How F1's teams developed their cars over 2020

With a simplified aero formula in the offing, the rules remained relatively static for the 2020 season. Before the coronavirus pandemic took Formula 1's best-laid plans and cast them aside with little regard for their content, the idea was for 2020 to be the final season run under the current formula before transitioning to the overhauled, ground-effect aero for 2021.

Owing to the mandatory lockdowns and cost concerns, those plans were shuffled back a year, meaning that 2020's cars will remain in use for another season, and giving the teams a reason to continue their development.

A few trends emerged throughout 2020, notably the willingness of a greater range of teams to adopt the thinner, tapered noses used to great effect by Mercedes to reduce the aero blockage to the floor, along with a greater effort to shrink-wrap the bodywork. Compared to the start of the hybrid era, where bodywork was significantly bulkier amid cooling concerns for the early iterations of the current power-unit formula, today's cars are considerably more svelte.

There's been further development in the high-yield areas of the cars too; diffusers and bargeboards look increasingly complex and intricate as the engineers seek to milk every single drop of performance from the floor area, while the regulations governing the new breed of front wings set out in 2019's rules continue to be exploited in increasingly creative ways.

Although there will be a few tweaks to 2021's rules, most notably around the floor and diffuser area in a bid to trim away downforce, the majority of 2020's innovations will be carried forward for another year - except one particularly controversial piece of kit enclosed within this year's runaway title winner.

Mercedes turns it up to W11

This might be the very last time that we write about Mercedes' dual-axis steering (DAS) system in the context of a contemporary season. The push-and-pull toe-changing device, used by Mercedes' drivers to introduce more heat into the front tyres on a warm-up lap, dominated the column inches for early-season controversy.

Although DAS (1, above) was designed with full transparency granted to the FIA, Red Bull launched an official protest against it with the claim that no suspension changes could be made to the car while in motion. Mercedes countered that it was part of the steering system, which the FIA upheld, although all agreed that the design would be banned at the end of the season to quell any possible arms race.

Mercedes ended work on its W11 rather early, and team principal Toto Wolff mentioned during the Eifel GP weekend in October that the team had finished its upgrades "a long time ago"

Prior to the 2020 season's delay, Mercedes was in a spot of trouble with its power unit and had to work around factory shutdowns to find some extra reliability. Arguably, Melbourne's cancellation helped the team out of a spot of bother, and gave it time to install a fix. The team had also planned a set of updates for the aborted Dutch Grand Prix, and so instead brought them to the eventual season opener at the Red Bull Ring.

PLUS: How COVID-19 played a part in Mercedes' domination

This was wrapped within its new black paint scheme, the face of the team's new efforts to improve the overall diversity within its workforce and make a stand against racism in response to numerous unsettling global events - including the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police - during the zenith of the pandemic.

Mercedes had brought a new rear-wing endplate (2, above) to the Austria double-header, in a bid to bolster its already-impressive package, shuffling the strakes further forward to create a more gradual transition to bring airflow outwards. In doing that, the car's diffuser has a bigger effective volume as the low-pressure zone behind the car - which increases the suction of the floor - is widened.

The team also experimented with a single wing-mounting strut in the earlier parts of the season. In modern F1, all teams currently opt for the double swan-neck rear-wing mounts to keep the suction surface of the main plane free, developing a much cleaner low-pressure zone underneath to reduce the effect on downforce. But this increases the frontal area of the car and, to reduce this for the lower-drag circuits where top speed is key, Mercedes opted for single mounting - incorporated with the DRS housing - to trim some of the drag away. (3)

After running its W11 in a relatively raw form in the opening six races, Mercedes added a number of upgrades for the Belgian GP in August to extend its performance advantage - and in good time too, as the team was predicted to lose out in qualifying as a legacy of the engine-mode restrictions that came into play for Monza.

On top of the chassis bulkhead, Mercedes reprofiled its nose fins to improve their interface with the fins (4) on the sides of the chassis. The tips trailed back further, like those on the Red Bull RB16, which presumably create a tighter tip vortex that can then drop down to the bargeboard area.

The team also switched up its bargeboard package, removing one of the horizontal pieces mounted to the sidepod vane to free up space underneath to add a different pair of floor-mounted elements. There were also added fins to the floor, as seen in the illustration, to assist the outward transit of airflow. One bank of fins was mounted around the centrepoint of the floor, while the next bank was positioned just ahead of the rear tyre to improve the effect of the slots on the edge of the floor. (5)

Mercedes ended work on its W11 rather early, and team principal Toto Wolff mentioned during the Eifel GP weekend in October that the team had finished its upgrades "a long time ago" and diverted its attention to 2021. Ominous.

Red Bull not-so-sweet RB16

In the hands of Max Verstappen, Red Bull's RB16 was always amid the frontrunners, but that disguised the skittishness that the Dutchman could handle, while Alex Albon struggled to tame the bucking bronco.

One visible change to the Red Bull car this year was introducing a thinner nose, tapering in the bulkhead at the mounting point to fit new geometry. The team also played with its front suspension (1, above), opting for a multilink lower wishbone and creating a suspension element that fitted within the chassis as a continuous element. The multilink upper wishbone, used last year, was gone from the Red Bull - but found its way into 2020's AlphaTauri.

Once more, Red Bull started the season well behind Mercedes and only caught up through greater development. The team will hope to stop that trend next year

While retaining the snorkel-like crash structure at the front, it also added a range of openings around it to open up the underside of the nose to a greater supply of clean airflow, increasing the efficiency of the floor.

The team had attempted to make a change to the nose for its 'home' race in Austria. The new nose moved the mounting pylons to the front wing closer together, and they now fitted on the underside, meaning that the team had more freedom to reshape the array of nostrils, presumably to get the flow paths of the air more to the designers' taste. But for some reason, Red Bull reverted to the default version. Verstappen ran the redefined nose during the first race but it ended up on the cutting-room floor until the Abu Dhabi season finale, where the rounder nose (2) returned to the car.

Its rear-wing-endplate update, brought in next time out at the Styrian GP, enjoyed greater longevity. It featured curved slots in the endplate overhang, which assists the airflow expansion at the rear to draw more performance from the diffuser and rear wing. Those slots also condition errant turbulence from the tyres, cleaning it up and ensuring no unpredictable flow structures enter that expansion space.

Red Bull experimented throughout the season with new parts in its bid to close the gaping chasm it had between itself and Mercedes. The team's new-for-Silverstone rear wing (3, above) certainly helped Verstappen cement his place between the Mercedes drivers and the rest of the field during the British GP, and ultimately helped him to overhaul Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for victory in the 70th Anniversary GP, also at Silverstone.

For Silverstone, the team turned up the outboard ends of the main plane to slash the drag produced. This is a common approach, and uses the central section to produce the majority of downforce while removing a little bit of downforce from the less-efficient parts of the wing to reduce the car's drag. The team briefly ditched the louvred endplates it had used in the previous two races and, by trimming out the rear of the car, was not subject to the same degree of tyre wear as the two Mercedes drivers, meaning Verstappen could pressure the pair and eventually claim the win.

Having dropped its nose updates, Red Bull instead turned its attention to the front wing (4). The team added four tiny holes to boost the front-end performance, where two tiny outlets (inset) were set into the trailing edge of each front-wing endplate. This was fed by a large slot within the underside of the wing. This draws air through the construction of the wing and releases it at the point where air is being turned around the front of the wheel.

By transferring the airflow from a larger inlet underneath to a smaller outlet, this will accelerate the airflow coming out - as per Bernoulli's principle. In response, the fluid pressure within will drop. It seems this strengthens the airflow released off the top corner of the endplate, which will further assist the outwashing characteristic that the curvature of the endplates provides.

Yet again, Red Bull started the season well behind Mercedes and only caught up through greater development. The team will hope to stop that trend next year, when everyone continues with what are essentially the same cars.

The midfield arms race

The battle for third was a significant story of 2020: Racing Point, Renault and McLaren were all evenly matched on pace, while Ferrari dropped back and AlphaTauri enjoyed some exquisite form. If only all were as closely matched as the midfield...

Racing Point's RP20 was the most controversial technical talking point of the season, and peeled out of the pits during testing at Barcelona bearing more than a passing resemblance to the previous year's Mercedes. Its rear-brake ducts courted a large amount of early-season attention, and were subject to a weekly protest from Renault. It was alleged that they were direct copies of the Mercedes designs from the previous year amid controversy over the new listed-parts regulations.

Although McLaren's changes took time to work, further exploration with them helped the team find fresh energy in the all-important fight for third

Racing Point eventually copped a 15-point penalty, and the team could never completely shake off the 'Pink Mercedes' tag. Nonetheless, Racing Point introduced a new bodywork package with sloping sidepods (1, above) to post the airflow passing over the top down to the top of the diffuser to find a little extra downforce.

PLUS: Ask Tim: Why the FIA was right and wrong on Racing Point

Aside from its protest gamesmanship, Renault became another team to settle for the tapered-nose construction, and had also touted a triple-upgrade package for Austria, having pooled the planned updates for the early flyaways. There, the team appeared with a new front wing (2). The upper-wing flap on the new wing was reworked with a smaller chord length on the outside compared to the old wing, reducing the overall downforce but improving the outwash characteristic that aerodynamicists crave. This was augmented by a square cutout in the endplate, while the footplate was flattened to also fit a small fin to assist with that outwash - a design choice that has become increasingly popular within the current regulations.

Renault's small but frequent updates helped the team on a heady progression in the middle part of the season, particularly with the outgoing (and out-going) Daniel Ricciardo, and will hope to capture the same impetus when Fernando Alonso returns for his third stint with the team.

McLaren began the season as the third-place contender in the best form, as the Austrian GP heroics of Lando Norris helped the team begin the year with a podium. The team has developed sensibly under the watchful eye of team principal Andreas Seidl, and introduced an interesting front-wing solution; in testing, the MCL35 featured a small lip (3, above) that could release airflow around the front tyre to improve the outwash effect of the front wing.

The team also tested a Mercedes-inspired nose during the Tuscan GP's first practice session in September, later opting to introduce it for the second half of the season. This gave McLaren the chance to expand on the size of the 'cape' attached either side to interact with the airflow shed from the front wing (4, new nose inset). Although McLaren's changes took time to work, further exploration with them helped the team find fresh energy in the all-important fight for third.

Ferrari, after an impressive 2019, was brought down to earth with a bump. Team principal Mattia Binotto alluded to the underperformance of its SF1000 as a legacy of the previous year's technical directives, plus the addition of an extra fuel-flow meter to stop the alleged circumvention of the 100kg/h limit.

The team introduced a number of changes throughout the year to try to bleed out some of the drag from this year's car, which featured two antlers on the rollhoop (5) to straighten out the airflow heading towards the rear wing.

Ferrari, one of the teams to introduce the radical front-wing constructions in 2019, made detailed changes to the inclination of the front-wing (6) elements for the Austrian GP to try to eradicate the nervousness of the SF1000 in the slower corners. Compared to the old design, the new arrangement has wing elements with a more gradual transition to the endplate, with a reduced amount of twist. There's also a rounder mouth to the footplate, moving away from the squarer opening Ferrari pioneered last year.

Ferrari, after an impressive 2019, was brought down to earth with a bump. Team principal Mattia Binotto alluded to the underperformance of its SF1000 as a legacy of the previous year's technical directives

Ferrari also arrived in Sochi at the end of September with a smattering of updates. At the front, the SF1000 sported new turning vanes mounted to the nose, with a reprofiled cape to redirect airflow around the wheels. The team also added new rear-wing endplates (7), reprofiling the overhanging strakes in a manner similar to the design Mercedes developed earlier in the season. In the illustration above, the old design is inset.

AlphaTauri developed well throughout the year, and Pierre Gasly even took the AT01 to an unlikely victory at Monza during a season in which he starred. In that race, the team looked to the previous year's front-wing concept and reworked it for the new season (8), trimming it out to the maximum but with the inboard part raised to give the wing enough downforce for the lower-speed corners.

Continuing with its philosophy of using year-old Red Bull components where it can, AlphaTauri already has a workable base for 2021, and it will remain to be seen whether the team accepts 2020-spec suspension parts or sticks with the 2019 formula as the AT01 is carried forward.

...and those in 'Class C'

Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams were all embroiled in the battle to avoid winning the wooden spoon, with Alfa and Haas hindered by the neutered Ferrari power unit and Williams fighting to overturn its worst season in F1.

The best weekend for Alfa Romeo came at Imola in November, on the back of extending the contracts of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi for another year. By the end, the two had also bagged a double-points finish for the first time since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix. The team had new turning vanes (9) underneath the front of the monocoque to try to boost the interaction with the bargeboards further down the car. At the trailing edge, there was a very small raised triangular section to trip the airflow up and outwards to assist that interaction further.

Haas's development over 2020 was limited, perhaps owing to budgetary concerns during the pandemic. That's not to say that the American team didn't try to overcome the VF-20's limitations, especially after a difficult 2019, and it introduced a new floor (10) early on, complete with an intricate rear corner in front of the rear tyre to try to help divert airflow outwards.

Williams's disadvantage to the other teams was far reduced over the off-season, with George Russell stitching together a number of qualifying efforts to lift himself into Q2 throughout the year. The car concept developed in 2019 was always supposed to be a two-year project, and the team will hope to find an extra year's worth of development in it, especially now with funding in place thanks to the Dorilton Capital mid-season buyout.

The Formula 1 season review edition of Autosport magazine, featuring Grand Prix editor Alex Kalinauckas' ranking of the 10 best drivers of 2020, analysis of Sebastian Vettel's final season at Ferrari and much more, will be available to buy from 31 December.