With a lot of hard work done during the winter Scuderia Ferrari is eagerly looking forward the new 2021 season, full of confidence but accompained with humility in their bid to be back to winning ways in Formula 1.
The livery of the SF21 is in part reminiscent of their traditional red color and numbering used last year in Mugello to celebrate their 1000th Grand Prix race. Another visual change on the livery is the bright green color for the logo of their title sponsor Mission Winnow.
After they endured very difficult and winless 2020 season, even though there is a partly development freeze in Formula 1, Ferrari have upped their effort to bounce back from last year disappointments.
From what can be see from the official presentation and what was explained from their chassis and engine directors the SF21 is largely revamped and upgraded car, with firm effort put from all departments within the team.
Last year it was widely accepted that Ferrari car was lacking both at the aerodynamic front and power unit output which especially hurt them on the straights and the top speed. At the front of the car it is visible new front wing on which is mounted the tip of the nose who is still wide compared with the likes of the competitor cars, but Ferrari designed air openings on the nose and integrated the whole section with the under nose and sidepod panel and its barge board as a whole section for better air guidance underbody and around the car.
The body of the car is more tapered in general, with the lines going at the back of the car creating even more tight coke bottle area for increased area and better air flow through the flor of the car, which as it is known is reduced in the area in-front of the rear s. This is make to extreme so that they can claw back aerodynamic downforce lost due to new regulations. To help achieve all of this radiators and cooling is reworked, and for further improvement on the back area Ferrari has spend two of the development tokens to change the rear suspension and install completely new transmission.
Even though they said that they are fully focused on the new 2022 regulation and the engine freeze starting the same year, together with their technical partners Shell and Mahle they created as they say hugely improved power unit 065/6. Most of the effort and power increase will come with the increase of the thermal efficiency of the internal combustion process, the redesigned turbo compressor for efficient recovery of the exhaust fumes and all of this asked for considerable change of the power unit layout. For better alignment and to accomplish all this improvements, electronics and hybrid system have also been better optimized and upgraded.
Due to imposed development freeze Ferrari opted mechanical side of the front of the car including suspension layout to remain the same as last years car.
Enrico Cardile, Chassis Director:
“When we tackled the project for the SF21, we had to choose right away which part of the car we’d give our attention to to make a radical change.
We chose the rear, creating a new transmission and new suspension. This, along with the work done by our power unit engineers gave us a much more tapered rear end compared to the SF1000.
We also went over the cooling system. We increased the authority of the central radiator and designed a more down-washing bodywork.
Aerodynamics was one of the areas impacted by the changed regulations, intended to reduce the capacity of developing vertical downforce, making sure the tyres remain intact.”
Scuderia will put the SF21 on track conducting filming day, right before the three day winter testing begins in Bahrain on March 28.
