasons, the Bahrain layout didn’t fit particularly well with McLaren’s car philosophy, but with the development path followed during the winter, engineers may have extended the car operating window to make it suitable for almost every circuit). 

Ferrari with an overall balanced car

Moving on to Ferrari, the Maranello-based team showed a SF-25 in the exact same configuration as the one already seen during the launch last week. As it was already pointed out in the analysis, the team made some very big changes in all areas, with a new pull-rod front suspension and a bulky side pod, with also some changes in the diffuser ramp (as it’s possible to see in the drawing below, the purple arrow points at the bob on the top of the diffuser ramp, which is helpful for generating vortices underneath and prevents flow separation, which causes downforce losses). 

Over the course of the morning, Hamilton mainly focused on doing the exact same scanning of all different configurations as done by all other teams as well. As a direct consequence, the SF-25’s behaviour drastically changed according to the set-up lined up by the engineers: during some laps it looked extremely nervous on the rear, with the seven-time World Champion being forced to deal with sliding, while on other laps it looked much more balanced. In the afternoon, instead, Leclerc mainly focused on setting up the car for this track and on doing both qualifying and race pace simulations. 

The car seemed to be very close to the ground (low ride height) for the whole day, bottoming out a lot around the track, with smoke and sparks coming out of the back of the car especially on the main straight and in the fast Turns 12-13. Moreover, it seemed to have a strong front-end, which inevitably produced some sliding from the rear out of slow corners.  

The first day for the Scuderia team can be considered as positive overall, as they were able to make some setup changes that effectively affected the behaviour of the car, improving the drive and the car stability. 

Red Bull with no big revolutions

For what concerns Red Bull, today was possible to see the new shape of the RB21, which looked extremely similar to the RB20 from the aerodynamical point of view, even if the main changes laid in two crucial areas: the Venturi channels, as it was possible to appreciate a new diffuser design and possibly new floor ceiling, and the arrangement of the radiators, which have been completely changed to improve the flow inside the engine and probably introduce aerodynamic upgrades later in the season that are more adherent to the new internal configuration. 

Despite the very few visible changes, the step forward seemed massive, especially from a drive perspective: Verstappen was very competitive both over the single lap but especially in terms of race pace simulations. Despite this, the car looked extremely stiff and very low to the ground, to make the aerodynamic platform work at its best. In fact, the RB21 was well balanced in the medium-high speed corners of the Bahrain International Circuit, where the downforce produced by the Venturi channels effectively comes into place. We could already see this aspect on last year’s RB20, which made this feature its main strength. 

However, as underlined by technical director Pierre Waché earlier this year, the team aimed at making the car extremely quick in a small working window, rather then versatile and competitive on a higher variety of layouts. Thus, it’s not surprising that the new Red Bull creature is an evolution of the car seen last season. 

This choice may have an impact on those circuits with bumps and high kerbs, but could play a big advantage on smooth surfaces and low kerbs, on circuits like Suzuka or Jeddah. 

The four-time World Champion words at the end of the day are proof that the team seem to have found again the right path after a difficult second part of the season last year: “From the driving I did today everything felt good. Only good surprises which was good. We don’t know pace yet but everything is working well and the car is doing what I want it to do. It is all in control and that is what we can hope for really to start of my testing." 

Mercedes tested a new front wing in the morning

Last but not least, Mercedes was a bit of a question mark during this first day of testing. The new W16 looked competitive in qualifying simulations, but less competitive than the other 3 top teams in the race pace sim, even if, as said above, every indication coming out of testing must be taken as a grain of salt, as teams never show their real potential. 

Apart from this, the team led by Toto Wolff tried two different front wing specs in the morning: the first version used, which was the same one that appeared on renders, showed a nose connected directly to the mainplate (picture below), while the second version tried, which have been kept on the car also by Russell in the afternoon, showed a nose connected to the second element of the front wing, with a small gap between the first and second element to push air towards the Venturi channels (picture above). 

An aspect that was possible to see today was the big flexibility of the front wing on the straight, that lowered much more than almost every other team on the grid. As a consequence of the technical directive that will be introduced in Spain, Mercedes may have to introduce a new front wing that suits the new 'flexi-wing' regulations and possibly slow them down.

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