Last season, we really enjoyed Peter Windsor's videos with Enrique Scalabroni drawing and explaining F1 tech details, we're lucky he's he's doing more.
In this latest one, Scalabroni explains the effects a high front roll center had on the 2014 (and earlier) Ferrari. Looking back on it, it explains a lot.
This year's car addresses the issue while maintaining some of the aero advantages of having suspension arms less in the way of the airflow.
What it does not explain is why Ferrari stuck with the older arrangement for so long, perhaps it suited Alonso?
In 2012, Ferrari used a pullrod front suspension, gambling the cleaner airflow it allows would overcome the disadvantages in higher loads and difficulty in setup. Results were mixed but Ferrari stuck with it last season. Mclaren inexplicably went the same route in 2013 and had their worst season in decades.
There was some logic to that choice with the previous regulations but, with the new lower nose, the aero advantage of a pull rod in the front is negated. Oddly there have been rumors Ferrari might still choose the pull route in front.
While (ex Ferrari and Williams designer) Enrique Scalabroni may not be the most concise explainer there is, the man can draw and don't you wish you could be there in the room with him ogling the schematics and discussing roll centers over a couple of bottles of Malbec?
Perhaps, after a few bottles of red, Scalabroni might even tell you why he though it would be a great idea to design an F1 car with the wheels in a rhomboid configuration...
...anyone serious about following the sport absolutely needs to see all three, beginning to end, probably more than once.
Designer Enrique Scalabroni, ex Dallara, Williams, Ferrari and Peugeot, is not shall we say, a natural on camera but, get passed that as I'm guessing you will and be rewarded with knowledge from someone with true command of the language of race car.
Kudos to Peter Windsor, quietly making his way back from the USF1 wilderness, for making these fantastic pieces available, more please!
You may have noticed we expressly avoided talking about the first tests at Jerez, it's completely pointless to try and make any guesses, not that that has stopped anyone apparently.
Even if the cars (save for a heavily reworked Ferrari and a very different Mclaren) are mostly evolutions from last year, with the aero rules essentially the same for 2013, some themes have emerged.
The first and maybe most obvious is the move to make the sidepods and the bodywork around the back of the car somehow even smaller and tighter. Tradeoff for the additional "floorspace" will be cooling and to that end interesting Ferrari did not, as had been anticipated by some, have the the radiators at an angle the way Red Bull has. Ferrari did make some pretty amazing work creating space under the gearbox and differential.
Another area you will notice more development in are the small vertical fins on the floor just in front of the rear wheels. Their function is explained in one of the videos.
Finally, if I had to guess, this year a big prize will go to the team that best develops a passive F-Duct or DRD (Drag Reduction Duct), the trick there is finding a way to tune it so that it functions only when you actually don't need the downforce. Lotus and Mercedes tried all last year without getting it quite right.
The second test at the Circuit de Catalunya this week might shed a bit more light trough all the sandbagging.
