Analysis

The nose design quirk that will help Ferrari/Red Bull's F1 upgrade push

Despite their strong start to the Formula 1 season, Ferrari and Red Bull know that success in the world championship depends on them bringing effective upgrades.

But their ability to be flexible at the front of the car, especially amid the restrictions of the cost cap, will be helped by clever nose solutions.

The make-up of the nose structure up and down the grid has changed for 2022, with many of the teams taking the opportunity to use a vanity panel to cover the crash structure that lies within.

As we can see in Giorgio Piola's latest illustrations, the Ferrari F1-75 features this design quirk. The inner carbon crash structure is significantly shorter than the nose appears when the thin laminate vanity panel is fitted to it.

Currently, Ferrari's nose, by virtue of the vanity panel, mates to the front wing's mainplane.

But it doesn't have to, if Ferrari can find more aerodynamic performance from a design that most of its rivals have whereby the nose is connected to the second element.

If this ends up being a route Ferrari wants to take, then the way it has designed it nose means it could make the change without needing an expensive new crash test.

Another interesting aspect is that while the driver cooling inlet appears like a NACA-style duct from the outside, there's also scope here to make changes to the design, with a rectangular inlet present in the actual tip of the nose structure.

This is just one of the ways in which Ferrari has designed its car in order that it can be agile should the need arise to make changes during the season.

Red Bull Racing RB18 front nose

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Whilst Red Bull hasn't extended its nose tip beyond the second element to meet up with the mainplane like Ferrari, it also has the option to do so – as it has opted for a vanity panel over the main nose structure to complete the design.

And, like Ferrari, the internal driver cooling inlet is a different shape to the one presented externally, meaning changes can be made here if required at a later stage too.

Furthermore, the body of the nose has ridges that aren't present when the vanity panel is present, suggesting that, should the team find minimal aerodynamic gains in altering its shape, it can do so with relative ease.