Yesterday afternoon Ferrari came swiftly out of the box with its new 2015 challenger the Ferrari SF15-T. And already it looks a simple evolution for the 2014 car the F14-T. In terms of roar pace Ferrari were below par to its other competitors with the lack of front grip and BHP from its power unit.
Ferrari claims to have sorted out the power advantages the PU106A had over Renault and Ferrari. Which is why the car seems to be very similar to the 2014 car. Looking at the nose it looks similar to the design to the McLaren MP4-30, forming a smooth profile for air to pass over and creating an area of interaction with the front wing mainplane below it. What’s interesting is the chassis no longer forms a step that is covered by a vanity panel at the front bulkhead of the car and instead flows a lot more naturally up from the nose.
On Cooling terms Ferrari last year had a water jacket mounted quite high up on the car to help cool the power unit. It was an intriguing design which would allow air to pass in via the role hoop and cool lots of tunnels where air would pass through cooling the water in the process, this cooled a lot of its engine and turbine as well as a lot of its electrical instillation.
So this year Ferrari have added an additional inlet beneath the airbox to feed the electronics with more air coolant, this effort has been made in a attempt to narrow the bodywork further. This could suggest that Ferrari have made a wide range of changes to its power unit as a result of the little cooling inlets.
The front wing is again simple. With their cascade unit looking very similar to the car of last year. It still has its turning vane on top for a bigger outwash effect of the airflow. Also it still has its 3 mainplanes mounted to the footplate and endplate of the car. This is almost identical the F14-T. It’s easy to tell Ferrari have worked a lot with the Power unit, as the aero is just a small evolution of the 2014 car.
On top of the sidepod they still have the “L” shapes vertical turning vane. This is so that any loose air going over the sidepod is collected again and then fed the Y100 winglet (monkey seat) and the rear wing. At the moment in time Ferrari have their neat y100 winglet in place, which is a two tier structure. It’s to mainplanes not in a set of endplates like Mercedes had on the W05. It’s a way to re-gain the lost downforce after the rear beam wing was banned in 2014. There a neat aero touch which use the exhaust plume to then push the rear of the car into the asphalt. Their y100 winglet is mounted onto its rear “swan neck” pylon.
Looking onto the rear diffuser the picture doesn’t give much information. But after watching the video I can tell you the floor sweeps outwards dramatically to the rear of the car. A design that was used on the Red Bull’s during the last two years. This increases expansion rate of the airflow which is squeezed out (venturi effect) from the diffuser.
The higher angle of the ramp (diffuser) the more downforce it creates. The high and low pressure performs a vacuum under the car which is what glues it to the tarmac. It almost creates 50% of the cars downforce with very minimal drag created in the process. Which is why engineers work on the rear of the car so much.
Overall the SF15-T is a step in the right direction for Ferrari. It’s a very conservative approach to the 2015 regulations. But look what Williams did last year with its aero in 2014. It’s some good foundations for Ferrari to work on, but I don’t see the car strong enough to fight for wins as of yet.
