The best of intense midfield battle's Spanish GP updates

If the deluge of upgrades wasn't quite enough to sate the tech-hungry legions of the Formula 1 fanbase, then the Spanish Grand Prix's Friday practice had plenty more to offer. Despite the warmth of Barcelona, teams could no longer keep their powder dry, emerging on-track with myriad new bits and pieces.

Of course, the place where those upgrades count the most is within the midfield, where the gaps between competitors are wafer-thin. Even the tiniest flick or flourish of the designer's pen can lift one car above another.

As mentioned in Thursday's review of updates, McLaren has added a greater fin to the rear of the engine cover, allowing the airflow moving towards the rear of the car to converge more linearly.

The team had used a far smaller version previously, just enough to cover the individual numbers of each driver. It appeared that McLaren had been able to do away with the fin managing the airflow shed off of the engine cover. Sometimes, it's not needed to rebalance the air feeding the rear wing, and in cases such as crosswinds it can provide a small hindrance.

However, McLaren's engine cover always had the potential for customisability with the removable top section, and so the engineers have been able to add it without having to produce an entirely new engine cover.

McLaren's updates don't end there, having brought a new bargeboard arrangement to the party - daubing it in flow-vis paint in FP1 to test its interaction with the oncoming barrage of air. This was tested against the previous specification of bargeboards and turning vanes.

Here, there's a clear stream of airflow shed off of the top wishbone, which folds down towards the undercut around the sidepod inlet. Giorgio Piola's image above also shows the aggressive nature of how the airflow is turned around the car using the bargeboards and floor cut-outs.

In the vicinity of the red arrow there's two flicks curling inwards, which will roll up a vortex and carry it around the sidepod undercut.

These are mounted atop the redefined teeth on top of the bargeboard - now shaped to resemble the interlocking scales seen on a shark's skin.

These are there to aggressively turn airflow downwards, building a stronger buffer between the wake from the front end and the floor structure.

A new front wing has also been tested (above, lower image), falling more in line with Ferrari's current concept. Now, the wing elements slant downwards in an anhedral fashion.

The tips at the inboard section sweep closer together to strengthen the vortex produced, as the mainplane is also shaped to reflect the new adjustable element design solution. A small square cut-out has also been added to the endplates, linking up with the new flared lower section.

Together, these changes aim to enhance the outwash component produced by the new geometry, ring-fencing the tyre wake to ensure that the car benefits from a more efficient use of the underbody aerodynamics.

This can be seen against the previous specification of wing, used through the majority of the season so far (above, top image).

Alfa Romeo has also brought modifications to its front wing, revising the inner wing tips and the shape of the elements sitting between the flap adjuster and the endplate.

Those wing tips are now considerably more flush compared to the previous specification, creating a less dramatic outward passage of air. The vortex generated will be tighter and further inboard as a result of the extended element. At the outboard section, the elements have been further twisted to improve the effect of outwash - the angles of attack have been minimised to promote this.

Renault has also brought some new parts as it seeks a turnaround after a disappointing Baku weekend, including a T-wing for the first time since Australia.

There, the design was a single element, but Renault has opted for a 'coathanger' design for Barcelona to double up on both downforce and in conditioning the airflow for the rear of the car - also minimising the effect of tip vortices attributed to a single-element design.

In addition, there's a small monkey-seat device attached to the rear wing mounts, just to boost the amount of downforce produced at this area of the car.

Towards the front of the field, Red Bull has overhauled its bargeboard package in its overtures to close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari. The tallest section (below, green arrow) tucked behind the top suspension wishbone has been shortened in chord length, cleaning up the airflow coming off of the wishbone, but with less risk of separation.

There's also a greater collection of teeth along the top side of the bargeboard, pulling that airflow downwards and bringing it underneath the crash structure positioned at the bottom of the sidepod inlet.

The strakes along the leading edge of the bargeboard section have been reconfigured to pick up airflow early on and turn it around the car more aggressively, while the boomerang wing positioned horizontally across the bargeboard is now accosted by another underneath - much like Mercedes has done with its car.

This boosts the airflow passing around the sidepod, and also further interacts with the turning vanes at the sidepod.

Everything in this area has to cope with differing levels of steering lock, and so the increasing complexity of bargeboards also has to accommodate for those changes.