Despite the United States Grand Prix being a sprint race event with only one hour of practice available, half of the Formula 1 teams have brought updates this weekend.
And in most cases these are not minor tweaks but substantial revisions by teams seeking to verify the development path they have chosen for next season.Aston Martin, who began the year strongly but are now under huge pressure from McLaren for fourth place in the constructors championship have brought a selection of changes all aimed at improving the performance of their floor. The team previously admitted it hadn’t developed its car as successfully as rivals had theirs during 2023.
The team’s technical director Dan Fallows said the final five races of the season are “quite a critical time of the year for us to get the most out of this year’s car but also further our understanding for next year’s development.”
They aren’t the only team eager to ensure that they are on the right path for next year. Lewis Hamilton said exactly this about Mercedes’ floor update in the press conference yesterday.
Haas, who have brought their largest update of the season so far at their second home event with five rounds to go, also have an eye on 2024. As the team previously indicated, the reshaped VF-23 owes a clear debt to Red Bull’s RB19, particularly around its sidepods, though the floor has had a lot of work too. The team says its goals with this update have been to reduce the car’s aerodynamic sensitivity and improve its efficiency.
AlphaTauri has been pleased with the progress it had made with its upgrades in recent races, and particularly encouraged to see they have performed as expected. Another batch of parts has arrived this weekend as the team seeks to lift itself from last in the standings.
Again, the floor is a key area of focus. AlphaTauri has concentrated on improving the quality of the airflow into it in order to enhance its performance. The engine cover has also been reworked to perform more efficiently: Like Qatar, Austin is another race where temperatures can be high, and cooling will be a particular concern at the next round in Mexico.
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2023 United States Grand Prix F1 teams’ updates
The teams described the changes to their cars for this weekend’s race as follows.
Mercedes
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Raised floor leading edge and subsequent tunnel roof reprofiling.”
Description: “Raising the floor leading edge alters the loading distribution on the outer fence, improving flow quality to the rear of the car and hence rear downforce.”
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Extending the forward floor edge flap rearwards “
Description: “Increasing the extent of the high cambered forward section of the floor edge wing increases the local load here, increasing forward floor load.”
Alfa Romeo
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Redesigned edges of the rear part of the floor”
Description: “This floor update is working together with, and a continuation of, the package of upgrades first introduced at the Singapore Grand Prix, and it is aimed at increasing downforce and the aerodynamic efficiency of the car.”
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Aston Martin
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Revised floor edge geometry with a longitudinal slot and outboard wing alongside, previously the wing was under the floor.”
Description: “Part of a package of development to increase the loading on the floor by modifying the underside local flow conditions.”
Diffuser
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Diffuser with revised side view expansion.”
Description: “Part of a package of development to increase the loading on the floor by modifying the underside local flow conditions.”
Coke/engine cover
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Bodywork is revised with a larger undercut alongside the revised floor edge.”
Description: “Part of a package of development to increase the loading on the floor by modifying the underside local flow conditions.”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “There is a new beam wing with revised profiles and incidence alongside the new diffuser.”
Description: “Part of a package of development to increase the loading on the floor by modifying the underside local flow conditions.”
Haas
Front corner
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The front brake duct inboard exit has been updated with small geometrical changes.”
Description: “The wake management has improved with better flow characteristic coming from the front brake duct inboard exit, gaining aero load with good efficiency.”
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The floor body has been modified in the latter part of the diffuser.”
Description: “The expansion and contraction of the floor body are now optimized to guarantee less aero sensitivity with car state changes. The new design has also improved the sensitivity in case of strong side wind.”
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “A new floor edge and new floor edge wing has been introduced to the floor design.”
Description: “The floor edge element with a new shape can guarantee a more efficient path of the flow driven by the under floor, and increase the aerodynamic efficiency.”
Sidepod inlet
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The sidepod inlet has been modified to work with the new floor edge design.”
Description: “The new shape of the sidepod inlet wants to improve the flow around the sidepod maintaining the same cooling feeding as the previous configuration.”
Coke/engine cover
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Together with the cooling inlet, the surfaces of the engine cover, the sidepod and the coke panel has been revised.”
Description: “The new sidepod shape will allow a better interaction of the airflow on the side of the car and in the area between the rear wheels. Engine cover with increased cooling exit. “
Cooling louvres
Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range
Difference: “New louvre panels have been designed for the new bodywork.”
Description: “Two new louvres panels and few different blankings will allow to set the different cooling levels required race by race. The louvres have smaller dimension compared to the previous solution, as the central engine cover cooling exit has been increased in the new bodywork.”
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AlphaTauri
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the baseline geometry, the forward central floor has been modified.”
Description: “These changes have been made in conjunction with changes to the floor fences below to improve the local load generation of the forward floor.”
Floor fences
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the baseline geometry, the floor fences have revised camber distributions in plan view. The outermost fence has also significantly increased in size.”
Description: “The fence geometry changes combine with the floor body changes to give an increase in local loading. The outermost fence change keeps front wheel wake losses further away from the forward floor by generating a higher static pressure on their outboard side. The resulting improvement in energy of the flow field to the forward floor gives an increase in local load.”
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the baseline geometry, the forward part of the floor edge wing has been modified.”
Description: “The forward part of the floor edge wing has increased camber. The highly loaded forward part of the floor edge wing has also been extended further rearward compared to the previous geometry. Both of these changes lower static pressure local to that part of the floor edge and helps draw increased mass flow under the forward floor between the fences.”
Coke/engine cover
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the baseline geometry, the central bodywork exit geometry has been modified.”
Description: “The revised shape gives an increase in cooling performance without any detriment in loading of the rear wing assembly behind it.”
Rear corner
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the baseline geometry, the ‘BDR’ lower winglets have been modified.”
Description: “The revised shape of the ‘BDR’ winglets increase their local load. The increase in loading improves diffuser performance by pushing lower wheel wake losses further outboard.”
Other – chassis
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the baseline geometry, the forward chassis lower surfaces have been modified.”
Description: “The revised surfaces local to the inboard front suspension increase local velocity, thereby generating an increase in local load on the chassis.”
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More images will be added here
2023 United States Grand Prix
- US GP was Mercedes’ best race of 2023 despite disqualification – Wolff
- Singapore and Austin retirements cost me top 10 championship place – Ocon
- United States Grand Prix result unchanged as FIA rejects Haas’ call for review
- Sargeant admits he’s ‘struggled to use all the downforce at times’ in F1
- Mercedes’ Brazilian GP set-up was “conservative” after US GP disqualification
Sviat
20th October 2023, 22:26
I wanted to rant about “another pointless upgrades from Aston”, but decided to wait for the qualification. It turns out their upgrades are definitely pointless.
AlexS
21st October 2023, 2:31
Like someone said it was a downgrade update.