During the Friday of the Japanese GP, Scuderia Ferrari debuted a new floor on the two SF-23s of Leclerc and Sainz. It has been designed and developed during the summer break, in which the Venturi channels in the front part have been revised, now more inspired by Red Bull ideas, and the pavement has been revised, now no longer flat as previously but revised in geometry to obtain a new “duct”.
At Ferrari they were clear during the summer break: instead of stopping work, the development of the SF-23 would continue until late autumn both to improve the 2023 package and to collect important data and tests in view of the 2024 car. This was the case, given that on the occasion of the Japanese GP the Scuderia brought a notable development of its car to the track, debuting a new floor, significantly revised compared to the previous specification.
For the debut of this important innovation, the red team chose Charles Leclerc, who was entrusted with the first tests during FP1 in Suzuka and then, probably by virtue of encouraging telemetry data, also installed it on Carlos Sainz’s car during FP2 . A fund, as mentioned, which profoundly evolves the old solution and which, after months of work during the summer break, has arrived ready for the second leg of the Asian trip.
The main innovations on the floor concern two main areas: first of all, the Venturi channels have been redesigned in the lower area and, above all, in the front area (that of the fences), now more protruding from the floor, rounded at the leading edge, clearly inspired by the Red Bull ideas. The second, important, modification concerns the pavement of the floor, in which the trailing edge has been redesigned, now no longer flat as before but raised to create a new channel in the lower area: probably an embryonic concept of some idea that could appear in 2024.
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
