{"id":733602,"date":"2026-06-13T05:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/733602\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T05:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:57:12","slug":"ferrari-unleashes-major-f1-car-upgrades-as-it-chases-down-mercedes-at-barcelona-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/733602\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari unleashes major F1 car upgrades as it chases down Mercedes at Barcelona GP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/ferrari\/36466\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ferrari<\/a> has taken the covers off its latest haul of aerodynamic upgrades as it further aims to make inroads on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/mercedes\/36495\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Scuderia last unveiled major upgrades at the Miami Grand prix in early May, which largely worked as intended but couldn&#8217;t stem the tide of Mercedes&#8217; early dominance. As F1 hits its most well trodden testing ground in Barcelona, Ferrari introduced another set of upgrades.<\/p>\n<p>The headline item is a long-awaiting evolution of the SF-26&#8217;s front wing, which naturally has a major impact on the\u00a0aero performance downstream.<\/p>\n<p>The new nose has a revised shape with a raised lower surface, a new footplate with a different arrangement of its vanes and an additional dive plane added to the\u00a0endplate. It also optimised its wing elements to improve the aero load distribution and optimised the integration of the straight mode actuator into the nose.<\/p>\n<p>As well as improving load, the new nose should improve the\u00a0aero wake over the front tyres and make it easier to keep the car balanced.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ferrari-car-tech-detail.jpg\" alt=\"Ferrari car tech detail\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Ferrari car tech detail<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Filip Cleeren<\/p>\n<p>Further down the car, Ferrari has\u00a0optimised the front of its floor to extract more downforce from it, with what it described as &#8220;reduced keel volume, redesigned front floor leading edge profiles and claws, front floorboard elements optimisation (horizontal and vertical ones).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It also\u00a0optimised the winglets on the rear corner of the floor and various tweaks to the diffuser. The sidepod shape has been altered accordingly to work in harmony with the extensive floor redesign.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren&#8217;s Barcelona upgrade is limited to a new front wing endplate to improve the aero flow towards the rest of the car, while Mercedes added small winglets to its rear wing as it chases aerodynamic efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull has changed its front wing geometry by revising existing parts, but it has also produced a more powerful flap just in case it is deemed necessary this week in Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Not unlike Mercedes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/williams\/36474\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Williams<\/a> has also made minor rear wing adjustments to add\u00a0downforce in an efficient manner, taking into account the need to keep drag limited on Barcelona&#8217;s long straights.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781330232_599_ferrari-car-tech-detail.jpg\" alt=\"Ferrari car tech detail\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Ferrari car tech detail<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Filip Cleeren<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/alphatauri-36471\/36471\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Racing Bulls<\/a> has\u00a0optimised its diffuser shape and integration into the crash structure while also bringing additional front wing options to balance the VCARB 03, while Haas has also tweaked its rear impact structure.<\/p>\n<p>Cadillac has continued its run of bringing incremental upgrades to the MAC-26, though its updates are limited to additional cooling slots and the reintroduction to the Straight Mode mechanism to its new Monaco rear wing, which was disabled last weekend by regulation.<\/p>\n<p>There are no\u00a0aero upgrades this weekend for Aston Martin, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/alpine\/39174\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alpine<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/audi\/49024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Audi<\/a>. Aston Martin, in particular, is keeping its powder dry until it can unleash a much bigger upgrade package later this summer, as it doesn&#8217;t feel introducing tiny steps right now is worth the resource investment given its position towards the back of the grid.<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>            We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our survey<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari has taken the covers off its latest haul of aerodynamic upgrades as it further aims to make&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[262910,49,48,148380,578,930,263860,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-733602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-barcelona-catalunya-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-ferrari-unleashes-major-f1-car-upgrades-as-it-chases-down-mercedes-at-barcelona-gp","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}