Ferrari SF-26

[Xero]

I understand the microphone quality, surrounding noise, engine mode etc come into play, but the Ferrari engine sounds quite subdued compared to the Merc. Did they go with the steel cylinder route ? Air intake is so small.

I also noticed the sound of the Ferrari PU's electric motor is much more noticeable than in Mercedes and Red Bull/Ford power units.

You might be hearing the drones? Confused me at first too, but they had drones flying over the cars for some fancy footage.

[sucof]

That would make no sense. Also, then what is that device that looks exactly like an actuator under the nose??

In addition to that, having it in the endplate puts it where it's easily damaged (even if the endplates are not as far out as the '25 cars). Any damage to the wing and you are forced to immediately make a long stop to replace it. No chance to make it to your next scheduled stop, or even leave it the whole race like they have done previously.

I agree that the actuator is in the center, but having it in the endplates would help reducing losses. Obviously it would be an issue for in-race contacts, but (1) front wings are more narrow now, so they would likely bump wheels first and (2) I think even with the actuator in the middle a contact may cause enough damage to ruin the system.

Guys, every grammes matter.
Think about having 2 actuators instead of one, that is 10-30 grammes + for sure.
Think about ducting the power there, additional 20-40 grammes...
While they are literally not painting most part of the cars to save a few grammes more....
Also with 2 actuators you have twice the failure possibilities, and I do not see any advantage of it!
plus, you would have that extra weight on the end of the wing, meaning out of the centerline, and in F1 cars having all the weight in the center and low is super important.

[edu2703]

I understand the microphone quality, surrounding noise, engine mode etc come into play, but the Ferrari engine sounds quite subdued compared to the Merc. Did they go with the steel cylinder route ? Air intake is so small.

I also noticed the sound of the Ferrari PU's electric motor is much more noticeable than in Mercedes and Red Bull/Ford power units.

You might be hearing the drones? Confused me at first too, but they had drones flying over the cars for some fancy footage.

I saw another footage and yeah, the sound I heard was indeed coming from a drone flying over the car.

[PlatinumZealot]

In addition to that, having it in the endplate puts it where it's easily damaged (even if the endplates are not as far out as the '25 cars). Any damage to the wing and you are forced to immediately make a long stop to replace it. No chance to make it to your next scheduled stop, or even leave it the whole race like they have done previously.

I agree that the actuator is in the center, but having it in the endplates would help reducing losses. Obviously it would be an issue for in-race contacts, but (1) front wings are more narrow now, so they would likely bump wheels first and (2) I think even with the actuator in the middle a contact may cause enough damage to ruin the system.

Guys, every grammes matter.
Think about having 2 actuators instead of one, that is 10-30 grammes + for sure.
Think about ducting the power there, additional 20-40 grammes...
While they are literally not painting most part of the cars to save a few grammes more....
Also with 2 actuators you have twice the failure possibilities, and I do not see any advantage of it!
plus, you would have that extra weight on the end of the wing, meaning out of the centerline, and in F1 cars having all the weight in the center and low is super important.

Nah. It would still be one actuator, just an extra length of linkage. The front wings normally have ballast so a few grammes of tiantium in a slightly longer linkage there won't make much of a diffference.

[MIKEY_!]

https://x.com/XPBImages/status/2014653954525721019

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_V8wvaWgAA ... =4096x4096

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_V8xQpXkAA ... =4096x4096

Very interesting shark fin. Is this Ferrari maxing out the legality box in this area or trying to encourage seperation/stalling of airflow on the centre plane, drawing in low pressure air going over the sidepods to a more central position before the diffuser, or lifting airflow a little to hit the rear wing instead?

Interesting wheels. Looking more and more like steel rims on base spec cars than before.
Does the rear wheel have a cover over the wheel spokes or are the wheels a 1-piece component?

Re the shark fin: My guess is it's a solution for airflow separation on the fin during yaw. Vortices should form at each serration when the car is in yaw, helping to keep air attached and improving airflow to the rear wing.

[dialtone]

This video has a lot of high quality close ups with the car. My notes:

* The livery from close from the cameras looks great actually. I didn't initially like the pictures but from the video I like it quite a bit more, not F1-75 level but still good.
* The car looks to have a LOT of rake
* The front wing DRS makes the wing practically flat, it's quite impressive
* Engineers told F1 channel that they left themselves many areas of development freedom, presumably with packaging, so they can probably shrink or play with more surfaces if they need to adapt the car, and hopefully they will.
* The front wing vibrates a LOT more than I expected on corner exit.
* On downshifts the car has a very loud electrical whine (minute 4 in the video)

[Macklaren]

I also noticed the sound of the Ferrari PU's electric motor is much more noticeable than in Mercedes and Red Bull/Ford power units.

You might be hearing the drones? Confused me at first too, but they had drones flying over the cars for some fancy footage.

I saw another footage and yeah, the sound I heard was indeed coming from a drone flying over the car.

I don't think so. That was my initial thought with the drone footage as well but a) I have never heard the drone in a professionally shot drone video and b) In the F1 channel hi def video, you can clearly hear that it sounds like an RC car off throttle. Very very weird. Also backs up with Binotto was saying in his own interview that the engines are going to be on throttle in braking zones to charge the battery

[DoctorRadio]

I also noticed the sound of the Ferrari PU's electric motor is much more noticeable than in Mercedes and Red Bull/Ford power units.

You might be hearing the drones? Confused me at first too, but they had drones flying over the cars for some fancy footage.

I saw another footage and yeah, the sound I heard was indeed coming from a drone flying over the car.

I think it is the electric motor.

Min 2:51, 3:00 and 5:47, going into the hairpin and accelerating out of it, it makes a very strange sound.

[Farnborough]

You might be hearing the drones? Confused me at first too, but they had drones flying over the cars for some fancy footage.

I saw another footage and yeah, the sound I heard was indeed coming from a drone flying over the car.

I don't think so. That was my initial thought with the drone footage as well but a) I have never heard the drone in a professionally shot drone video and b) In the F1 channel hi def video, you can clearly hear that it sounds like an RC car off throttle. Very very weird. Also backs up with Binotto was saying in his own interview that the engines are going to be on throttle in braking zones to charge the battery

They sound like significant anti-lag in place when driver torque demand is reduced to near enough zero. Which would agree with having no mguh facility to spin the turbine.

If you listen to the current WRC cars, they move them sounding quite normal to startline, then switch on anti-lag to this effect, very staccato almost RC car nitro motor audio.

[atanatizante]

...

* The front wing vibrates a LOT more than I expected on corner exit.
...

In addition to the obvious advantages of choosing a solution with only one actuator placed in the center of the front wing (low weight and strategic placement in an area where it divides the airflow in two), I wonder if the shaking of the front wing is related to weight reduction or the eternal problem of wing flexing. In the context of this year's X and Z wing modes, I don't think we can say that wing flex is a preconceived notion designed to bring aerodynamic benefits, don't you think?

[hollus]

A gentle reminder to keep posts about lap times, winning and losing out of the car threads.
Posts have been deleted.
Post those in the team threads instead.

[Rikhart]

This video has a lot of high quality close ups with the car. My notes:

* The livery from close from the cameras looks great actually. I didn't initially like the pictures but from the video I like it quite a bit more, not F1-75 level but still good.
* The car looks to have a LOT of rake
* The front wing DRS makes the wing practically flat, it's quite impressive
* Engineers told F1 channel that they left themselves many areas of development freedom, presumably with packaging, so they can probably shrink or play with more surfaces if they need to adapt the car, and hopefully they will.
* The front wing vibrates a LOT more than I expected on corner exit.
* On downshifts the car has a very loud electrical whine (minute 4 in the video)

Those front wings look to be made of spaghetti...

[Farnborough]

...

* The front wing vibrates a LOT more than I expected on corner exit.
...

In addition to the obvious advantages of choosing a solution with only one actuator placed in the center of the front wing (low weight and strategic placement in an area where it divides the airflow in two), I wonder if the shaking of the front wing is related to weight reduction or the eternal problem of wing flexing. In the context of this year's X and Z wing modes, I don't think we can say that wing flex is a preconceived notion designed to bring aerodynamic benefits, don't you think?

I feel the opposite, in that the high/low drag use is confined to regulated parts of the track, where the benefit of "tapering" front wing load is still of interest in performance outside that regimen.

The initial laps gave me impression of a car "light on it's feet" and fairly agile from the limitations of those short viewings available so far. It didn't appear cumbersome, in other words.

Talk of A spec has people extrapolate perhaps a heavy and limited car, when it could also mean following a route which is highly marginal for things like wing flex and all up weight. They are not subject to race weekend scrutiny in absolute terms, which could offer opportunity to run at margin, or a step too far in this development period, with a view to additional weight/structural integrity for compliance at first GP.

[sucof]

This video had some great views!

First it is clear how the sidepod air intake looks like. As expected it is larger due to the small top inlet, and has an intricate shape, including boundary layer mitigation. Also note that they do not have a large intake behind the drivers helmet as many suspected, only a small hole:


And here you can see the actuator for the front wing. (behind the pillar holding the wing) It is within the nose, quite far back, and only a metal part sticks out and connects to the top of the wing:

[matteosc]

...

* The front wing vibrates a LOT more than I expected on corner exit.
...

In addition to the obvious advantages of choosing a solution with only one actuator placed in the center of the front wing (low weight and strategic placement in an area where it divides the airflow in two), I wonder if the shaking of the front wing is related to weight reduction or the eternal problem of wing flexing. In the context of this year's X and Z wing modes, I don't think we can say that wing flex is a preconceived notion designed to bring aerodynamic benefits, don't you think?

I feel the opposite, in that the high/low drag use is confined to regulated parts of the track, where the benefit of "tapering" front wing load is still of interest in performance outside that regimen.

The initial laps gave me impression of a car "light on it's feet" and fairly agile from the limitations of those short viewings available so far. It didn't appear cumbersome, in other words.

Talk of A spec has people extrapolate perhaps a heavy and limited car, when it could also mean following a route which is highly marginal for things like wing flex and all up weight. They are not subject to race weekend scrutiny in absolute terms, which could offer opportunity to run at margin, or a step too far in this development period, with a view to additional weight/structural integrity for compliance at first GP.

The main point of flex wings is to (1) reduce the drag as the speed increases and (2) balance the center of pressure. It will always be beneficial to have some flexibility, if you can tune it well, but its importance is definitely reduced compare to previous seasons. I think that now, with the floor producing now less downforce, managing the center of pressure will be a little easier than before.

We are at the beginning of a new set of regulation and there is so much room for improvement in so many areas: I do not think that wing flexibility will be immediately that important.