Ferrari's latest clutch of updates for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix feature a unique approach to the fingers situated at the front edge of the floor, although both drivers have played down the significance of the new parts ahead of track action at the Circuit of the Americas.
The SF-26 has also been given a minor rework to the sidepods, with a small change to the inlet and the undercut to link up with a minor change to the floor board upstream. Ferrari's pre-event technical notes state that these changes intend to increase the energy of the airflow passing to the rear of the car, with the intent of getting the diffuser to work harder.
The diffuser has also been updated to increase the expansion of the flow released from the rear of the car, by modifying the overall volume of the diffuser itself along with small tweaks to the internal floor fences. At the front of the floor, the five floor fences or fingers help to control the airflow passing underneath the floor, minimising the overall turbulence present in that flow to ensure the diffuser works efficiently. Lewis Hamilton noted that the outermost finger reaches over the top, offering a horizontal flow conditioner to further improve airflow quality.
Lewis Hamilton kept a lid on expectations for the weekend, suggesting pre-FP1 that the tweaks are worth "less than a tenth" and that its car chiming with the circuit would generate a bigger performance swing, while Charles Leclerc equally downplayed the effect of the new parts.
Leclerc stated, "They are not major upgrades; I've heard quite a lot about them, but they are not as big as maybe what's going around. It's a small step in the right direction, obviously, as always, that's the target. Then we still need to put it on the car and do the first few laps and see whether that's the step we expected is there."
Leclerc added, "However, there are other teams I think I've heard that are bringing big upgrades, and so we'll have to see how it is compared to them. But I don't expect anything hugely significant, but I hope it can help us just do that little step forward and help us win the races." Ferrari demonstrated solid pace in the opening practice session of the Austin weekend with Leclerc going fastest, although Max Verstappen's short-lived benchmark was deleted for track limits.
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