The tech developments F1 made while 'on holiday'

You can imagine that Formula 1's cast of designers rarely enter 'holiday mode'. Even with the mandatory summer shutdown, designing an F1 car is pretty all-consuming, and it's fun to imagine engineers spending their time on the beaches of the Costa del Sol sketching new front wing designs in the sand with a stick.

OK, maybe it's not that fun.

But even with the break in proceedings, there's always a collection of new parts on show at Spa-Francorchamps. The run from La Source to Les Combes is flat-out, as is Blanchimont. So, every little bit of drag you can shave from the car is absolutely crucial to any chance of victory in Belgium. Certainly, the low-downforce packages will have been prepared well in advance, but a car's inherent dragginess can still stymie progress on the fast sections.

In other technical news, there was something of a change of identity further down the grid. With Giorgio Piola's illustrations and images, let's have a look at the new parts that were on show during the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

Racing Point's new nose

When Ross Brawn admitted that his F1 technical team could only recognise three or four cars when they were all painted black, it's reasonable to assume that the Racing Point RP19 was one of the cars they correctly identified.

Ever since the team decided to put a pair of 'nostrils' into the front end of its 2015 Force India, similar designs have almost become a part of its identity. Then, this weekend, Racing Point emerged from its summer holiday with a new front end, blocking up the nostrils in the nose to create a much more conventional design.

The extension required to satisfy the crash structure requirements has shrunk slightly, easing the airflow path underneath the nose. Without the nostrils, the amount of air passing underneath the chassis is reduced, but it appears as though Racing Point is attempting to redefine the flow patterns experienced at the front end to enjoy a greater level of stability.

Although it's easy to imagine how air flows around a car on a straight, it's a very different kettle of fish when the front end of the car is in yaw. In that case, the nostrils can experience a reduced level of air passing through to the underside of the car. Removing that variable should help produce a less peaky driver response as a knock-on effect to the aerodynamic changes. As Spa demands a low-drag set-up, it also suggests that the new nose produced assists in that area.

There were also a new pair of fins on the Racing Point chassis bulkhead, assisting with the transition of nose to chassis and helping to send airflow down to the furniture on top of the bargeboards.

But Racing Point's strengths at Spa didn't provide a particularly clear picture of how much the car had improved, and Sergio Perez suggested after the race that the next few rounds would reveal its effectiveness.

The key indicator should be Singapore, showing whether the nose provides the right amount of front-end grip, and whether it can do so consistently at a circuit that requires a precise response to a driver's inputs.

Spa's skinny rear wings

Every year, it's customary to trim as much drag off of the aerodynamic packages at Spa and revel in the rather sizeable speed boost received in recompense for the downforce lost in the corners.

For the most part, the 2019 changes were conventional arrangements. By shortening the chord of the top flap to match with the raised mainplane, the amount of drag is reduced - a simple case of cutting the frontal area of the car, while also minimising the coefficient of drag inherent to the geometry.

Ferrari and Red Bull's designs were simple adaptations of the normal rear wing, and the endplates remained the same to keep a consistent flow pattern at the rear of the car.

Renault did things a little bit differently. Having previously run a variation of strakes on the endplate at the point where it begins to curve inward, the team opted for a simpler Red Bull-style endplate - opting for a lengthened fin rather than a series of strakes.

While it's not true of all aerodynamic sophistications, more complex collections of smaller parts tend to be a lot more sensitive in turbulence. Furthermore, Renault's strakes promote a slight touch of outward airflow to expand the low-pressure behind the car.

But at Spa, that's extra drag - and that's not something that Renault can particularly afford to cope with as its power unit doesn't have enough performance in hand.

Alfa Romeo's Spa-spec rear wing had already broken cover before the summer, courtesy of a shakedown at the Hungaroring with Antonio Giovinazzi. With a subtle spoon shape in the centre offering a little bit more aerodynamic stability and downforce for the low/medium-speed sections, the outboard sections were trimmed back to provide the requisite low-drag set-up.

Mercedes took a different path to rear wing testing over the practice sessions. On Friday morning, the cars sauntered out of the garage with a regular-spec wing, but there's a good chance that the team was aiming to get some mileage on it in preparation for Singapore. Regardless, the team traded it for a much more suitable model, with a familiar modification made to the trailing edge of the mainplane.

In Baku, Mercedes spent practice working with a serrated trailing edge, as the team aimed to further reduce the drag penalty of the rear wing by shaving off some of the wake turbulence.

But it has its own pitfalls, in that there's a slight overall downforce reduction. At Spa, that's less important as it is less of a balancing act with slow corners compared to Baku. So the serrations featured again this weekend after a nine-round hiatus.

Mercedes enjoyed a healthy advantage over Ferrari in the middle sector, meaning that the inclusion of the serrations was a luxury that Mercedes could afford, but the performance of the SF90 in the high-speed sections was enough to keep Charles Leclerc in front of Lewis Hamilton as he held on for an emotional maiden F1 victory.