Despite the Belgian Grand Prix being the final race before Formula 1’s four-week summer break, and a sprint weekend with just a single hour of practice time, all bar one of the 10 teams have brought new parts for their cars.
While many of these are aimed at honing their cars to the particular demands of Spa, which requires high top speeds and low drag, general performance updates have also appeared on several cars. One of the most notable such changes is at Mercedes, who have a package of changes for the sidepod, floor and rear wing.Alpine have revised the fences at the entry to their car’s floor which they expect will yield “several small local gains”. Introducing updates during sprint race weekends can be tricky, however, due the limited practice time available. Alpine discovered this in Baku, where they had to take Esteban Ocon’s car out of parc ferme in order to change its ride height and avoid the risk of wearing the car’s plank more than the regulations allow.
Aston Martin have also made a minor revision to the edge of their car’s floor this weekend. AlphaTauri, which brought a significant package of updates to the last race, have altered the tips of their rear wing in the pursuit of more downforce.
Most teams, however, have focused their efforts on tuning their cars to the demands of Spa. Ferrari have brought a new rear wing aimed at hitting that vital trade-off between downforce and drag. Aston Martin have revised their rear brake ducts and front wing in line with Spa’s demands, while the dominant Red Bull RB19s have a new cooling option for Spa, where low temperatures allow teams to run fewer and smaller intakes than usual.
McLaren, following on from their hugely successful recent upgrade, also have new parts for their rear wing. This is a more complicated change than Ferrari’s however, involving an alteration to the beam wing which is designed to place greater emphasis on the upper part of the rear wing to produce downforce. They have two different configurations to choose from.
Alfa Romeo have also brought changes to their beam wing which gives them two choices for their final configuration. With rain disrupting the only practice session, that may not be an easy decision to make.
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2023 Belgian Grand Prix F1 teams’ updates
The teams described the changes to their cars for this weekend’s race as follows.
Red Bull
Coke/engine cover
Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range
Difference: “Reduced cooling exit area ahead of the rear top wishbones”
Description: “A minor revision to change the cooling exits on each side ahead of the upper rear wishbones. The geometric consequences suit the cooling requirements in relatively cool ambient conditions typically encountered at the Belgian circuit.”
Ferrari
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Lower downforce top and lower rear wing designs”
Description: “Specific to lower downforce tracks, this update features depowered top and lower rear wing profiles in order to adapt to Spa-Francorchamps layout peculiarities and efficiency requirements”
Mercedes
Sidepod inlet
Reason for change: Reliability
Difference: “Taller sidepod inlet”
Description: “Taller inlet improves flow quality to sidepod radiators, improving engine cooling and allowing less louvres for a given cooling level.”
Coke/engine cover
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Sideview coke tube camber increased”
Description: “Increased coke side view camber improves onset flow to the rear of the car, notably the rear wing which gains downforce and drag.”
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Small changes to floor underside volume distribution”
Description: “Volume distribution adjusted to extract more local load from forward floor vortex system, which in turn improves flow to the diffuser.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Small chord upper rear wing”
Description: “Reduced camber and reduced chord upper rear wing with less downforce and drag than standard – suited to low drag track such as Spa.”
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Alpine
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Larger scale cut out on the front wing flap”
Description: “Reduced aerodynamic load front wing flap to suit the lower downforce level of the circuit Spa-Francorchamps”
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Revised forward fences, canoe ramps and smoother diffuser wall cut-out profile”
Description: “Gains downforce through the accumulation of several small local gains resulting from the revised geometries”
McLaren
Beam wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Offloaded biplane beam wing”
Description: “A new offloaded beam wing geometry, which efficiently trades load from beam wing to rear wing main plane and thus reduces aerodynamic drag and load.”
Rear wing endplate
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Rear wing endplate in-fill”
Description: “A modified rear wing endplate featuring a different side view shape, which reduces rear wing main plane loading and thus efficiently reduces aerodynamic drag and load.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Rear wing flap trims”
Description: “Two different trims to the trailing edge of the rear wing flap element, which result in a reduction of aerodynamic drag and load.”
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Alfa Romeo
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “Reprofiled front wing flaps.”
Description: “The updated front wing flaps (available in two trim options) are designed to balance the rear wings listed below to answer the characteristics of the Spa circuit.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Reduced profile rear wing”
Description: “A low-drag rear wing, featuring both main plane and endplates, that allows the team to minimise drag around the Spa circuit”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Profile of the beam wing (version with and version without)”
Description: “As part of the updated, circuit-specific rear wing, the beam wing is available in two versions – with and without an upper element. This is to prepare for the specific requirements of the Spa circuit.”
Aston Martin
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Floor edge updated to subtly revise the geometry, conceptually similar.”
Description: “Small changes to the features generated from the floor edge to improve their interaction and hence local load on the lower surface of the floor.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “New rear wing flap with reduced chord on the low drag rear wing.”
Description: “Reduced wing loading and hence drag to suit the characteristics of the circuit, may be used but defined by the chosen set-up.”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Single element beam wing.”
Description: “Reduced wing loading and hence drag to suit the characteristics of the circuit, may be used but defined by the chosen set-up.”
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AlphaTauri
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Compared to the previous assembly at this drag level, the rear wing tips have been modified to increase the size of the cut-outs.”
Description: “The increased size of the cut-outs gives an efficient increase in local load of the upper wing assembly by increasing the tip loading.”
Williams
Rear corner
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “New, shorted winglets on the rear brake ducts”
Description: “These work with the rear wing assembly to efficiently change the downforce/drag range of the car for the Belgian Grand Prix.”
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “Optional trim to the rearward most element of the front wing to give a shorter chord length”
Description: “This reduces the front wing loading to suit the lower drag rear wing set-up at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.”
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2023 Belgian Grand Prix
- Haas drivers fear losing battle for seventh after “grim weekend” in Spa
- Mercedes optimistic they’re “in the right place for winter” with development plan
- Ferrari not convinced by call to equalise engines: ‘Renault is not so far away’
- Ferrari staying “calm” amid swings in performance from race to race
- Pirelli proposes new “super-intermediate” to address wet weather tyre problems
