F1 teams' low downforce secrets

Due to its high-speed nature, Monza still stands alone in terms of set-up demands, so most Formula 1 teams have brought specific updates for this race.

Broadly speaking, we've seen slimmer wing sets to maximize top speed, alongside smaller detail changes to the cooling and brake ducting to further reduce drag.

The weather this year is hot and track temperatures are high, so the Pirelli tyres will degrade in the heat - particularly the rears, which will limit traction and induce oversteer as they lose grip.

For this reason, many teams are running slightly higher downforce than perhaps preferred for ultimate pace at this track, but any sliding of the tyres from low downforce in the race will wreck the rubber in a few laps.

This slide-induced degradation is amplified in traffic, as further downforce is lost from the wake of the car ahead, added to the potential for the car to overheat from running in dirty and heated air coming off the car in front.

Mercedes

Mercedes arrived well prepared with a variety of rear wings. Perhaps with concerns over tyre performance in the race in mind in this heat, the team opted for the slightly larger Baku-specification rear wing, with its twisted profile.

There remains a Monza-spec version of this wing with far less angle of attack, but this went unused.

As an aid for managing tyre temperatures, the front brake ducts were set up in an asymmetric layout in order to cool the more loaded outside (left) front tyre by shielding rejected heat from the brakes from the wheel and tyre.

Red Bull

The Renault engine still trails Mercedes by some margin and this penalises Red Bull at such a power-sensitive track. As a consequence, the Red Bull aero set up has gone very slim on the wings.

A new and nearly flat rear wing, shorter than the usual one and with a shallower angle of attack boosts the RB12's top speed.

Such a small wing does not need slots in the rear wing endplate, so for this race the endplate is solid, even though these slots are usually present to aid drag reduction.

Balancing out scant downforce from the rear wing is a cut-down front wing, with the rear-most flap being shorter in chord length to reduce the downforce produced.

Red Bull has also reshaped the brake ducts and closed off its blown front axles to further reduce drag for this race.

Ferrari

Ferrari brought an engine development to Monza, spending its final three development tokens on what is believed to be a combustion upgrade for its home race.

This follows major token spends by rivals Mercedes (five) and Honda (seven) at Spa last time out.

Ferrari will have this specification for the remainder of the season, unless it can convince the FIA of the need to introduce extra modifications purely for reliability purposes.

Honda is expected to use its remaining three tokens to upgrade its engine for its home race in Japan next month, while Mercedes still has six tokens available to spend but has yet to find a proven performance gain on its dyno.

Renault still has 21 development tokens available, but it has decided not to use them, preferring to delay updating its engine until the token system is abolished at end of the season.

In terms of chassis this weekend, Ferrari is running a simple set-up, with a relatively large rear wing and the front wing reverting to the early season two-element flap set-up.

Like Mercedes, Ferrari also has an asymmetric front brake duct set-up to manage tyre temperatures, and has closed off its blown front axles for this race in similar fashion to Red Bull.

Williams

Williams also runs a low downforce rear wing for Monza, but positions it several centimeters below the top of the endplates rather than in the highest position possible.

In this position the wing still benefits from a large series of slots in the endplates to further reduce drag.

Toro Rosso

As its rivals have their power units upgraded, Toro Rosso is seriously hampered by the year-old specification Ferrari engine.

Having run lower downforce/drag all season to counteract the power deficit, at Monza the team has gone to even further extremes.

A tiny rear wing has been fitted to the STR11, and depending on the angle it is run at there are also two different versions of the front to balance the car out.

The main wing used is a simple rework, with the rear most flap being shorter in length and flatter in angle to reduce its power.

The more extreme version of the front wing removes the rear-most flap completely, the set-up at first looking like a partially assembled wing.

But the sole adjustable flap has an extension reaching rearward to connect to the flap adjuster mechanism.

Haas

Haas brought a dramatic Monza-specific rear wing to the car for this weekend, featuring a "double dip" curved rear wing profile.

The aim of the "W" shaped leading edge profile is to strategically reduce the wing's angle of attack in areas of good airflow and work the wing harder in other areas.

At first the steep profiles near the endplate would suggest that creating vortices at the wing tip would induce drag. But, as with Williams, the endplate recoups efficiency by offsetting these vortices with slots.

Although dramatic, the rear wing may not be a very low downforce set-up, as the front wing is not substantially changed to balance the front of the car.

However, it's still unlikely this wing will be used at any subsequent grands prix this year.

Manor

In its previous guises the Manor team has run standard wings at Monza, designed with enough range of adjustment to achieve a workable compromise across the full range of circuits on the calendar.

However, for 2016 the team has some specific parts on the car for Monza, the most notable being a simplified front wing flap to balance a flatter rear wing profile.

Like most teams, Manor runs two short chord flaps joined together to form the adjustable part of the front wing.

This weekend the team has the option to run a single, larger adjustable flap.

This set-up is not quite as extreme as Toro Rosso's single flap, but still creates less downforce than a shortened two-element flap.