Ferrari goes more extreme with floor tweak

As Giorgio Piola's exclusive image reveals, Ferrari has included an extra flap on the edge of the floor, that extends alongside the rear tyre.

Ferrari has been pursuing performance from the outskirts of the diffuser for some time now, with an array of winglets mounted on the upper surface of the floor and around the diffuser's periphery since early in 2015.

This area has become more and more complex over time, with numerous iterations used by Ferrari as it searches for maximum performance and aerodynamic stability.

This Hungaroring solution goes a step further than anyone has gone before, with the team extending the lowest of the winglets forward (highlighted in yellow) in order to affect the pressure gradient of the footplate below

This should in turn have an impact on the other winglets and the diffuser's outer channel.

We can also see a small slot present toward the trailing edge of the winglet, showing the level of detail required to make these devices operate correctly.

The only other team to do something in the same ballpark of this is Williams, which has a winglet mounted on the outer top section of the diffuser floor.

Williams FW38 rear wing, exhaust, and rear diffuser detail

Photo by: XPB Images

However, it is not as extreme as it is further inboard to work with the characteristics of its own diffuser.

Balancing act

Ferrari is facing pressure to turnaround its campaign after failing to deliver on its target of early race victories – and now at risk of being beaten by Red Bull.

Senior performance engineer Jock Clear said that the outfit was still pushing on with developments as much as it can, but was equally mindful that it cannot ignore preparations for 2017.

"We are working as hard as we can on closing that gap and sorting out the issues, but as everybody has said already, we can't take our eyes off next year, because that's a big opportunity," he said in Hungary.

"So we're now having to measure that resource and measure that balance between keeping some momentum or looking to get some momentum later in the year but also putting a lot of resource on what, as Pat says, is a huge challenge for everybody next year. That balancing act is very difficult for all of us.

"And as I say, it's just a testament to the guys at the front how well they are continuing to develop and that puts us under pressure because we are not closing the gap as quickly as we'd want to be and that's racing."