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Australian Grand Prix - Tech Corner

Learn from F1 Coffee Corner - Terry Widdows - our technical correspondent about all things tech and car upgrades during each Formula 1 weekend!

F1 Coffee Corner's top 5 technical advancements we've seen during the Australian GP including a handful of wing updates for VCARB and much more... Find out what makes these upgrades important for the season.

Round 3 is back down under in Australia at Albert Park. Now, this track is not known for bringing a lot of upgrades - with most of the teams turning their focus to the next few races leading up to the European Leg of the calendar.

*Spoiler Alert* Imola will likely to be a hotbed of new parts for the cars. 

We do however have a few upgrades to bring you this week as some teams who struggled in the first 2 races of the season have crunched the data and understand the cars more. Hopefully, they can gain the extra few tenths they've been chasing.

So here is my top 3 upgrades that have caught my eye for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix 

Visa CashApp RB

Rear Wing 

A team currently trying to make a step up with a heavily developed car is, of course, VCARB. They have brought with them another revised rear wing... their 3rd of the season. The rear wing in Jeddah varied from Bahrain due to the speed of the circuit.... but the version in use this weekend is a redesign of the rear wing used in Bahrain. The upgrade is described as a "rear wing profile redesign" aimed at an improved efficient load generation and drag level. What does this mean? It's aim is to increase the rear wing load which in turn will drop the pressure behind the car. Due to the new profile increasing the load at the rear of the floor the wing will cause less drag which hopefully makes the carfaster. 

Kick Sauber (the Stake brand cannot be used in Australia)

Front Wing 

Photos via x Rosario Giuliana 
Kick Sauber wing
Photos via x Rosario Giuliana 

Kick Sauber are hoping to increase their single lap pace which has been hindering them this year so far. They have also brought another upgrade to the front wing. They have introduced changes to the third and fourth element of the front wing which is aimed at increasing the overall car aero efficiency. Kick Sauber also made changes to the front wing endplate which has been redesigned to help the other elements changed work better. 

Ferrari

Winglets 

Now this change is... curious.

Ferrari are unsure of the gains to the car that this will cause, but they have arrived with new very small winglets placed on top of the rear wing pylon. There are 2 each side of the exhaust on the rear of the car. They are no doubt there to increase the aerodynamic load, but the question is "By how much?" This is described as a minor update - bringing a small increase in load by the team. It may also bring a bit of stability to the rear end of the Ferrari and may just well be enough to challenge the RedBulls.

UPDATE

After FP 1 and 2 it seems that the Ferrari is working well with the new features.

Other small updates to note are that:

  1. Aston Martin have made a change to their front wing
  2. Alpine have made a change to their rear beam wing

These changes are both aimed to extract some performance out of their car before the European legs come. 

For all things F1 news and tech throughout the week, join the F1 Coffee Corner base on FanAmp and check out all of F1 Coffee Corner's social channels!

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