FERRARI GOING (BACK) WITH THE FLOW
Ferrari introduced no less than three novelties in the under-nose area of its SF16-H. The turning vanes went from being a two-piece setup to a three-element layout; the vertical fins on the splitter were elongated (see white arrows); and the bat wing replaced the winglets introduced at Silverstone. All these revisions are here to guide the all-important Y250 vortex.
The Scuderia has been focusing its efforts on changing the aerodynamic flow in this section. But while these evolutions make sense as a coherent package, their late arrival is rather surprising. Plus, it’s not like they had not already been spotted elsewhere: three-element turning vanes have been featured on other cars for a long time. As for the bat wing, it could even be interpreted as a step backwards, since the Sepang-spec device seemed quite similar to the model introduced at last year’s US Grand Prix on the SF15-T.