The Ferrari SF-24 featured a pull-rod rear suspension, with a tie rod as an alternative of a strut. Rumors about an imminent swap to a push-rod rear suspension have been very persistent concerning the Maranello staff’s new single-seater for the 2025 Components 1 championship. In keeping with varied reviews, the 677 venture will primarily overturn the suspension layouts on each axles with new kinematics. These predictions are fairly peculiar and, in all probability, misread Frederic Vasseur’s latest feedback on the Ferrari. Hypothesis advised a shift to a push-rod rear suspension between 2023 and 2024, which in the end didn’t occur.
Italian aerodynamicist Enrico Cardile, on the time, defined merely why it was not adopted. This makes it a great second to delve deeper into what the previous technical director asserted virtually one yr in the past. First, let’s begin with a basic idea: switching to a rear push-rod suspension is a bonus, however not as vital as one may assume. It’s not sufficient to merely substitute a tie rod with a strut, to magnify the idea. The profit lies in attaining a cleaner airflow towards the rear, as the interior elements are organized increased, permitting for a slimmer decrease part.
Already with the SF-24, Ferrari spent appreciable assets as a way to obtain a compromise between the 2 layouts, with wonderful outcomes. The “technical settlement” was reached by reorganizing the elements beneath the automobile’s bodywork, enabling them to perform in another way in comparison with the previous. Moreover, resizing these elements as an entire made it attainable to slim down the decrease rear part. Nevertheless, the tie rod remained, which nonetheless barely disrupted the airflow in that particular space of the automobile.
It ought to be famous that Mercedes additionally switched to a push-rod rear suspension through the 2024 Components 1 racing marketing campaign. For a number of months, this transformation induced varied adaptation points. It was a suspension adjustment examined on observe that discovered its correct operational level over time. This suspension modification will even function on the W16 single-seater. Returning to Ferrari, evaluations carried out on the manufacturing facility through the previous season didn’t reveal a major benefit in abandoning the pull-rod rear suspension to justify the added weight and decreased compliance.
The whole lot 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 components is important and inevitably brings a number of benefits. By “compliance,” we imply the suspension system’s potential 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 improvement work has appeared extra constant since the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Sadly, the six races misplaced through the season attributable to technical points weighed closely, and because of this, 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 Components 1 marketing campaign. If the Ferrari engineers and technicians had determined to put in a push-rod rear suspension, it will imply that the best way the interior components are activated would change, even when the kinematics may stay comparable, with the higher and decrease wishbones probably retaining the identical form.
What may change on this case is the strategy of working the third factor, which regulates trip peak—a vital parameter for the present ground-effect automobiles. It’s certainly not sure that on February 19 we’d see some tweaks to the structure of the overlapping wishbones. If the objective is to get well a few of the traction misplaced in 2023, it’s obligatory to attain higher floor contact and preserve it for a better proportion of time through the acceleration section. To realize such a end result, changes are made to the structure of the overlapping wishbones.
That is achieved by making small adjustments to the association of the 4 arms, which may result in vital variations in on-track habits. A superb compromise between compliance and suspension rigidity should all the time be discovered to attain optimum ground dynamics. Moreover, additionally it is attainable to make sure that the bars used to attain a great setup are much less inflexible by default. This side isn’t essentially tied to using a push-rod system. Ferrari may make a number of mechanical changes with out overhauling the whole setup.
Because of this we don’t anticipate a radical change, both when it comes to the structure or the kinematics. It appears extra seemingly that a number of refinements have been made to regulate each areas associated to the rear suspension. These adjustments may not 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 ground. This could possibly be what Frederic Vasseur meant when he said that just one% of the Ferrari SF-24’s elements would stay unchanged in 2025.
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