Formula One car development blog

Contrary to several other teams that focus on introducing major upgrade packages at once, Red Bull is steadily improving its car by adding small changes each and every Grand Prix. At Monaco, the team had a new rear wing endplate, copying a feature that was debuted by Williams and later also copied by Marussia and McLaren.

The vertical opening close to the leading edge of the endplate creates a small vertical aerofoil with the aim to pull more air in between the endplates. The lower ... Read more

Although the aerodynamic differences are much more subtle than they were 10 years ago, teams are still bringing high downforce packages on their cars at Monaco. Ferrari is no different with a new monkey seat and high downforce rear wing. To indicate how the difference is in the detail, the rear wing used at Monaco is actually nearly identical as Massa's rear wing at the Spanish GP at Barcelona, a track that has a much higher average speed than Monaco. Fernando Alonso on the other ha... Read more

McLaren have effectively rounded completed their string of updates by running its new front wing at the Monaco Grand Prix. Following the introduction of a large number of performance updates, the front wing was brought in late on Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix and was only tested in the final practice session.

At Monaco however, the MP4-28 featured all updates seen at Spain. Among those are a new rear wing which includes a curved endplate with strakes on the outside, similar to ... Read more

Pastor Maldonado was seen running in the Williams FW35 featuring the stepped nose and front wing of last year's FW34. Williams have lost the direction for its aerodynamic development, and as updates do not bring the expected progress, the team is now checking the efficiency of the car with better known elements, such as the 2012 nose cone and a front wing used late in the 2012 season.

Mike Coughlan, the team's technical director said "We were running different parts across the two c... Read more

Toro Rosso have perhaps introduced the biggest update package of all teams at Barcelona, with the STR8 now being fitted with a new ramp style exhaust. The team have however not exactly copied any of the existing designs but instead opted to go their very own way and come up with a very special ramp.

Previously the team had an exhaust more similar to that of McLaren, but the new version should help draw the exhaust gases down better, or at least in a more controlled way. Just like wi... Read more

McLaren have pinpointed their problems of 2013 to a problematic correlation of wind tunnel data and struggling to get a persistent airflow around the Pirelli tyres, which are now flexing differently than last year. Jonathan Neale even likened their problems to those at Ferrari last year, saying the Scuderia people will surely know how it feel to be in the position McLaren is currently in.

As a first step to resolve some car problems, the team introduced a modified sidepod panel that... Read more

Caterham have introduced the second part of their major upgrade package for the CT03 which should help the team get ahead of Marussia again. Part of the update package was moved forward and introduced on Charles Pic's car in Bahrain, including the bulge under the nose, revised rear wing endplates and the new sidepod panels.

This time around, the focus was mainly on the front end, with a raft of updates aimed to help increase front downforce. The most obvious change of course is the ... Read more

After rumours emerged in the Italian press about RBR's alternator, Renault Sport have now confirmed to F1Technical that Red Bull Racing is indeed using a McLaren Electronic System alternator in combination with the Renault engine. The firm notes this is the case "for some time now", with all other Renault powered teams still using the Magnetti Marelli alternators, similar to last year.

Renault's technical director, Rob White, says this is the result of the problems during 2012: "We ... Read more

Despite only having a 7 day gap since the Chinese GP, Ferrari have brought another update to their F138. The team fitted new sidepod panels on both their cars during the entire weekend, increasing the volume of the sidepod around the UPS logo. The difference is clearly visible when you focus on the joint of the foremost panel - with the Shell logo - that was unchanged and the new panel with UPS on it.

The previous design had fairly visible downward ducts, still somewhat similar to t... Read more

Caterham F1 have brought the first updates to their CT03 since the beginning of the season. The team urged a few updates as soon as it appeared that there were considerably issues with the car that would make it unable to put up a fight to any other team. The updates seem to have had an immediate effect, with Charles Pic saying after free practice that the team were to adjust the car set-up as the updates immediately brought in understeer thanks to increased downforce at the rear of... Read more