F1’s unsolvable problem? Ferrari’s FIA test raises more questions than answers

Charles Leclerc at Fiorano.

Ferrari, along with the FIA, tested two new designs of spray guards on the Fiorano track, hoping to find a solution to the perpetual issue in F1.

Unlike the initial ideas and sketches, these designs appear much more aggressive, covering almost the entire wheel, which leads us to question how these prototypes will be utilised in the future.

Ferrari test solution to an unsolved problem in Formula 1

What impact will this have on the aerodynamics and overall performance of the car, and what additional problems might these potential solutions bring?

Rain has always added extra excitement to F1 races. Some of the sport’s legendary moments have occurred in wet conditions, where driver skill shines over the performance of the cars.

However, rainy conditions have spoiled several F1 weekends, as we saw in the Belgian Grand Prix in 2021. Sometimes there’s so much water on the track that racing safely becomes impossible.

Therefore, the FIA has been working on the wheel covers or spray guards project for several years, with the main goal being to increase visibility on the track to ensure races can proceed.

We first saw prototypes last year at Silverstone, where the Mercedes team tested them. The results were very poor, showing little improvement, prompting the FIA to design a more aggressive solution.

A few days ago at Fiorano, Charles Leclerc’s younger brother, Arthur Leclerc, and Ferrari’s reserve driver Oliver Bearman tested these seemingly odd ideas. The results were significantly better compared to the initial tests, but were they good enough?

How do spray guards affect the car’s aerodynamics?

As we already know, aerodynamics is one of the most significant factors for a race car’s success.

Teams invest heavily in this field, thoroughly analysing every aero detail on the car. It seems that such wheel covers would only disrupt the entire concept of aerodynamics and significantly impact the car’s performance – which isn’t far from the truth.

The main issue with F1 aerodynamics is the fact that we have open-wheel cars. Wheels generate a large amount of dirty and turbulent air at high speeds, which negatively affects aerodynamic components. Therefore, the engineers’ main goal is to redirect this turbulent air away from the car and ensure a sufficient amount of clean air.

Spray guards would certainly reduce the amount of dirty air, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it would be beneficial. The main problem is that the cars aren’t designed to race with these additions, potentially undermining the entire aerodynamic concept.

If this is the final design, cars will definitely generate significantly less downforce, which is particularly important for racing in wet conditions. Good tyre contact with the track is the number one factor for car stability, and we know it depends solely on downforce.

The mentioned turbulent air generated by the tyre must escape somewhere, and the new spray guard designs don’t help with that. It will likely find its way out underneath the cover, but as a result of the highly turbulent state in the space between the tyres and the cover, we’ll get significantly increased drag, which will definitely affect the cars’ speeds.

We also shouldn’t forget that there will be a huge amount of water in that space, which will also struggle to find a way out. We can’t know if this might lead to additional problems, but its impact won’t be negligible.

FIA tested two versions of this solution, one with fully enclosed outer sides and the other with openings. We assume the main role of these external openings is pressure relief or perhaps better cooling for the tyres and brakes.

Is it even possible to solve the water spray problem?

As we already know, modern F1 cars since 2022 use ground effect to generate downforce. Although the main reason for this transition was an attempt to reduce dirty air behind the car, it seems we haven’t made much progress in that respect.

One of the main aerodynamic parts on today’s cars is the diffuser, whose main role is to accelerate the air as much as possible and make the transition of airflow from the bottom of the car (which has very high speed and low pressure) to the outside as smooth as possible. The diffuser does this job very well, resulting in a huge amount of air moving upwards.

Considering this, we can say that the two main sources of water spray are actually the tyres and the diffuser. This means that the idea of wheel covers focuses on solving one part of the problem, while the other is actually impossible to solve.

The image above clearly shows the difference. The Ferrari car in front has wheel covers installed, while the one behind it doesn’t; its role is testing visibility.

There’s a visible difference. The spray generated by the first car is roughly the same in size, but the density of water droplets in the air is significantly lower.

What we don’t know at this stage is the perspective of the driver behind and whether this ultimately represents a significant improvement. This image also shows how high the air rises from the diffuser.

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Additional problems that come with this idea

If this ends up being the final design, it currently seems like we have more problems than benefits.

Some logical questions arise, such as how will pit stops look like with these wheel covers? Will they be used only for extreme wet tyres or for intermediates as well? When and how will the wheel covers be removed if the weather conditions improve on the track?

Some possible solutions might include these attachments being applied solely before the race or under a red flag if the race has already started.

For us viewers, the most important thing is to enjoy good racing even when it’s pouring rain on the track. Therefore, if this is the only solution we have, we believe that most viewers would accept all the negative aspects and inconsistencies for the sake of an entertaining race.

However, all of these are just assumptions and speculations because we simply can’t know if this is the final product or not. We’ll have to see how the solution to this problem unfolds in the future, and we can only hope that the FIA will bring a more elegant and effective (while visually appealing) solution.