More Mercedes changes detailed while McLaren and AlphaTauri bring most upgrades

2022 French Grand Prix

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Nine of the 10 Formula 1 teams have confirmed they have brought new parts for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.

Haas, which originally planned to bring a significant upgrade for their VF-22 to this race, delayed that upgrade to next week’s round in Hungary.

McLaren and AlphaTauri have declared the most extensive revisions to their cars this weekend. AlphaTauri’s upgrade is largely focussed on improving the car’s performance in medium and high speed corners, where the team has been at a disadvantage compared to its rivals in recent races.

While McLaren have also brought performance upgrades this weekend, they also have an eye on reliability. While several teams have new cooling options for what is expected to be two hot weekends in France and Hungary, McLaren have also revised their rear wing design to address a reliability concern.

Some teams have also indicated other changes to their cars which do not appear in the details issued by the FIA. The Ferrari-powered teams have a new clutch design which is intended to improve their starts. Mercedes also have a visibly different nose design this weekend.

Here are the car updates declared by each team for the French Grand Prix.

Mercedes

Floor Edge

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “New rear reduced curvature floor edge ahead of rear tyre.”

Description: “Reduces local floor load by reducing the local camber improving flow into the diffuser, which in turn increases diffuser load.”

Front Corner

Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range

Difference: “Addition of internal louvres local to front brake duct exit.”

Description: “Improves how the brake disc cooling flow exits the front cake tin, increasing mass flow through the disc and hence cooling.”

Red Bull

Floor Fences

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “Revised fence geometries extending to the floor edge”

Description: “The fence layout has changed to re-distribute the local pressure distributions to improve load whilst maintaining the flow stability.”

Rear Corner

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “Revised upper wing cascade.”

Description: “A revision to the upper winglet cascade to gain local load without disruption to lower wing cascade or the adjacent brake duct exit.”

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Ferrari

Floor Body

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “Updated front/mid floor and diffuser geometries”

Description: “This new floor component is part of standard development cycle. It aims at improving the overall aerodynamic performance through the entire car operating envelope and is not specific to the Paul Ricard circuit layout”

McLaren

Rear Wing

Reason for change: Reliability

Difference: “Trimmed [rear wing endplate left edge]”

Description: “The rear wing endplate has been modified on all our wings to avoid a reliability concern following previous events attrition.”

Coke/Engine Cover

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “New sidepods shape and new mirror stay position”

Description: “A new sidepod shape has been brought to this event as part of a more complete package update which aims at improving overall load on both axles in conjunction with the floor. This includes a repositioned mirror stay on the chassis.”

Cooling Louvres

Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range

Difference: “Additional cooling louvre panel”

Description: “An additional cooling louvre panel has been designed and brought to this event with the intent of allowing more freedom in trading cooling and aerodynamic performance on the new sidepod.”

Floor Body

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “New diffuser, underbody floor and floor edge geometry”

Description: “A new floor geometry has been brought to this event as part of a more complete package update which aims at improving overall load on both axles by redistributing the local suction around the floor.”

Rear Corner

Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range

Difference: “New internal ducts on the rear corner”

Description: “New internal ducts on the rear brake duct assembly have been released for this event to vary cooling mass flow on the brakes.”

Rear Corner

Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning

Difference: “New [rear brake duct] scoop winglet”

Description: “New brake duct scoop winglet as test item to investigate the opportunity to improve flow conditioning on the scoop and the relative change on brake cooling.”

Coke/Engine Cover

Reason for change: Circuit specific – cooling range

Difference: “Trims on sidepods engine covers, additional coke exit gurneys”

Description: “Due to the high ambient temperatures in Central Europe, additional cooling emergency options have been released for this event to ensure reliable running of the [power unit] fluids.”

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Alpine

Floor Edge

Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning

Difference: “Revised underfloor strake”

Description: “The revised underfloor strake provides higher energy ‘off-body flow’ providing better flow conditioning underneath the floor and edges.”

Floor Fences

Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning

Difference: “Revised transition where the outboard floor fence meets the sidepod”

Description: “The revised outboard floor fence brings an improvement to the flow conditioning in order to provide better flow to the rear of the car.”

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AlphaTauri

Floor Body

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “The inlet to the floor has been reshaped with a smoother line in front view. The whole underside of the floor body has been reprofiled.”

Description: “The changes increase the local load generated by the floor directly but also work to extract more performance from the vorticity generated by the forward floor fences that passes under the floor.”

Floor Fences

Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning

Difference: “The outer most fence is shorter and its camber line has changed. The fence immediately inboard of this has a more rearward trailing edge position.”

Description: “The changes to the outer fences improve the interaction and management of the front wheel wake whilst also improving the vorticity shed from the fences themselves.”

Floor Edge

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “The floor edge is now narrower featuring a cut out that produces a car aligned edge. The original floor edge wing is maintained but there is now a small flick immediately downstream of it.”

Description: “The flick and floor edge wing maintain the loading of the forward floor whilst the revised carline edge helps to improve the formation and performance of the floor edge vortex to derive more load from the rear of the floor and the diffuser.”

Diffuser

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “More aft camber has been added to the trailing edge of the diffuser and the cut out in the sidewall has been removed.”

Description: “The removal of the sidewall cut out allows the diffuser to maintain more load taking advantage of the improvements in flow from upstream as a result of changes to the bodywork and the floor edge.”

Coke/Engine Cover

Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning

Difference: “The OB shoulder of the bodywork has been made taller and also moved wider. The main top surface has remained similar creating a gulley in the top deck.”

Description: “The wider and taller shoulder manages the front wheel wake better and therefore improving the quality of the flow to the rear of the car. It also plays a part in conditioning the flow onto the new floor edge.”

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Aston Martin

Floor Edge

Reason for change: Performance – local load

Difference: “A gurney flap has been added around the forward edge of the cut out in the floor edge”

Description: “This modification works by locally loading the floor in this region by increasing the extraction from the lower surface.”

Williams

Front floor support

Reason for change: Reliability

Difference: “The mounting of the most forward part of the floor to the chassis has been updated.”

Description: “This update allows more deflection of this area when it strikes a kerb. This is intended to limit the damage that occurs during kerb strikes, giving the driver increased freedom on driving line.”

Alfa Romeo

Rear Corner

Reason for change: Performance – flow conditioning

Difference: “Modified rear drum mandatory lower deflector.”

Description: “A minor modification to the lower deflector of the rear drum, within the allowances of the regulations, improves flow management in the region and provides a performance gain.”

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2022 French Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “More Mercedes changes detailed while McLaren and AlphaTauri bring most upgrades”

  1. These are great articles. They could be amazing with pictures, however I realize that is a big ask (and some of them we can’t see anyway)

  2. “Nine of the 10 Formula 1 teams have confirmed they have brought new parts for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.”

    I hope that statement alone puts paid to the conspiracy theories that Mercedes must have been breaking the cost caps by bringing upgrades to France.

  3. This is great stuff, but I do wonder if the descriptions are truly accurate, or contain some misdirection for rivals.
    e.g. “Brabham BT46 : Bigger cooling fan – to increase engine cooling efficiency”

Comments are closed.