A UNIQUE REAR WING CENTRAL PILLAR
All 2016 F1 cars feature a single central pillar to support their rear wings… save for the Sauber C35, which has a mixed ‘V’-shaped pylon setup. Starting as one element, the pillar then branches off into two props attached to the wing’s main board (see red arrows above).
The floor has also been revised and fitted with extra vanes on both ends (see yellow arrows), as is already the case on most other cars.
Despite Marcus Ericsson experiencing a series of setbacks when he first sampled the C35, the new Sauber seems to offer a good baseline. The Hinwill outfit was the only team to introduce its latest challenger at the second pre-season test, but still managed to complete 406 laps across the final four days.
While this is less than half the amount Ferrari and Toro Rosso could manage, this is almost as much as Haas (474) over the entire winter, with the American team suffering a disrupted second group session in Barcelona.
The fight in the lower midfield should be extremely tight this year and will hinge not only on performance but also on reliability and resource management ahead of the technical Big Bang planned for 2017.
All the 2016 F1 cars at a glance
Click here to find all technical features in the 'A closer look series'
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
