As the Italian Grand Prix falls just one week after the first race back from the summer break, few teams have major performance altering updates this weekend.
However the particular requirements of the fastest track on the calendar has led all bar one of the teams to bring some adjustments to their cars, and some have gone further than others.Tweaks to the front and rear wings to cut downforce and drag across all the cars except those of Haas, who once again have brought no changes to their VF23. But one team stands out for having worked especially hard to reduce the drag its car creates.
McLaren were especially vulnerable on the straights at the last high speed venue F1 visited, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium before the summer break. At one stage during the grand prix Lando Norris was overtaken by two cars either side of him on the Kemmel straight.
The team admitted it needed to make drastic improvements to its car’s efficiency, and it has taken a step towards that with a package of six notable changes this weekend. In addition to the familiar front and rear wing tweaks, McLaren have altered their rear wing endplates, brake ducts and other parts of the MCL60.
“Low downforce, like I said in Spa, was on the ‘to do’ list at the start of the season,” said team principal Andrea Stella. “It was after just improving the general efficiency of the car.
“We had no time to address that for Spa. We had some quite rapid corrective work to be able to come here to Monza and have some low-drag solutions. We saw these solutions split across the cars this morning. We are happy that the data we saw were matching the expectations, so now we’ll have to pick the right one for the race and we hope to do better than what we were doing in Spa in dry conditions.
One other team which has made a change of note is Alfa Romeo, who have tweaked their front suspension. However their efforts to evaluate it in first practice were stymied by technical problems.
2023 Italian Grand Prix F1 teams’ updates
The teams described the changes to their cars for this weekend’s race as follows.
Red Bull
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “A trim has been applied to the front wing flap trailing edge”
Description: “A shortening of the chord via a trailing edge trim has been applied to reduce the load for the balance range required for the expected rear wing level, whilst maintaining compliance with the various geometric requirements.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “A trim has been applied to the rear wing flap trailing edge”
Description: “A shortening of the chord via a trailing edge trim has been applied to reduce the wing’s relative load and therefore drag at a given speed to suit the requirements of Monza”
Ferrari
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Lower downforce top and lower rear Wing designs”
Description: “This update features depowered Top and Lower Rear Wing profiles in order to adapt to Monza layout peculiarities and efficiency requirements.”
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “Lower downforce front wing flap design”
Description: “This depowered front wing flap provides the required aero balance range associated to the optimum downforce level anticipated for Monza.”
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Mercedes
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Small chord upper rear wing”
Description: “Reduced downforce upper rear wing suitable for low drag circuit.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Small chord beam wing”
Description: “Reduced downforce beam wing suitable for low drag circuit.”
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Alpine
Beam wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Packer fitted to beam wing to give revised profile to the element.”
Description: “Due to the nature of Monza and its low downforce configuration, the revised beam wing reduces drag and downforce to suit the circuit.”
McLaren
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “Low Balance Front Wing Flap”
Description: “Altered Front Wing Flap shape, aiming at efficiently reducing Front Wing loading to balance low downforce Rear Wing options at this track.”
Front corner
Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning
Difference: “New front brake duct scoop”
Description: “A new front corner scoop geometry, which results in improved flow conditioning and subsequently an efficient increase in aerodynamic load while maintaining sufficient brake cooling performance.”
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “New lower drag flap assembly and trims”
Description: “New, low drag flap assembly with two trim options, reducing flap loading and resultant Downforce and Drag of the RW Assembly.”
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 sideview 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: “Lower Drag Rear Wing Assembly”
Description: “New lower Drag Rear Wing Assembly, with an offloaded Mainplane and Flap, resulting in an efficient reduction of Downforce and Drag.”
Rear corner
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Revised rear corner winglet arrangement”
Description: “New rear corner winglet configuration which results in a reduction of aerodynamic load and drag, suitable specifically for this circuit.”
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Alfa Romeo
Rear wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Different profiles of the main plane and endplates of the rear wing.”
Description: “A new profile of the rear wing in its entirety has been introduced to minimise drag and respond to the Monza circuit’s unique characteristics.”
Front corner
Reason for change: Performance – local load
Difference: “New geometry of the front suspension”
Description: “The redesigned front suspension shrouds work to improve the aerodynamical efficiency of the car, working in unison with the remainder of the car.”
Aston Martin
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, use depends on the chosen set-up.”
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AlphaTauri
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “Compared to the baseline geometry, the chord and camber of the front wing flap elements have been reduced.”
Description: “The reduction in flap loading is required to achieve the desired aerodynamic balance range given the low downforce / drag rear wing assembly that is optimum for lap time at this circuit.”
Beam wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – drag range
Difference: “Compared to other beam wing designs, this assembly reduces the camber and chord of the beam wing elements. Local to the diffuser trailing edge, there is just one element. A second beam wing element is positioned further forward and above the rearward element.”
Description: “This assembly reduces drag further compared to other higher downforce / drag beam wing designs raced previously and is to suit the low drag requirement of this circuit.”
Rear corner
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Compared to the baseline rear brake duct assembly, several of the upper, rear brake drum elements have been removed.”
Description: “While these wing elements are standard at high and medium downforce circuits, lap time is reduced by removing them at this event because of the very high aerodynamic efficiency demands of this circuit.”
Other – rear view mirrors
Reason for change: Performance – drag reduction
Difference: “Compared to the baseline rear view mirror assembly, three turning vanes have been removed from the outboard mirror stem.”
Description: “While these mirror vanes are standard at high and medium downforce circuits, lap time is reduced by removing them at this event because of the very high aerodynamic efficiency demands of this circuit.”
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Williams
Front wing
Reason for change: Circuit specific – balance range
Difference: “Trim to the trailing edge of the front wing flap element”
Description: “This efficiently reduces the load on the front wing to match the rear downforce from the low drag rear wing. We will deploy this trim only if required”
2023 Italian Grand Prix
- Despite close battles at Monza, F1 drivers want more powerful DRS
- Monza “frustrating” for Alonso but Aston Martin expect better form in coming races
- F1 changed rules to stop Mercedes in 2021 but we won’t ‘cry foul’ now – Wolff
- McLaren will bring ‘follow-up to Austria upgrade’ before focusing on 2024 car
- Magnussen explains why his driving style rarely works with the Haas VF-23
SteveR (@stever)
1st September 2023, 21:02
Maybe McLaren should just remove the brake ‘ducks’ entirely! Those feathers can gum up the works.
SteveP
1st September 2023, 21:13
No brake ducks? Is that quackers? Surely their goose would be cooked?
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd September 2023, 0:05
They’ve gone too far copying the Red Bull from Montreal, complete with dead bird stuck in it!