Low-drag rear wings and McLaren floor headline Saudi F1 tech updates

McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull have all registered updates for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, each pursuing different areas to improve their Formula 1 cars at the Jeddah round.

To improve its MCL39, McLaren has reworked its diffuser to extract more performance towards the rear, which pairs up with a new series of winglets mounted to the rear brake duct to boost the aerodynamic efficiency – i.e. retain downforce at a lower level of drag.

These updates will be counted upon to allow the drivers more confidence in tackling the range of high-speed corners around the Jeddah circuit.

Ferrari has taken a slightly different approach to cut drag around the circuit to improve its top-end performance, introducing a lower-downforce rear wing and beam wing to achieve this.

A shorter-chord upper flap and lower-load assembly will provide a small reduction in downforce, but with the bonus of greater efficiency around the circuit. The beam wing is also of a single-element variation to further this effect.

Red Bull has chased the gains associated with a lower-downforce rear wing too, with a reduced-chord beam wing to shed drag for the higher-speed sections of the track. It has also installed a larger cooling exit at the rear of the engine cover to prepare the car for the expected high temperatures in Saudi Arabia.

Elsewhere on the grid, Aston Martin and Haas have also submitted lower-downforce rear wings to improve their straightline speed – Haas stating in the pre-event technical notes that “two carry-over rear wings from VF24 will be available on track, both with reduced drag and load level, achieved by raising and decambering the profiles”.

To balance this, Haas has also opted to rework its front wing with a “less powerful” wing flap as the overall downforce requirements from the upper body aerodynamic package is reduced.

Racing Bulls has detailed a similar approach, with a shorter-chord upper front wing flap and “reduced camber and incidence” rear and beam wing elements to pursue a lower-drag arrangement.

Sauber has continued at a pace with its early season developments; not only has it pursued the lower-drag gains from the front and rear wings, the team has revised the geometry of its central floor section to improve the airflow shed at the boat-tail towards the diffuser.

The Swiss outfit has married its lower-downforce wing components with a bespoke endplate design to further improve the aerodynamic efficiency.