They kept saying there was no need to change direction, then they just changed direction. According to a Ferrari expert, the new Red Bull-style sidebox is not a desperate imitation, but the result of scientific work and foresight.
Mercedes has already announced at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix that since the “zero box” concept has proven to be a dead end, it will change direction with its car’s aerodynamic philosophy. Meanwhile, the machines at Ferrari were also in vain, their boss, Frédéric Vasseur, kept saying that they believed in their existing concept, and there was no need for a new one.
In recent weeks, both teams have changed direction: Mercedes has deployed its new sidebox in Monaco, Ferrari in Spain, inspired by the Red Bull downhill solution. Although Vasseur until then gave up describing their development as a radical change, the idea is clearly taken from the dominant Red Bull. However, their engineer, Jock Clear, confirmed that this is not a desperate version.
“When you present your car, you’re convinced it’s good. Nobody says we installed such a side box, but we’re not convinced it’s right. We’re all convinced of it. But then we all learn from what other people do, and also from what we do.”
“We’re not copying anyone one-on-one. We’ll see what they did, go back in the wind tunnel, try to see if it works. This is now on our car because it works. In the end, we just follow the science, the beauty of the aerodynamics, of the sport, and the reason why we We’ve been doing this for thirty years in my case, is that every day is different, every year is different, every car is different.”
“We’re always learning. When you solve a problem, you have a million options, but you can’t examine them all.” Charles Leclerc’s mentor explained.
He emphasized that the Red Bull-style side box is not the result of panicked copying, but of studies. “When you see someone working fine and you try something in a wind tunnel, or you’re disciplined enough not to rush in and throw it on your car because it doesn’t work. You have to give yourself several months to sort it out, to get it to work on your car and say, yeah, I understand how they think.”
“What we’re seeing now is a consequence of that. And it leads to more improvements along the way. We started looking for a new path to take, and this is the result of that.” – said the specialist.
“We have to avoid hasty reactions when someone says, ‘It doesn’t matter, just put it in the car. It never works.’ As long as it doesn’t work on our car, your chief aerodynamics engineer and technician says, we’re spending money for nothing. That’s the frustrating thing about it. Having to wait until the seventh race, but that discipline comes from wanting to do it right.”
Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez (Photo: XPB)Although Ferrari’s form was no different from previous races and drivers had complained about the same things, Clear said it was clear their new developments had made an improvement. “It doesn’t make a second or seven-tenths. At best, it will bring you twenty or three-tenths. That means a tenth in Barcelona, and Barcelona is a track that really focuses on weaknesses. You can’t hide anything here. So this is good news: our developments are working on One path that perhaps highlights weaknesses better.”
“We understand why this package worked, and we believe it opened up a new avenue for us that we are now trying to exploit. We don’t know how long we can get there. We can only see the next couple of turns, we can’t see more on the road. But we believe in the basic process of our aerodynamic evolution. We can We say, our specialists are happy with it and know it’s going to lead somewhere, we just need to define it better.”
