If there was one group that actually shocked the Formulation 1 paddock with its imaginative designs throughout pre-season testing, it was Ferrari.
In Bahrain, the Scuderia not solely introduced a brand new function to the world behind the exhaust, designed to take advantage of the amount allowed by the new-for-2026 rules, but in addition a rear wing with an progressive opening mechanism because it flips 180 levels.
However past this, there are different equally fascinating features to discover with the SF-26, beginning with the best way wherein your entire management system that enables the wing to maneuver has been redesigned. To make sure a 180-degree rotation, Ferrari’s engineers needed to design a very totally different actuator: it might not be the central one positioned on the mainplane, which might have restricted motion due to the bodily house it occupied.
So for that reason, the engineers built-in the actuator that controls the motion of the flaps straight contained in the endplate. That is an especially subtle design, which additionally has to resist very excessive hundreds. Usually, rear actuators are quite cumbersome, to the purpose that some groups attempt to masks any losses because of the management by redesigning the central part of the final aspect.
It’s harking back to Mercedes in 2011, when the Brackley-based outfit introduced an actuator positioned within the endplates and this was controversial on the time, as a result of it was the place to begin for the German marque’s finally banned double DRS. Ferrari clearly did not use that as the idea for growing the rotating rear wing, however it’s fascinating how sure ideas from the previous can re-emerge.
The essential idea is totally different, as is its implementation, because the SF-26’s management system should assure a rotation of 180 levels and, when closed, it should work with considerably greater hundreds – not solely due to the upper high speeds, but in addition as a result of the flaps are a lot bigger.
Additionally contemplating that on some tracks the system will likely be activated as much as 4 occasions per lap, it will likely be used extra regularly than previously, so reliability will turn into a essential concern. All this places a very miniaturised management contained in the endplate to the take a look at, which, in accordance with rules, should nonetheless assure a security mechanism able to returning the movable flaps to the closed place within the occasion of a malfunction.
To create the brand new wing, nevertheless, shifting the actuator was not the one intervention made by Ferrari. Within the comparability, it may be seen that the pivot on which the wing rotates has been moved extra in the direction of the centre, on the level the place it connects to the actuator, whereas the tip of the primary aspect has been enlarged to accommodate this new geometry.
On the regulatory degree, there was additionally dialogue concerning the chance that this wing exceeds the utmost permitted quantity, particularly throughout rotation, when at a sure level it turns into nearly vertical. However the rules, exactly due to the liberty granted to groups to cut back drag on the straights and thus restrict power consumption, have opened up new design prospects, with the FIA giving its authorized approval to the answer.
Even at the moment, there’s a quantity inside which the wing should stay when closed, however when opened, the rules present for some exceptions. Ranging from a key level: the wing not has to stay completely throughout the regulatory field throughout motion, thus making certain better freedom of rotation.
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