How Ferrari plans to avoid another false dawn with "extreme" car

As the candy-striped interpretive dancers preceded the unveiling of Ferrari's SF1000 challenger for 2020, carrying their partners on their backs, one wondered if it was an allegory for the weight of expectation on the Formula 1 team's shoulders.

Arming its car with the grandiose title of 'SF1000', Ferrari certainly has a great deal to prove this season. While Autosport waxed lyrical about the team's chances following testing, we - and many others in the paddock - were ultimately left disappointed as the SF90's limitations in low-speed corners were exposed dramatically at the Australian Grand Prix season opener.

The new car bears significant similarities to last year's chariot, but there are many changes both over and under the skin as Ferrari seeks to reignite its form after 2019 ended with a whimper. Power unit controversies certainly didn't help, but the SF90's blistering speed wasn't tempered enough with the other attributes required of a championship contender.

What's clear is that Ferrari has attempted to take the SF90's high-speed, low-drag nature and augment that with more downforce and better packaging. The front wing retains the downward-sweeping form that last year's design pioneered, but given it looks plenty similar to the 2019 design, it could be that the wing is merely a placeholder.

Regardless, the inboard-loaded front wing design has been something of a revelation, so much so that it has been explored by a number of teams seeking to find the balance between creating load at the front and pushing air outwards so that the floor can develop a greater amount of downforce too.

The nose design introduced at last year's Singapore Grand Prix, complete with idiosyncratic nostrils blending into a cape design, remains to bolster the overall front-end downforce output and assist the drivers with a more responsive car. The turning vanes at the front end are also strongly rooted in the layout seen towards the latter half of last season, suggesting that Ferrari has opted for evolution rather than revolution with its front third.

Team principal Mattia Binotto spoke of a revised powertrain design to improve the overall packaging, and the rear end boasts a much tighter midriff

But there's some significant changes to the bargeboard package. Around the letterbox inlets, a design trait instigated by Ferrari a couple of seasons back, the team has continued to develop the array of turning vanes around the sidepods. Those are now broken up into two pieces, following a trend pursued by the likes of Mercedes last season, which can provide more options in the way the airflow is directed down the sidepods.

By breaking up the vanes, there's more scope to send a tip vortex down towards the Coke bottle section of the car, energising any airflow that stagnates in that area and improving the pressure differential between the topside of the floor and the diffuser volume. Altogether, those work together to boost the rear-end downforce.

Ferrari has also expanded on the boomerang package around the bargeboard area too. Although the team had a boomerang design last season, they were neither as large or pronounced as the teams around them. By extending them to the sidepod turning vanes, there's more dimension to the bargeboard area, giving the airflow spilling off of the front tyres more direction when faced with the labyrinthine aero appendages in front of the sidepod inlets. In short, they're a lot more complex than last season.

The bargeboard's highest point, just behind the front suspension components, is broken up into three elements. That aims to provide a better service to the airflow coming off the wishbones, where there's also a distinct effort to send that down to the sidepod undercut.

At the launch, team principal Mattia Binotto spoke of a revised powertrain design to improve the overall packaging of the SF1000, and the rear end boasts a much tighter midriff to make use of that added space. The engine cover remains a one-piece component, designed to reduce the amount of time Ferrari mechanics spend putting bodywork on, while the shark fin retains the small cut out behind the air intake to straighten out the airflow ahead of the rear wing.

That ethos also extends to a pair of horns, situated next to the TV camera pods. As a number of F1 teams have introduced a wider air intake above the driver's head, Ferrari has retained the narrow triangular shape to give it more space to improve the aero. Akin to the horns pioneered by McLaren and BMW Sauber in the mid-2000s, Ferrari seems to be taking advantage of a bounding box in the regulations to straighten out the airflow around the air intake one step further.

Allied to the shark fin, the airflow drifting towards the rear wing is ideally cleaner, and is less affected by the drawbacks of turbulence.

At the rear, the wing endplates remain strongly rooted in last year's design, containing the same number of overhanging strakes. The T-wing at the rear of the engine cover is revised, perhaps looking to inject a modicum of extra downforce in this area. Of course, this area remains highly adjustable and the T-wing can be replaced quite readily depending on the demands of the circuit, but Ferrari has elected to show off its seemingly highest-downforce part.

While the SF1000 seeks to address last year's shortcomings, Ferrari must also get itself in order - or risk another wasted season with a false dawn

The floor does not feature the fins that it ended 2019 with, but it's not uncommon to see teams holding back parts in their launch schedule - lest any other outfits copy their innermost secrets early on in the season.

Other detail changes concern the mirrors, where Ferrari has revised its conventional 2019 design and opted for a Mercedes-inspired shroud to inhibit the overall drag these produce. Given the choice, engineers would prefer not to include mirrors at all, but as they're a mandatory inclusion the aerodynamicists will naturally seek to limit their shortcomings.

As teased by the Haas reveal, Ferrari has opted to showcase its new car with a larger-bore main exhaust with a smaller wastegate mounted atop it, but it remains to be seen whether the split-wastegate design seen in Abu Dhabi practice will be trialled again. One of the biggest controversies over Ferrari's engine last season was with regards to fuel flow and, while it was never categorically proved that the team was circumventing the regulations, it remains to be seen whether the FIA's technical directives drafted at the end of last year will inhibit the team's latent top speed and acceleration.

Ferrari's overall strength last season was clear to see in the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, where a healthy turn of pace more than covered the inadequacies of the SF90 in the slower sections. Although a brief turnaround in Singapore suggested that the concept has potential in climates where downforce is much more of a factor, the team must be able to hit those high notes on a far more regular basis.

The team has shown glimmers of potential in its technical make-up, and the fact that so many have developed their own attempts at a Ferrari-style front wing suggests that the team is capable of innovating.

While the SF1000 seeks to address Ferrari's shortcomings, the Scuderia must also get its stable in order - or risk another wasted season with a false dawn.

The expert view

By Tim Wright, Autosport technical contributor

Ferrari obviously has confidence in the structure and performance of the front wing, as the geometry looks very close to last year's example. The top three elements are very slightly flattened towards the outboard edges, aiming to help the airflow around the front wheels. The team has persisted with the anhedral set up, which helps when the car is in roll and makes the car more consistent when cornering. The pylons are mounted slightly further back which gives more room and directs the air better onto the vertical vanes under the nose.

However, the biggest difference is in front of the sidepods, where a lot of attention has been paid to the bargeboards and turning vanes. This will help to both straighten out the turbulent air from the front wheels and also to better direct that air down and around the sidepods to the rear diffuser. Without seeing these elements in detail, it's rather difficult to determine exactly which element does what though.

There are two winglets now on the roll hoop, which maybe help bring the air onto the engine cover. Also, there's extra shrouds on two sides of the wing mirrors.

Ferrari has kept the shape of the fin on the engine cover as at the end of 2019, but the cheese-cutter wings under the main rear wing are lower, and the rear wing itself looks the same as last year at this current stage. By keeping the wastegate pipe above the main exhaust, this is perhaps why the smaller central wings have been lowered.

The front suspension geometry is very subtly changed, with the trackrod and front leg of the top wishbone not contained within a shroud. At this stage, it's very difficult to see if there are any differences to the rear suspension, but once we get to testing we'll be able to see the true differences on Ferrari's 2020 car.