Lewis Hamilton gave an unambiguous answer yesterday when asked what he most wanted Mercedes to improve on their car for next year.
“I will need more rear end,” he said. “They have to figure out how to do that.”Clearly Mercedes aren’t waiting until next year to address their car’s lack of rear-end grip, as all three of the updates they’ve declared for this weekend race are aimed at generating more downforce there.
The changes begin at the middle of the car where Mercedes have stiffened the supports for their rear mirrors and altered the floor edge. Both these changes are designed to improve the air flow to the back of the car. There the air flow will interact with a revised beam wing which is intended to generate more downforce. Mercedes note this will come at the cost of greater drag, but at a circuit like Zandvoort with relatively short straights, that is less of a concern.
Before the summer break, Aston Martin admitted some updates and setup changes they made with their AMR23 had not brought the desired effect. For the first race back they have brought a package of modifications to their floor, which has not fundamentally changed its concept but is intended to improve its downforce generation.
McLaren brought surely the most successful upgrade of the season so far in the races leading up to the summer break which brought them into contention for ‘best of the rest’ honours behind Red Bull. At Zandvoort they are aiming to build on that with a fully revised rear wing optimised for this circuit. It’s likely to prove useful at other coming high-downforce venues such as Singapore.
The fourth team which is vying to be the closest rival to Red Bull is Ferrari. They have brought no updates this weekend and both drivers admitted yesterday the team is still trying to understand why its car doesn’t perform as expected at some circuits.
The team they are all trying to beat, Red Bull, have brought a steady drip of small updates to its all conquering RB19. This weekend they have modified the beam wing in the lower part of the rear wing to bring a little more performance to a car which was winning races by over half a minute before the summer break.
Along with Ferrari, Alpine have also brought no upgrades for the first race back. Nor have Williams and Alfa Romeo, though Haas and AlphaTauri have made some modest changes, which may alter the balance of competitiveness between the four teams striving not to end the year last in the championship.
2023 Dutch Grand Prix F1 teams’ updates
The teams described the changes to their cars for this weekend’s race as follows.
Red Bull
Beam wing
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Revised cambers and angles of incidence across the elements.”
Description: “To better optimise the local geometry both the camber and angle of incidence have been subtly changed to improve the pressure distribution and improve wing performance.”
Mercedes
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “Reduced span forward floor edge wing”
Description: “Offloads the floor edge wing a little, which in turn reduces losses improving flow to the rear and increasing rear downforce.”
Sidepod inlet
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “De-cambered inboard mirror stay”
Description: “Improved robustness of mirror stay through all conditions, improving flow quality to the rear of the car and increasing rear wing load.”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Increased element camber and chord”
Description: “Increased element camber and chord increases beam wing local downforce (and drag) which in turn increases the rear floor load.”
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McLaren
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “New Rear Wing Assembly”
Description: “The new Rear Wing assembly features a completely new mainplane, flap and endplate which results in an increase in aerodynamic efficiency compared to the previous assembly covering the drag range suitable for this circuit.”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “New Beam Wing Assembly”
Description: “New Beam Wing geometry which suits the aforementioned Rear Wing assembly to achieve an increase in aerodynamic efficiency at this drag range.”
Aston Martin
Floor body
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The lower surface of the floor has been modified to change the volume underneath the floor.”
Floor fences
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The fences have been reshaped slightly in conjunction with the main body changes.”
Floor edge
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The floor edge is the same concept but adjusted to suit the floor body modifications.”
Diffuser
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “The upper corner of the diffuser is modified to change the volume of the lower surface. A small winglet is also added behind the diffuser.”
Description: “The package of floor modifications work in combination to improve local flow details and increase the load generated by the floor.”
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Haas
Front wing
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “A new arrangement of mainplane, flaps and the other component of the entire Front Wing is introduced for this race event.”
Description: “Due to the experience gained with the FW introduced in Monaco, the entire project has been revisited. Significant improvement has been obtained in the flow that is released behind the wing itself.”
Nose
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “The development work has involved the car nose and specially the profile enclosed in the assembly.”
Description: “The nose tip, that in our car is merging into the second froward wing element, is part of the wing leading edge. The work is focused on the best compromise between the nose geometry and the wing profile itself.”
Rear corner
Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range
Difference: “Brake cooling has been improved with new internal ducts shape.”
Description: “Inside the wheel rim the drum that is part of the brake cooling system, contain several ducts that has been optimized providing advantaged in the heat dissipation and aerodynamic efficiency.”
AlphaTauri
Rear wing endplate
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “Relative to the previous geometry, the rear wing endplate junction with the rear wing elements has been updated.”
Description: “The updated tips increase the efficiency of the assembly of this rear wing drag level, which is anticipated to be the best choice for this circuit based on lap time analysis.”
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2023 Dutch Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan GP defeat was key to record-equalling run of wins – Verstappen
- “Too early to say” if podium signals return to form for Aston Martin – Alonso
- Verstappen makes history with unbeaten hat-track in first home races
- Perez is ‘doing his job and will be our driver in 2024’, Horner insists
- Ferrari had the “sixth or seventh fastest car” at Zandvoort – Sainz
