The Ferrari team have been trialling a new, aggressive spray-guard at their test track this week.
The test, which took place at the Fiorano circuit, was organised by the FIA. As a result it won’t count as a Ferrari filming day.
Ferrari junior driver Arthur Leclerc took the 2023 Ferrari SF-75 around the track with fully covered front and rear full-wet tyres.
Later in the day, the team tried an alternative cover with spoke-like sides.
The team then sent out Oilver Bearman – the star of the Saudi Arabian GP – in the 2024 car who ran just behind Leclerc.
The point of the test was to see if visibility when following a car can be improved.
Teams feel it has become too difficult to follow cars which is having a negative impact on races.
“What was done at Silverstone, with the help of Mercedes who created parts and McLaren [who ran a car to get feedback on spray] was perhaps too optimistic an experiment,” the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told Motorsport.com last year.
“The spray guards covered too little of the wheel. I was quite sceptical and imagined that we wouldn’t see important results.”
‘We don’t want to lose too much’
This is the first step for the FIA in tackling the problem of visibility.
Teams have to be careful not to upset the balance of the car with the changes.
“Having started this project towards the end of last year, and done quite a lot of CFD simulations, we did understand quite soon that it was not quite as simple as just put something on, off you go, and you’re done,” he told Motorsport.com
“We didn’t want to lose too much performance of the cars and mess up the aerodynamics too much. Although some of it is inevitable.”
The Scuderia will hope to kickstart their home races in style next weekend.
The Imola Grand Prix is sure to throw up a few surprises.
Fans will hoping we can get another new winner after the heroics from Lando Norris in Miami.
Photo by: Alessandro Stefanini
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