The developments that hint at 2021's F1 designs

It's over. From Australia's cancellation, we've been through COVID protocols to a July start in Austria, taking us into a quick-fire calendar of returning, never-before-seen and classic Formula 1 circuits to a familiar Abu Dhabi finale. Oh, the predictability of 'normality'.

Sure, Abu Dhabi was hardly a classic; it will go down in history as one of F1's many grands prix and nothing more. However, it was more than a race, but instead a celebration of endings. The 2020 season firmly became history, as many drivers begin new journeys and teams begin new identities following one of the most bizarre years in the championship's history.

As a legacy of said year, in which coronavirus reigned and showered the world in crippling anxiety and disorder, the financial implications at play means that next year's cars will remain largely the same to spare the teams the expense of developing another car for one final year with this current ruleset.

There will be changes as a result, but nothing that will command the same expenditure as an all-new chassis project. Once the 2020 development arc ground to a halt, a selection of teams used the opportunity handed to them by the seemingly endless supply of practice sessions to try some 2021-spec parts and have some ready-made real-world data to boost any supplementary off-season design.

That's all to overcome the projected loss of downforce as the new regulations pertaining to the floor come into force for next year. With a 50mm trim to the diffuser fences, along with a triangular cut-out to the floor ahead of the rear wheels, there will be fewer opportunities for the teams to use slots and cuts to ensure the minimum of disturbance to the diffuser itself. This is expected to reduce downforce by about 10%, so the onus will be on the teams to recoup that.

In its explorations of 2021's floors, Ferrari trialled a new design in Abu Dhabi practice - as seen in Giorgio Piola's illustration (see below) - having originally tried an upturned trailing edge in practice at the Algarve circuit. Crucially, these show a change in philosophy. With the full-size floors of the past couple of seasons, the attention has been on trying to divert airflow outwards around the rear tyre.

However, as the floor now tapers in, Ferrari has introduced a series of fins that promote inwash, rather than outwash. These fins pick up the airflow from the front end and now attempt to tuck it in around the rear tyre, sending it over the top of the diffuser. The fins at the rear were daubed in flow-vis paint in FP1 to check that effect, giving Maranello's aerodynamicists a chance to peruse the motion of airflow.

"I think a lot of the chassis stays the same, the suspension elements obviously stay the same, gearbox is all carried over. It's basically the clothes that it's wearing will be different, which is obviously the aerodynamic surfaces" Christian Horner

Inwash could be in vogue once more for next year, and it seems certain that this is the direction that other teams who have experimented with 2021 floor constructions will go, given the proximity of the floor's trailing corner to the inside shoulder of the tyre.

Renault's trial-run 2021 floor featured a curled-up rear corner to generate a tip vortex and send it over the top of the diffuser, perhaps to run along the support strake.

Haas' floor (see below) was not too dissimilar to the design Renault had run, but had affixed a winglet to the support strake to perhaps create a further tip vortex to be deflected by the floor curl. It's not totally clear from the images available where the airflow will go - perhaps the team has found a way to get that to run along the diffuser fence and seal it.

Red Bull had also done some exploratory work at the Abu Dhabi circuit with a potential 2021 floor, but also set its focus on some immediate changes to its technical package to end 2020 on a high. Prior to the weekend, team principal Christian Horner had outlined the gist of the changes that the Red Bull RB16B would accommodate over the off-season, suggesting that the car would be about 60% the same as this year's challenger.

"I would say that the RB16B is going to be, 60% of the car as the 16," Horner said. "Like all cars, there is a large amount of carryover of components for next year. We've got the basis of a decent car. I think we know where its weaknesses have been compared to our opponents, so that's where we're focusing our development over the winter.

"Mercedes will have an extremely strong package next year, there's no doubt about that. But we've just got to use all the information and tools and data that we have to do the best job that we can.

"I think a lot of the chassis stays the same, the suspension elements obviously stay the same, gearbox is all carried over. It's basically the clothes that it's wearing will be different, which is obviously the aerodynamic surfaces. And of course, we go into a budget cap world as well next year, so the ability to develop is a bit more focused, or a lot more focused. It's going to be a new challenge, a different challenge next year, but I think we have the basis of a decent car."

Red Bull made two visible changes to the RB16 for the Abu Dhabi weekend - one at the rear, and one at the front.

Earlier in the season, Mercedes experimented with a single rear wing mounting in order to find a lower-drag solution. The twin-mounts are currently commonplace in F1, but moving the mounting behind the engine cover takes it out of the airflow's line of fire and reduces the car's frontal area, shaving a little drag away.

Red Bull has now tried that solution for itself, opting for a single pillar which splits around the exhaust and mounts to the crash structure at the rear. This, like the Mercedes solution, blends into the DRS housing, and it was a solution that Red Bull stuck with for the race, perhaps to find some tiny gains on the straights.

Getting the requisite strength into the single mounting is always a challenge, especially as the rules dictate that you can't entirely use the endplates for structure these days. However, it seems that the two front-running teams have been able to beef up the single-pillar mounting to deal with any bending moments as the wing moves longitudinally.

"We did some things behind the scenes and I just feel more comfortable to be on that kind of neutral side of the car balance, and being able to wrestle the car a bit more" Alex Albon

There was also the return of a component too; Red Bull had decided to dig the Austria-tested nosecone out of the development back catalogue and put it to task at Abu Dhabi.

The rounder nose, featuring the mounting pylons shifted further inboard, finally earned its keep on the car by helping Max Verstappen to a fine victory at the season finale. Perhaps a little more time in the development room was just what the nose needed to get a sniff at a good result after being pulled off the car early in the season.

Perhaps those changes form part of Red Bull's "new clothes" for 2021 too - we'll see in a couple of months' time, when the updated cars are unveiled for the new season.

Regardless, it was also the first time that both Red Bulls arguably performed as expected; Verstappen charged to a mighty win and left the two Mercedes in his wake. Although both Mercedes were hindered by a detuned MGU-K as the team cited reliability concerns, the ailing late race pace of the returning Lewis Hamilton also allowed Alex Albon to begin a late-race push and follow the seven-time champion home by just 1.5 seconds.

After qualifying, Albon said that the Abu Dhabi weekend was the first time he felt he could "exploit the grip" of the car, and that form continued into the race after he cleared Lando Norris and managed to stay on the coat-tails of the front three.

"It's just been getting better and better," Albon said on Saturday. "And obviously, we made some changes on the car throughout the year. And I think this weekend, it's the most comfortable I felt in the car, which sounds strange, obviously being the last race of the year. But it's definitely the case. I felt like I could properly exploit the grip of it.

"We know what's clicked. I'm sure if you watch Max's onboard, if you watch the laps that he does, the car is never still, it's always on the edge, it's always moving around. The car is on the edge and the rear is quite sensitive.

"To be able to have that feeling, that confidence to run that much front in the car, let's say, and then to be comfortable with it, that's what's really important and that bit was quite difficult, especially at the start of the year.

"We did some things behind the scenes and I just feel more comfortable to be on that kind of neutral side of the car balance, and being able to wrestle the car a bit more."

Now, Red Bull must kick on and maintain that progress over the winter. Everyone - even Hamilton himself - wants to see Red Bull finally hit the ground running and challenge Mercedes. But to do so, it must start 2021 as it means to go on.