In FP1 of the Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari fielded Dino Beganovic in place of Charles Leclerc. The young Swedish driver carried out a personalized work program aimed at gaining further confidence with Formula 1.
The most interesting aspect concerns his second run aboard the car, where car number 38 ran without the FTM exhaust. The Maranello team gathered data to study the car’s performance without the extra downforce generated at the rear.
This is a useful move with an eye on other tracks like Spa-Francorchamps or Monza, where maintaining an optimal aerodynamic penetration coefficient by reducing drag is crucial for lap times.
The other interesting detail concerning Ferrari is the bargeboard configuration. On Lewis Hamilton’s car, in fact, a simplified version was mounted featuring a single vertical element instead of the usual three, where the first component of the cascade presents a different shape in its final section.
This was a further experiment useful for data collection to test the behavior of the airflow on the Spielberg track. In short: the Maranello team has left nothing to chance, seeking to fully understand the most effective setup for the SF-26.
