F1 | Ferrari, not just the engine: the key to redemption is also in the aerodynamics

Efficiency is an important word: it means the ability to succeed in one's functions or to be able to achieve one's purpose. The efficiency of an F1 car, however, is a much more technical concept, which concerns the relationship between the aerodynamic load generated and the car's resistance to progress.

In very simple words, a single-seater is efficient if it manages to have good grip (and therefore remains flat on the ground during corners) but the grip generated does not slow it down too much on the straight, planting it like a brick in the middle of the track when it comes to opening up the gas.

One of the weak points of the damned and unfortunate SF1000 was precisely the "drag", or rather the resistance generated by the car body, a defect which, combined with the engine crippled by the agreement with the FIA, contributed to the literal slowness of the Cavallino's latest single-seater.

2021, as we know, is the famous - yet another - year of transition. The cars will remain largely unchanged, with the teams being able to spend only two tokens to intervene in the most crucial areas. However, the development of the engine and aerodynamic design is free. Two fundamental points for the eventual and hoped-for redemption of a Red team that would at least like to get back into the fight for third place.

There is, of course, talk of the new power unit as a decisive factor. With a good engine, Ferrari should already make a substantial step forward, but it still wouldn't be enough. Here is the technical director de facto Enrico Cardile and the aerodynamics department led by David Sanchez (a technician in whom Binotto places great trust) are busily working to develop with chisel, taking care of the smallest details, an SF1 which with a renewed "heart" (there are rumors of 30 HP plus) should match a dress that this time he would be a monk: in fact, the game is all played on the tokens spent on the rear axle and on the aerodynamic design.

The objective is to find mechanical and aerodynamic grip at the rear, making up for the load that will be missing due to the reduction of the floor, foreseen by the 2021 regulation. The revised aerodynamics will have to make the car more performing, avoiding having a single-seater with little grip in corners and "heavy" on the straight. Cut the air and do not impact it as if it were a wall.

Even with a competitive engine, the SF1000 would have been less fast than the SF90, precisely because it was less efficient from an aerodynamic point of view. The SF21, in the designers' ideas, should recover the efficiency of the SF90, and the renewed engine should do the rest, allowing the Ferrari to be stable in corners and no longer stall on straight lines.

Scenes like those seen at Mugello, Monza or Bahrain were too humiliating. To raise its head, not even a super engine would be enough, but in any case a car that is competitive overall, aerodynamically refined and with a rear firmly glued to the ground would be needed.

Starting from the assumption that the new power unit will necessarily be better than the "penalized" one of 2020, all that remains is to hope (as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz also hope) that the team as "reorganized" by team principal Binotto will be able to bring out a car that can cut through the air and is drivable, putting certain, unwatchable, understeering boulders in the attic.

Antonino Rendina

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