Six teams have brought updates to their cars for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, including Ferrari and McLaren whose cars are sporting significant revisions this weekend.
Red Bull are also continuing to refine their dominating RB19 chassis, but Mercedes and Aston Martin are sticking with their recently-updated packages for the ninth round of the championship.Ferrari ran the new front wing and floor on its SF-23 in a filming day at its Fiorano test track earlier this week. Having previously revised the front and mid-section of its floor in Miami, the team has made further revisions in the same area and to the diffuser for the Austrian Grand Prix.
The team say this latest change, along with extensive revisions to its front wing, are intended to improve the efficiency of its car. This is an area where most teams are losing out to Red Bull.
McLaren have brought the most extensive changes to their car. These were originally scheduled for introduction at the British Grand Prix, but the team was able to prepare one example earlier than planned for Lando Norris, to maximise their points-scoring chances at this sprint race weekend.
At the last race Williams brought a significant upgrade for one of its drivers, Alexander Albon, and those new parts are now available for his team mate Logan Sargeant. Two further minor updates have also appeared for the FW45.
With Mercedes, Aston Martin, Alpine and Alfa Romeo all retaining the cars in the previous specifications, just two other teams have brought updates. Of those, Haas has only a tweak to the sensors in its nose to address reliability concerns.
AlphaTauri, however, has changed the design of its rear wing in pursuit of greater downforce and less drag. They have also tweaked the cooling louvres on the AT04. The Red Bull Ring is at an altitude of around 700 metres, which is higher than most circuits, meaning the air is thinner which inhibits cooling. However the conditions this weekend are expected to be on the cool side.
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2023 Austrian Grand Prix F1 teams’ updates
The teams described the changes to their cars for this weekend’s race as follows.
Red Bull
Rear suspension
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Surfaces revised on the rear lower wishbone fairings have been subtly changed.”
Description: “To improve local flow stability, the rear lower wishbone fairings have been subtly revised to maintain attached flow in all conditions. The regulatory requirements for such fairings are quite tight and deny elaborate designs, hence changes are minimal.”
Ferrari
Front wing
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Redesign of all Front Wing elements: main plane, flap and endplate.”
Description: “Part of the standard development cycle, the aim of this front wing update is to reduce further aero structure losses and their impact downstream, together with more flexibility on aero balance adjustment.”
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Revision of front floor fences, floor edge, mid floor and diffuser sidewall. Sidepod undercut re-designed to suit.”
Description: “Coming together with the front wing upgrade, the floor topology has been revised focusing on mainly losses management and load distribution, which translates into a car efficiency increase.”
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McLaren
Sidepod inlet
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “New Sidepod Inlet Shape”
Description: “In conjunction with the new Bodywork Shape, the Sidepod Inlet and Mirror Geometry has been heavily revised, to aid flow conditioning on Bodywork and Floor.”
Halo
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “New Halo Fairing and Furniture”
Description: “In conjunction with the new Bodywork Shape, both Halo Fairing and Furniture have been updated to aid flow conditioning over the top of the Bodywork.”
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Fully revised Floor”
Description: “The new floor features updated Fences, Floor Edge as well as Diffuser shape, which in conjunction with the revised Bodywork Shape results in an increase in aerodynamic load.”
Coke/engine cover
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Reshaped Sidepod and Engine Cover”
Description: “The Engine Cover and Sidepod/Coke has been reshaped to improve flow conditioning to the floor, resulting in the aforementioned increase in load.”
Cooling louvres
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Updated Louvre Geometry”
Description: “The new Bodywork shape requires a revised Shoulder Louvre Geometry featuring various steps, to enable adequate cooling for various ambient conditions.”
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Haas
Nose
Reason for change: Reliability
Difference: “New chassis Pitot installation that combines a lower aerodynamic disturbance and an improved functionality in the operations and data analysis.”
Description: “The Pitot Static sensor is a fundamental instrument for the work in wind tunnel and to accrue aerodynamic parameter on a land vehicle. On a race car, and in particular for a F1 model, that require accuracy in the data acquisition and reliability for any condition can be found during a race, we have chosen to improve the overall quality with a latest generation combination of components and instrumentation.”
AlphaTauri
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Compared to the previous assembly, the way in which the wing elements roll over into the endplate body has been changed.”
Description: “The tip detail change gives an efficient increase in the local load that is generated by the upper rear wing assembly.”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Compared to the previous assembly, the wing elements have been revised in chord and camber.”
Description: “This assembly generates an intermediate level of beam wing loading compared to the other options available to suit this circuit’s efficiency requirements and is an efficiency improvement over the previous beam wing design at this downforce level.”
Cooling louvres
Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range
Difference: “Compared to the previous engine cover louvre panels, the new design has an increase in exit area.”
Description: “Due to the high cooling demands of this circuit due to the combination of high ambient temperatures and the altitude of the circuit above sea-level, the new louvre panels extend the maximum cooling range of the bodywork.”
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Williams
Floor fences
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “On the new floor carcass that was introduced on Alex’s car in Canada, we have updated the outer most fence. The upper trailing edge is further inboard and the leading edge fillet is larger.”
Description: “This floor fence local load modification makes better use of the onset flow to generate a small increase in local load.”
Front corner
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The front brake duct vane is reprofiled around the tyre edge. The position of the lower section is also adjusted.”
Description: “This front corner local load modification makes better use of the onset flow to generate a small increase in local load.”
2023 Austrian Grand Prix
- Mercedes left scratching heads by lack of performance at Austrian GP
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- Austrian GP track limits farce was avoidable like ‘IndyGate’ and Spa 2021 – Brown
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- Paddock Diary: 2023 Austrian Grand Prix
