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Technical updates: 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
All ten Formula 1 teams have outlined the upgrades brought to their cars for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix compared to the designs that ended the 2023 season.
At Red Bull, there’s a new front wing and endplate, nose, sidepod inlet, floor edge cooling louvres and engine cover, and it’s the sidepod explanation that is of most interest on the radical new RB20.
“For greater efficiency, the inlet shape has been revised to better utilize the available pressure to feed the radiators or primary heat exchangers downstream enabling the external profile to be less detrimental to the floor edge detail,” the team says.
Mercedes also has named an updated front wing, sidepod inlet, floor body, engine cover, beam wing and rear wing, with the floor including a “change in the fence camber and floor tunnel profile.”
As teams want to maximize their development time over the winter, certain new parts were not rushed through for the test but given even longer before being released and sent to Bahrain. Some teams therefore have focused mainly on the new parts introduced between the test and the first race.
Ferrari is one of three teams, along with Alpine and Stake, to only list three new components -- the sidepod inlet, engine cover and rear corner -- and McLaren follows a similar path with updates to the sidepod inlet, engine cover, floor edge and rear wing.
Aston Martin’s nine areas of development include the rear suspension on top of those components listed above, with the change for mechanical setup reasons rather than increasing downforce. That number is only bettered by Williams (14) and Haas (11), with the former having a new front suspension that it says is “critically important to the aerodynamic behavior of the car.”
After a tough time upgrading its car in 2023, the submitted Haas updates focus solely on local load and flow conditioning -- so aerodynamic performance -- and centers around a “new floor concept, with higher leading edge and new tunnel design.”
Visa Cash App RB (VCARB) was updating its car late into 2023 and lists a number of components that are evolutions of last year’s design, but as well as a redesigned floor it highlights a front suspension change on the AT05 that “has been extensively redesigned and a pull-rod element now controls front wheel movement compared to a push-rod on AT04.”
Presented by:
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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