Why Sauber-Alfa is already on another level

Sauber has put itself on a completely different level for the 2018 season. Its close association with Ferrari and bringing the Alfa Romeo name back to Formula 1 can only be a positive.

I was involved with the early Alfa Romeo/Brabham engine project in the 1970s and was talking with Gordon Murray about those years just the other day! There are many memories from that time, not necessarily all good.

I know the association between Sauber and Alfa Romeo is primarily financial, but the fact is it will give the team the stability and commitment to get to the level it was at on Peter Sauber's watch.

The stronger association with Ferrari means Sauber will have an up-to-date engine in terms of performance and technology. I'm sure Ferrari is not putting the Alfa name on the cars without being able influence its technical direction. And driver-wise, Sauber can pick from the best of Ferrari's young driver programme, which Ferrari also needs to start running drivers from.

Last year's Sauber lacked rear grip in pre-season but it looked well-balanced and consistent towards the end of the year, just with not enough grip overall. It was fairly simple, lacking in sophisticated components. Basically, Sauber had built a reasonable car given the budget it had available.

For 2018, Sauber looks to have taken the next step. We can't say the car doesn't have all the bits, and while I'm sure there is room for development Sauber has a good baseline to work from.

The front wing is a six-element component with a very short-chord first element. It is this area of the front wing that gets closest to the ground. Having a short-chord initial element means you have less of a loss of downforce when the inevitable airflow separation problems kick in.

The nose and the front detail has been influenced by what Force India ran in 2017. The nostrils, as they were called, are ducts that feed airflow through to the inlet of the S-duct, and if one S-duct is good two must be better!

It looks like there are two exits on the top surface of the nose, one just in front of the Pirelli sticker and one just behind it. The more airflow you can pull through between the low nose section, front wing mounting pillars and the mandatory FIA central front wing section, the better the function of the bargeboards and, in turn, the underfloor.

Unsurprisingly Sauber been influenced by what Ferrari ran in 2017. It is a very neat adaptation of the shorter sidepods

Also, having the S-duct exit where it is positioned reduces the negative lift that would normally be created as the air accelerates over the top of the nose and front of the chassis.

I'm also pleased to see Sauber has gone for the higher outboard mounting for the top wishbone that Mercedes and Toro Rosso pioneered in 2017. This allows it to have a higher and more horizontal lower wishbone, which, whilst still maintaining a half-sensible front suspension geometry, allows better control over the wake coming at the trailing edge of the front wing and helps to realign it to improve underfloor performance.

As far as the sidepod leading edge is concerned, not surprisingly Sauber been influenced by what Ferrari ran in 2017. It is a very neat adaptation of the shorter sidepods with the crash structure at mid, or as low as possible, level leading them to require a twin cooling inlet.

The inlets are as high as possible, with a well-sculptured sidepod undercut section connecting to the Coke bottle area inside the rear tyre.

The bargeboards are a one-element component varying in height, with a sawtooth style top edge to generate a small vortex at each of the slots. These vortices travel around the side of the car acting as a skirt to seal the underfloor and improving its overall performance.

The outer corner sidepod vertical elements are very three dimensional. They are there to control and manage the turbulent wake coming off the trailing edge of the front tyre. But as the front wheels are turned, this turbulent wake changes its intensity dramatically.

This area needs to be optimised to work from the front wheels being pointed straight ahead to when they are being steered to around nine degrees. Otherwise, mid-corner that turbulent wake will interfere with the vortices coming off the bargeboards, reducing their influence. This would mean that the underfloor would lose performance mid-corner, which is not a good situation.

There's nice detail on the halo, with the small slotted gap trim over the top of it. A round tube like the halo is one of the worst things for creating turbulence, so anything that can be done will help the airflow to the airbox intake area.

Again, lots of detail has gone into this area, with the rollbar structure separating the main inlets and the cooling inlet more of a horseshoe shape slightly rearward of the rollbar leading edge. Consistency of the airflow into these inlets maintains more constant base pressure on the turbo, which very slightly reduces the effort required from the exhaust gasses to create the turbo boost needed. This is small, but important.

The Coke bottle area sweeps inside the rear tyre allowing the mass airflow that is being displaced by the rear tyre to pass over the diffuser upper surface. Getting the airflow to come through on the inside of the tyre improves the diffuser and rear upper wing performance, and it also reduces the overall drag of the car.

The detail and the small slots on the floor's top surface is also very important to improving the underfloor's performance. The objective of all these is to reduce the mass airflow that is pulled into the low pressure area under the car. The more this can be done, the better the performance of the underfloor and diffuser.

The diffuser has some nice detail across its trailing edge. The twin turning vanes help the diffuser think it is higher by acting like a Gurney flap. But I am a little surprised that the outer sides of the diffuser don't connect very well to the low pressure area behind the rear tyre. This area may change during testing, and I will be looking out for this at Barcelona at the end of the month.

All in all, I am impressed with the step Sauber has taken. From what we have seen so far, Williams and the Sauber have both changed their philosophy of car concept.

But the big question is, will they get the best out of their new packages before the season starts? Let's hope so, as we all want a lot closer racing right through the grid to hopefully bring us that randomness in results we all crave.