#F1 #ImolaGP #EmiliaRomagnaGP 2025

⬛️ Final Verdict on Mercedes' struggles - Thread ⬛️

Imola was one of the worst races for Mercedes in the last 12 months and it coincided with many changes made to the car on this weekend:

🔸 all-new stiffer front wing
🔸 stiffer rear wing construction
🔸 all-new rear suspension geometry
🔸 updated front suspension internal mechanics
🔸 updated front suspension fairings
🔸 updated engine cover for cooling purposes

There are 4 main reasons to consider on why Mercedes struggled in Imola:

🔸 stiffer wings (aero updates) recreated old balance problems
🔸 mechanical (front and rear) updates recreated old balance and tyre management problems
🔸 too many new parts made it impossible to find optimal setup - on top of working with C6 compound for the 1st time
🔸 W16 simply does carry over the same issue of overheating tyres as W15 did

We should consider all of them in detail before the final verdict 1) Stiffer wings (aero updates) recreated old balance problems

Both new front wing and updated rear wing structure are now stiffer than before. I wrote about both in detail:

🔸 front -> x.com/AeroTechVH/sta…
🔸 rear -> x.com/AeroTechVH/sta…

@RosarioGiuliana made a great comparison over old front wing geometry update

Mercedes only managed to find decent balance with W15 once they introduced new flexy front wing in Monaco, allowing them to take 4 wins later in the season. Upcoming TD018 update in Spain forced them to reduce their flexing and in turn, they also had to reduce rear wing flexing as well

This probably caused some balance issues because the car will behave differently than before. I don't think it's the root issue, or better to say - one race is not a big enough evidence of that

#F1 #F1Tech 2025

🟥 Ferrari's Rear End Issues - Deep Dive Analysis and Shocking Problem - Thread 🟥

First of all - a huge appreciation is not enough for all the insight @Auto_Racer_it teams brings us with every article, for every team on the grid. Thank you, everyone from the team, especially to @GiulyDuchessa @SmilexTech @RosarioGiuliana @_Paolo_27 👏👏👏

It's been a month and a half now that the F1 community and fans understand that Ferrari's SF25 has big problem with the rear end - more specifically, with taking on and absorbing peak compression loads in high-speed corners and end-of-straight scenarios. Testing in Bahrain showed a Ferrari that has the 2nd most potential on the grid, Australia Friday showed they might even compete on equal foot with McLaren

And then it all fell away, not taking the China Sprint sessions into account. The car was already rumoured to be running higher in Australia Q and R for some reason, while China Sprint threw those conclusions out the window briefly.

Then came the China Race, but more importantly - the China post-race scrutineering. Leclerc's Ferrari was under-weight and Hamilton's Ferrari had the plank skid worn too much

"How did you guys manage to mess this up so bad again?" was the question asked all around the world...

Ok, I admit - I've censored and dialled-down that "question" massively 😆 It's all about the tyres!

Let's get the basics straight. With these 2022-25 Venturi/GE cars you need to find a very small window for suspension operation and reconcile all the following criteria

1) tyres need to remain in the right temperature window in low, medium and high-speed corners and in all the braking and traction zones
2) the car needs to be as low to the ground as possible at all times, with the same aero-mechanical setup in Q and Race
3) due to extremely non-linear downforce load generation across different speeds, you need a very soft car in low speed (rear end in particular) traction zones - and you need a very stiff and stable car in high-speed zones (on both axles)

These 3 criteria are the basics and very crudely explained, the finesse that these cars require is much higher and the magic that F1 suspension engineers make is astonishing - especially taking into account that this rule set is extremely limiting on suspension design freedom

#F1 #F1Tech 2025

🏁 F1 Brake Duct Magic - Analysing Online Theories - Thread 🏁

Bonus Explanation - why are some cars (🟧) overheating their tyres more than others when following

Starting at the beginning is a good place to start - brake ducts are aerodynamic surfaces designed to guide the airflow around the brake discs and callipers, to improve and enhance their cooling capabilities. In 2022, blow-through-wheel ducts were outlawed and this meant teams needed to start over and redesign everything about them

4 years later, we now have a myriad of brake duct designs all over the grid, some working better than others. The questions about McLaren's solution are valid but - in my view - overblown and I will explain that later

The main things to remember about brake ducts now are:

🔸 they are very complex and very optimised for clean airflow
🔸 they are multi-level ducts within the internal wheel volume
🔸 they are enclosed on the outside with a mandate cover called the "cake tin"
@RosarioGiuliana posted an article for @wearetherace on this topic, with a focus on McLaren's solution

the-race.com/formula-1/clue…

Rosario made a phenomenal illustration, displaying the complexity of multi-level flow management withing these fantastic brake duct designs. You probably won't be surprised to read that all these complex ducts have one common problem - handling internal losses

These losses are their biggest problem in terms of pure aerodynamics, ducts need to feature clean flow paths, as unobstructed as possible. Obstructions, poor fits, poor surface finish are all things that mean internal loss of pressure and velocity. These not only increase internal drag, they also mean poor cooling performance as the air pressure drop happens before it reaches the target

As ridiculous as it may sound, we may now be entering a phase where going for better cooling of brakes may be a better performance path than cutting drag by allowing brakes to run hotter. By keeping tyres cooler, you can extract better performance and ensure you keep them in their optimal window for longer

#F1 #MiamiGP 2025

🟥 Ferrari's Team Order Drama - Long Thread🟥

AKA - How they failed to get both cars ahead of Antonelli

AKA - "What the fuck was even that?!?" Award in 2025 already goes to Ferrari

So, when we look at the Laps 34-57, we see some interesting stuff right away

🔸 Ferrari moved Leclerc even though they were both catching Antonelli consistently and even though Leclerc was in lower PU mode (we will see later)
🔸 Antonelli and Hamilton were very inconsistent in clean air, while Leclerc was quite consistent in dirty air, even though more often without DRS
🔸 Leclerc demonstrated he had a lot of pace in hand, gaining 1s over Antonelli in just 2 laps after 15 laps of pushing in dirty air

Let's take a deep dive and see what happened at which point via @f1insightshub If we compare Hamilton's laps in clean air on Mediums vs Leclerc's laps in dirty air on Mediums (1st Stint behind Sainz) we see significant inconsistency in overpass section, while also having inconsistency in S1 with a big mistake on T2 exit on Lap 47

On lap 28, Leclerc demonstrated how much more pace he had in S1 once he got released from Sainz since lap 26 - fun fact, not relevant in this analysis

#F1 #SaudiArabianGP 2025

🟧/🟦 - The Controversial Moment

So we've had the 1st one of those this year and we can do a deep dive on the incident from multiple angles

First, let's examine the ruling. The Stewards observe Piastri as the attacker and rule he was significantly alongside so he had the right to be given room. Ok, he had the room - he was on the inside...

Second part is especially important - Verstappen left the track on his own in Stewards view. This is not true and it was clear as day - he was pushed off and it's easy to be proven.

The problem with this ruling is that it completely contravenes the ruling in Mexico 2024 regarding Verstappen pushing Norris off - which was a fair penalty. There we have two points:

- Norris was ruled to be ahead at entry, apex and exit and thus was to be given enough room on the outside and this is correct
- it is noted he is pushed off (true) and gives back position to Sainz as he cuts the 2nd corner significantly

Being ahead at the apex and being pushed off - we remember this for later, even though stewards ignored these points 1. T1 Apex in Jeddah

Via Google Maps we can observe the corner 100% accurately and we can establish the kerbs are symmetrical around the apex axis. So the 3rd white block marks the apex of the corner - we remember this for later too

#F1 #ChineseGP 2025

🟥 Another Ferrari blunder - what happened? 🧵

A double-DSQ happened to Ferrari before, in 1999 Malaysian GP. It was the first race for Schumacher after his injury and Ferrari managed to secure 1-2 finish after Coulthard retired. After the race, their bargeboards were deemed illegal, protruding 10 mm above the nominal limit on both cars

However, Ferrari overturned this ruling with an appeal, citing improper measurement by FIA (it was 4.5 mm with proper measuring) and manufacturing tolerances (5 mm) not taken into account. It was clever engineering, pushing the manufacturing boundaries as Rory Byrne established this as one of many practices as Chief Engineer, while also exposing FIA's amateurish measurement technique - not taking into account their own floor reference plane when measuring cars

This time - it won't happen. Both cars were disqualified on slam-dunk grounds and Ferrari made indefensible operational errors with their two cars. Period.

Taking a look at both cases below ⬇️ Hamilton's car had an excess plank wear of 0.5mm. Doesn't sound like much, but it's 5% of 10 mm nominal thickness and means it was 15% worn out in total

The car was simply put too low, too soft in the rear or (the most likely scenario) a combination of both. It was a wrong setup as he cleared right after the race:

"Basically, I had a good car in the Sprint, and we made some changes to try to improve, but we got worse in qualifying, and it was even worse in the race."

“Who said we changed the ride height? We made other changes. Of course, we adjusted that too, but it wasn’t a huge factor. However, putting everything together, the situation got significantly worse. Charles had tested some things in Bahrain that I hadn’t tried, but we both followed that path, and it wasn’t the right one, so we must not repeat it"

The factor of worn-tread tyres on his car wasn't present as he had to make the 2nd pit stop. He was vocal about leading the setup direction this weekend and he did a good job for the Sprint and made a big mistake for the Race along with his engineers - without even taking worn plank into account

#F1 Season 2022-2024 Car Development Recap

🟥 Sidepod Development - Ferrari 🟥

Why Ferrari changed so much to change so little? 🤔

Photo credit - none of the photos are my own, only some illustrations and wording. Large majority comes from @AlbertFabrega @RosarioGiuliana @Auto_Racer_it @xavigazquez @Motorsport @Giorgio_Piola

At the start of 2022, Ferrari ran conventional-but-odd looking sidepods on F1-75. They were carved on the top side into a tub-shaped "bowls" and left many puzzled, but together with jjn9128 and Vyssion on @f1technical forum I made some rudimentary CFD simulations to find out.
Simulations showed a decent amount of pressure recovery on rear-facing surfaces, which means there was some drag-reduction at hand. Some of those surfaces were also top-facing, which means downforce generation. There was a bad separation on the side that I couldn't resolve (not enough curvature on the bottom corner most likely) which did influence final results, but not enough to skew the overall conclusion

F1-75 sidepods generated a lot of outwash with blunt frontal sidepod surface, while also reducing drag and adding some downforce with tapering rear end combined with tub-shaped top surface

So what's going on with #Ferrari 's experimental floor? 🤔

Is it really still experimental if they used it in #F1 Qatar race? Will they use it in Abu Dhabi again?

Those are not the question's I will try to answer in this thread. Rather, I will focus on aerodynamic consequences and why Ferrari said it doesn't add downforce, but it does expand the working window and stability

Apparently, @dr_obbs @brakeboosted @organicmeasure @f1net and other's think I should decode Ferrari's top secrets 😂

So, let's get into it! 👇

PS Do bear with me, I've prepared a lot of illustrations 😅 One of the best and most useful CFD results I've seen, regarding 2022 F1 floors and entire underside, was performed single-handedly by Latios and he shared it also on @f1technical forum:

f1technical.net/forum/viewtopi…

Worth noting, as of May 2023, Latios is an aerodynamics engineer in @WilliamsRacing F1 Team! 🤯 I think that's quite a big credibility bonus to results he published!

Rear floor corner is a very important area for aerodynamic development for a long time. Especially since 2022, it is very closely related to diffuser flow stability while cornering, in yaw, going over corners. In short - in all the "troubled" situations a car finds itself many times in a single lap!

Latios shared several results, one of which was a study between semi-accurate RB18 and F1-75 geometries. The biggest thing we see here is how different geometries have a big influence on local flow and interaction with diffuser vortex generation, vorticity and overall resulting diffuser downforce generation