The Ferrari SF-24 featured a pull-rod rear suspension, with a tie rod as an alternative of a strut. Rumors about an imminent change to a push-rod rear suspension have been very persistent concerning the Maranello staff’s new single-seater for the 2025 Method 1 championship. In keeping with numerous experiences, the 677 venture will primarily overturn the suspension layouts on each axles with new kinematics. These predictions are fairly peculiar and, in all chance, misread Frederic Vasseur’s latest feedback on the Ferrari. Hypothesis urged a shift to a push-rod rear suspension between 2023 and 2024, which finally didn’t occur.
Italian aerodynamicist Enrico Cardile, on the time, defined merely why it was not adopted. This makes it a superb second to delve deeper into what the previous technical director asserted virtually one 12 months in the past. First, let’s begin with a basic idea: switching to a rear push-rod suspension is a bonus, however not as important as one would possibly assume. It isn’t sufficient to merely change a tie rod with a strut, to magnify the idea. The profit lies in attaining a cleaner airflow towards the rear, as the inner parts are organized increased, permitting for a slimmer decrease part.
Already with the SF-24, Ferrari spent appreciable assets with a view to obtain a compromise between the 2 layouts, with glorious outcomes. The “technical settlement” was reached by reorganizing the parts beneath the automotive’s bodywork, enabling them to perform in a different way in comparison with the previous. Moreover, resizing these parts as an entire made it potential to slim down the decrease rear part. Nevertheless, the tie rod remained, which nonetheless barely disrupted the airflow in that particular space of the automotive.
It must be famous that Mercedes additionally switched to a push-rod rear suspension in the course of the 2024 Method 1 racing marketing campaign. For a number of months, this variation brought about numerous adaptation points. It was a suspension adjustment examined on monitor that discovered its correct operational level over time. This suspension modification can even characteristic on the W16 single-seater. Returning to Ferrari, evaluations performed on the manufacturing facility in the course of the previous season didn’t reveal a major benefit in abandoning the pull-rod rear suspension to justify the added weight and decreased compliance.
Every little thing ties into the functioning of the ground, which, to function inside its optimum window, relies upon closely on the rear suspension. Making certain a sure conformity between these two parts is important and inevitably brings a number of benefits. By “compliance,” we imply the suspension system’s capability to deform beneath load. This deformation is essential in figuring out the accuracy of the aerodynamic map. It’s also true that, with the up to date wind tunnel, Ferrari’s growth work has appeared extra constant since the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Sadly, the six races misplaced in the course of the season on account of technical points weighed closely, and for that reason, simply as with the entrance suspension, switching to a completely new suspension system could be a major gamble for the Maranello staff within the 2025 Method 1 marketing campaign. If the Ferrari engineers and technicians had determined to put in a push-rod rear suspension, it could imply that the best way the inner parts are activated would change, even when the kinematics might stay related, with the higher and decrease wishbones probably retaining the identical form.
What might change on this case is the strategy of working the third component, which regulates trip peak—a important parameter for the present ground-effect automobiles. It’s not at all sure that on February 19 we’d see some tweaks to the structure of the overlapping wishbones. If the objective is to get better a few of the traction misplaced in 2023, it’s essential to realize higher floor contact and preserve it for a larger proportion of time in the course of the acceleration part. To attain such a consequence, changes are made to the structure of the overlapping wishbones.
That is achieved by making small modifications to the association of the 4 arms, which may result in important variations in on-track habits. A superb compromise between compliance and suspension rigidity should all the time be discovered to realize optimum flooring dynamics. Moreover, it’s also potential to make sure that the bars used to realize a superb setup are much less inflexible by default. This facet will not be essentially tied to using a push-rod system. Ferrari might make a number of mechanical changes with out overhauling the whole setup.
Because of this we don’t count on a radical change, both by way of the structure or the kinematics. It appears extra possible that a number of refinements have been made to regulate each areas associated to the rear suspension. These modifications won’t be instantly seen to the bare eye however are based mostly on the technical understanding gathered in 2024, a transfer to optimize the efficiency of the brand new flooring. This could possibly be what Frederic Vasseur meant when he acknowledged that just one% of the Ferrari SF-24’s parts would stay unchanged in 2025.
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