TECH WEEKLY: Was Ferrari’s Bahrain floor upgrade a success – and will it help them at the twisting Jeddah Corniche Circuit?

Ferrari’s Bahrain Grand Prix floor upgrade was a major one, reworking the whole underside and outer floor from front to back.

Although the new diffuser and the slimmer, truncated boat tail section in its centre generated a lot of interest, according to Ferrari that’s just the re-optimisation of that area to match the more important changes made to the front of the floor.

TECH INSIGHT: A close look at Ferrari’s new floor

Ferrari’s car update notes stated: “Not event specific, this floor package features updated front floor/fences targeting an improvement of the losses travelling downstream. The reshaped boat and tunnel expansion have been subsequently re-optimised, together with the floor edge loading and vorticity-shedding into the diffuser.”

Ferrari have sought a redistribution of the underfloor pressures along the car’s length to give a better combined performance through the speed range. The opening races suggested that while the Ferrari had great low-speed corner performance, generating competitive high-speed cornering loads required a rear ride height which brought excessive plank wear.