- and while this carried a straightline speed
benefit, the team struggled to match Mercedes
for downforce. Not that this manifested itself
straight away in Barcelona in February.
“It’s fair to say there were different views
here,” says Owen. “Some people were looking
at the speed of the Ferrari and getting nervous
about the front wing philosophy. But the people
who’d designed the front wings were confident
they’d done the right thing – and not in an
arrogantway.
“They fully understood what the Ferrari front
wing was trying to do. In a way, it was what the
inwashing endplates were doing on our original
launch kit. We always knew that wasn’t the
direction wewan ted to go in. We believed we
were on a better development path, but when it
doesn’t show in thetimes on the board it gives
you quite a bit of nervousness.
“If Ferrari had decided we’d got the right
idea, then to change that one thing would have
involved changing the whole car, spending a long
time where they’re not improving performance
on track as they change direction. The same
would be true for us - ifwe were going to follow
them, we’d have to spend months not moving
forward whilewe swapped to a new direction.
“That’s whygetting the direction right at the
beginning is critical. You want to be on the right
path, even if you’re behindthe others at the start
of the year, because normally you will prevail
unless you run out of time to catch up. It may bethat the Ferrari concept is the right path and that
ultimately it will reach a higher plateau. Even
now it’s hard to know that.”
Sentiments likethat may provide some succour
to harassed Ferrari aerodynamicists who are no
doubt unde r pressure to copy the 2019 season’s
winning car. Speculation aside,what’s been very
interesting is how many other teams clearly
haven’t written off Ferrari’s front-end concept.
During practice for the final rounds of the 2019
season both Red Bull and Haastrialled new front
wings that may or may not signal a shift in design
philosophy for 2020. Both leant more towards
Ferrari’s way of thinking than Mercedes’.
Come February in Barcelona we’ll know more.
But perhaps not at the first test...“Some people were looking at the speed of theFerrari and getting nervous
about the front wing philosophy. But the people who’d designed the front
wings were confident they’d done the right thing’JOHNOWENIncontrasttoMercedes,McLarenandHaasappearedtofo llow
Ferrari’sfrontwingtopology(below,left)butit’shardtosay
whichapproachultimatelyhasthegreaterpotentialPICTURES:GIORGIO PIOLA;STEVEN TEE66 F1 RACING JANUARY 2020