F1 – Some news has arrived in Melbourne. And the result was seen in the fact that Yuki Tsunoda finished in the points with tenth place. There is a desire to think positively in Alpha Tauri for the continuation of the World Championship Formula One.
This can be understood very well from the words of the technical director Jody Egginton who illustrates the innovations introduced in detail throughout the interview with “Motor Sport”. First of all a brand new floor brought to Australia: “although – says Egginton – I am not sure if it is right to define it as a big change and I would prefer to talk about lots of small updates, starting with the design of the floor which allows a different manipulation of the flow that from the sides of the body descends towards the bottom”.
The work of the Faenza team also focused on the need, adds Egginton, to “reduce losses due to the rear tyre” due to “a disordered flow caused by the tire which greatly affects the performance of the diffuser”. In his opinion, this is one of the five or six steps forward that the team would like to take between now and the end of the season.
“There are two aspects – he continues – that must be considered, the increase in the load which can be worth up to a couple of tenths but also the improvement of the flow trend on the bottom, we have found a good correlation of the data for which we can now work to develop bellies and increase the energy of certain vortices. That in itself is an update that makes flow structures healthier.”
Egginton announces that the next improvement will be introduced, so to speak, at home, i.e. in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. “But first – he explains – we will have some new parts arriving in Bakù that had not yet been brought to the track and also some parts in Miami. Then there will be things visible at almost every event. We have adopted a quite different strategy compared to last year”. The road taken this year by the Alpha Tauri was instead that of spreading the news over a wider temporal range. “We are trying to solve our problems – he continues – at the moment at low speeds where we don’t have enough downforce”.