Mercedes had been the one crew to introduce a pure efficiency improve on the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix whereas their rivals solely introduced circuit-specific developments to Spherical 2 of the 2024 F1 season. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó displays on the groups’ developements within the Jeddah F1 spherical.
Mercedes
Mercedes have had a harder begin to their 2024 F1 marketing campaign than hoped. The Brackley-based outfit gave the impression to be optimistic after the three-day pre-season testing with their drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell sounding content material with improved steadiness of the W15.
Nonetheless, the automotive has lacked efficiency within the opening two rounds of the season, producing an excessive amount of bouncing and missing downforce in high-speed coners.
The Anglo-German squad grew to become the one crew to introduce a performance-related improve in Jeddah. The crew debuted a modified decrease deflector on the rear of the automotive which reduces loading on the ahead ingredient, and results in improved robustness of the decrease deflector all through the trip top vary.
Crimson Bull
Regardless of having dominated proceedings within the early races of the season, Crimson Bull don’t seem to relaxation on their laurels.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix noticed the Milton Keynes-based squad debut a spread of circuit-specific upgrades together with a modified engine cowl. The brand new model features a diminished cooling exit which was potential as a result of timing of the classes, the typical velocity of Jeddah in addition to the absence of a sequence of low velocity corners.
Throughout Thursday practices, F1 groups experimented with numerous rear wing configurations to seek out out the most effective carry/drag stage. Whereas Ferrari used a steeper rear wing, the RB20 was outfitted with a decrease camber rear wing meeting. It was subsequently no shock to see the RB20 dominate the final sector given the extraordinarily lengthy high-speed sections which might be taken at full velocity.
Furthermore, the crew diminished the camber of its beam wing, once more aimed toward a reducing the drag stage of the RB20.
Ferrari
Ferrari additionally used a special rear wing in comparison with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Though the Scuderia used a decrease downforce design, it was nonetheless steeper than what their rivals utilized in Jeddah.
Curiously, Ferrari have totally carried over the Jeddah rear wing from their 2023 automotive, and so they intend to make use of this 2023-spec configuration at decrease downforce tracks in a while through the present season.
Equally to Crimson Bull, Ferrari experimented with a decrease drag beam wing. In actual fact, the Scuderia introduced two variations to Jeddah. Certainly one of them was an excessive one which featured a single ingredient association As for the highest rear wing replace, these modulations had been targetting the optimum aerodynamic effectivity round Jeddah circuit format peculiarities.
McLaren
McLaren appeared to lack tempo within the three-day pre-season testing, however they upped their sport within the season-opening Bahrain spherical. Though they appear to be a good distance off the field-leading Crimson Bull and a way off second-placed Ferrari, they’re very a lot concerned within the struggle for the place of the third-quickest crew with this battle together with the Woking-based squad, Aston Martin and Mercedes.
Simply as many of the groups, McLaren additionally introduced a lower-downforce rear wing to Jeddah to cut back drag on the circuit that’s the second-quickest monitor solely behind the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. The brand new configuration options an offloaded mainplane and flap in comparison with the verson used within the Manama season-opener.
The MCL36 sported a modified beam wing that featured a brand new higher and decrease ingredient. The intention was to enhance the interplay with the rear wing meeting and therefore scale back the downforce and drag.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin have began the 2024 F1 season in a much less aggressive state than they hoped for. Fernando Alonso delivered good qualifying performances each in Bahrain and Jeddah, however he was restricted to defensive driving within the races with Crimson Bull, Ferrari and even Mercedes and McLaren displaying higher race efficiency.
The Silverstone-based outfit introduced a modified rear wing to Jeddah. The circuit-specific upgrades sported a much less aggressive rear wing cascade whereas the lower-downforce rear wing had been out there with two totally different flap choices.
The entrance finish of the AMR24 sported a revised scoop form with the geometry modifying the movement across the tyres. The intention was to enhance the wake form to cut back the impact on the elements of the automotive downstream.
Williams
Williams have had a much less profitable begin to the 2024 F1 season. The Grove-based outfit was keen to construct on the optimistic finish of final yr that noticed Alexander Albon excel in qualifying circumstances.
Whereas their 2023 F1 automotive was glorious on high-speed circuits, the crew was adamant to construct a automotive that’s an all-rounder which may ship good efficiency on tracks that don’t characteristic a sequence of lengthy high-speed sections. Nonetheless, the early indicators point out that the brand new automotive is a step backwards when it comes to competitiveness.
As for Jeddah spherical, Williams launched a modified beam wing which includes a diminished chord size. The crew famous that “the discount in dimension of the beam wing merely reduces the downforce and drag of the rear wing meeting to ship a drag stage acceptable for the Jeddah circuit.”
After the new opening race in Bahrain, the crew introduced a modified entrance brake duct that sports activities a diminished exit space relative to the model utilized in Manama. The smaller duct exit restricted the cooling movement price by way of the entrance brake system.
RB
The Visa Money App RB confirmed an encouraging stage of competitiveness in qualifying trim within the opening two rounds of the 2024 F1 season with Yuki Tsunoda even incomes the promotion into Q3 in Jeddah. Nonetheless, the crew seems to lack race velocity with each the Japanese driver and his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo falling down the order within the first two races.
The Faenza-based squad introduced 4 circuit-specific updates to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. It included a modified engine cowl with the form and the slope of the highest deck of the bodywork having been altered. The crew famous that the intention was to enhance the movement high quality passing over the bodywork earlier than it passes to the rear of the automotive.
Furthermore, the crew experimented with a special vary of cooling louvres on the top-deck of the bodywork throughout Thursday practices. The intention was to check a spread of cooling choices for future races.
The crew introduced a lower-downforce rear wing to Jeddah with the modified configuration sporting a smaller higher rear wing ingredient. Along with the modified rear wing, one other experiment centred across the entrance wing with the flap chord trimmed down. It was an experiment to tune the entrance steadiness stage for decrease rear wing ranges.
F1
