Piola: Ferrari joins F1's boomerang tech trend

The Hungarian Grand Prix was the last call for updates before Formula 1's summer shutdown. With it following just a week on from the madcap race in Germany, most of the changes were presumably to discard the armbands and pool noodles to help the cars stay afloat in the somewhat damp conditions.

Facetiousness aside, there were legitimate updates brought to Hungary - the barrierless Monaco, as some would have it. The prevalence of tight, twisting technical sections means a good dollop of downforce is recommended; strong front-end turn-in is an absolute must, and getting the power out of the corner exits can arm drivers with a healthy advantage when peeling out of the two turns either side of the main straight.

Let's look at the array of changes brought to the Hungaroring, captured by Giorgio Piola's illustrations and images, with a sneak preview of what we might get to see at Spa - at least, after those working in F1 have enjoyed two weeks of rest and relaxation.

Ferrari's boomerang and bust...

How do you solve a problem like Ferrari? Never mind the strategic faux pas that would be befitting of a Mr Bean episode (although Rowan Atkinson was actually present in the Mercedes garage), the team was left behind very early on in Hungary by its silver-shrouded rival as a chronic lack of front-end grip hit hard. Although Ferrari now seems to have embarked on an upgrade path to iron that particular problem out, Hungary proved that Maranello's finest still has a way to go.

Ferrari became the latest in a long line of teams to plonk a 'boomerang' on the car, forming part of the bargeboard structure.

The design originally cropped up on last year's Red Bull, but the lower bargeboards for this season have coincided with the popularisation of the concept. Part of the rationale behind it seems to be to assist the bargeboards with 'downwashing' the airflow emerging from the front of the car.

That's quite important, as that air has to be stuffed around the sidepod undercut and around the midriff of the car to be channelled through the 'Coke bottle' section at the rear. Otherwise, that airflow drifts into the path of the circulating rear wheels, creating an unholy amount of drag and an even unholier disturbance at the diffuser.

Ultimately, Ferrari can't afford to lose downforce, especially as Red Bull has now got the team firmly in its crosshairs.

The boomerang gives a team more options for how it addresses airflow from the front - and Ferrari has decided to double its fun with a twin-boomerang.

The uppermost boomerang features a partial split at the middle, as a metal insert fits with an abrupt twist in the element. There's a hole as a result, allowing some of the air to bleed off and limit any separation of air particles taking the longest path over the element.

Two more changes feature on the bargeboard zone. The series of fins at the very leading edge have been broken up further to more aggressively turn the airflow behind the front wheels, while the front turning vane next to the sidepod inlet has also been broken up to accept the redefined flow patterns.

Tentative steps were made at the beginning as Ferrari assessed the merits of its new bargeboards, putting them on Charles Leclerc's car as Sebastian Vettel ran back-to-back on the old specification. By the time practice two came around, Vettel had them too.

While Ferrari locked out the first sector in practice and qualifying, that's an area that features four hefty acceleration 'events'.

It floundered compared to Mercedes and Red Bull in the remaining two sectors, underlining and subsequently highlighting the areas that the car needs to improve in.

...as Toro Rosso's boomerang comes back

In practice for the German Grand Prix, Toro Rosso also joined the boomerang craze. It added the device - complete with a rehashed turning vane assembly to accommodate the new design - on Alex Albon's car, but it didn't quite deliver the results expected. The team reverted to type and saved its boomerang for a sunnier day.

Toro Rosso also ran the two specifications back-to-back in practice at the Hungaroring, this time switching duties so that Daniil Kvyat could conduct the running on the new design. On this occasion, the boomerang and associated components were retained for the rest of the weekend.

Unlike Ferrari's design, the Toro Rosso boomerang is more in line with the others seen on the grid in that it extends to the turning vanes. In doing so, the aerodynamicists have managed to limit any tip vortices produced, although it may very well be that the rotational airflow developed is a quality Ferrari has found desirable - in other words, different strokes for different folks.

Hungary didn't quite possess the same fairytale quality for Toro Rosso that the German GP had, although Albon managed to wrestle the final point out of Sergio Perez's mitts.

Racing Point blunt in Hungary

It's been a tough season for Racing Point, and early development of its RP19 was perhaps underbaked as a result of last year's financial troubles. Since then, the team's engineers have been trying to breathe a bit of life back into the car - if not for the short-term, then certainly for next year's follow-up as they attempt to reclaim the giantkiller tag that seemingly evaporated with the Force India name.

Part of that effort has come in a two-step upgrade spread across the German and Hungarian races. Last weekend, the car came sporting a new set of bodywork and looked spectacularly trim - even Lance Stroll commented that his portly Pink Panther had "been on a diet" following Silverstone.

This time around, the RP19 was bearing the results of a few concerted leg days. New pushrods were augmented with the extended upright bracket that many teams have trialled this year in an attempt to create a more stable aerodynamic platform within the corners, shifting the ride height in response to turn-in to keep a consistent amount of performance at the front end.

But Hungary has always been a bit of a bogey circuit for the team in its various guises, and the new upgrades couldn't arrest the tide as both drivers were eliminated from Q1 - although that wasn't down to pure performance as Sergio Perez also found himself in a spot of bother when jostling with Daniel Ricciardo for space in the session's dying stages. That meant the team couldn't make the most of its new upgrades.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is a very different animal, and it's a venue where the team has always been good - this year's race marks 10 years since the first podium of its Force India era. Although Hungary was a racing disappointment, Racing Point will be raring to go after the summer break.

Alfa enjoys an early Spa day

If a team has an opportunity to try new parts out early, then it makes sense to do so. Hungary isn't the usual venue you'd expect to try Spa-spec parts out on, given the two circuits are opposites, but Alfa Romeo threw convention out of the window to put on a low-downforce rear wing onto Antonio Giovinazzi's car.

Running was restricted to just one install lap, but the wing's bath in flow-vis paint gave the aerodynamicists enough to assess ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. It's a simple approach to trimming drag; shortening the chord length and opting for shallower angles of attack are time-tested attitudes to developing aerodynamic packages for Spa and Monza.

Peeling off the Gurney flap from the trailing edge also does so, and while the package won't deliver the same levels of downforce, the spoon-shaped centre at least offers a nice scoop of stability at the rear.

Expect most teams to approach the demands of Spa similarly, although there will certainly be many more upgrades to talk about after the summer.