Innovative floor and front wing solutions lead Ferrari’s SF-26 A-spec unveiling

Ferrari has pulled back the curtain on its SF-26 A-spec and in doing so revealed innovative floor and front wing solutions.

Their design choices hint at aerodynamic wizardry that could give the Scuderia an edge when the car hits the track in Barcelona next week.

A solid base

The most striking feature at the front of the car is the design of the nose and front wing pillars.

The wing pillars have been positioned as far outboard as possible to allow for more airflow under the centreline of the car, maximising flow conditions for the full span front wing elements beneath it.

However, the pillars do appear thicker than those seen on other cars so far.

The wing design itself is a relatively simple solution with the team likely having more up its sleeve in the coming weeks.

For example, the flap geometries being employed are simplistic and more or less designed to meet the new criteria within the regulations, rather than being about producing more performance.

There’s neither a diveplane or footplate vane setup on the outboard section of the wing either. However, there is some design detail on the end plate worth noting, as the designers have taken a notch out of the upper rear corner and twisted the entire surface to help direct the airflow as desired.

In a similar vein to the solution seen on the Mercedes, Ferrari opted not to have a traditional front brake inlet scoop and create a gap between the brake ducts end fence and the tyres’ sidewall.

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Teams have used a similar arrangement to this for a number of years now, albeit in combination with the scoop, which perhaps speaks volumes about the reduction in braking forces being applied due to the increased recovery being done by the MGU-K.

As expected, front and rear suspensions have a pushrod layout. While there’s some inclination on the front suspension wishbones, there’s nothing as extreme as some of the solutions we saw with the last generation of cars.

The biggest change in the front layout was already noted on the Haas, with Ferrari also moving to a multi-link wishbone arrangement. This can help with tyre management and was a feature exploited by McLaren last season.

With teams now able to have some design authority over the wheel covers – there was a standard design with the previous generation of cars – Ferrari has opted for a ringed outer and a flat panel centre section.

This will be a region for design discussion with these regulations, as each team finds its own way of dealing with the flow around the assembly, the wake turbulence generated, and the management of it.

The floor foot and deflector array will be another hotbed for development, as teams develop their own unique approach to dealing with the flow conditions.

The regulations are looking for the teams to continue with an inwash philosophy, but it’s expected teams will work to counter this.

Ferrari has approached that problem with a vertical element at the front of the assembly, which is angled outward, whilst the triple slat arrangement thereafter will create upwash, helping to drive flow outboard.

Ferrari has used both the metal stay and floor board brace to ensure that the region complies with the flexibility tests they’ll encounter and prevent aerodynamic flutter whilst on track (arrowed).

On the edge of the floor there’s more similarities with the Mercedes design, as Ferrari has also opted for a triangular cutout – similar to the one that teams were forced to use in 2021 – whilst Ferrari has a scrolled section ahead of this that results in a kick down shedding edge where the triangular cutout commences.

We’ll also likely see further development at the rear of the floor, in the tyre spat region, as the team starts to put updates on the car. Currently, it has a relatively simple slot arrangement, though the regulations permit much more scope for development.

Ferrari has also developed a similar solution to Mercedes when it comes to the ‘mouse house’ on the sidewall of the diffuser, which could be seen in the images from the track (inset), with the hole much bigger than on the previous generation of car.

While Ferrari’s doesn’t appear to reach over the top section of the diffuser, as Mercedes does, it shows how teams are thinking about this area given the different flow structures that are competing and how they can negatively impact diffuser performance.

Interestingly, Ferrari appears to have opted for a more open approach around the bib and splitter section, with just the stay mechanism at the front of the assembly enclosed. It’s something of a throw back to the solutions seen with cars prior to the last generation.

Again, this should be an area where teams will look for performance. With a large triangular floor section permissible here, Ferrari, at this stage, appears to have opted for the largest variant possible.

The sidepod bodywork on the SF-26 has a much larger volume than what we’ve seen on some of the other cars so far. The most likely explanation is it’s not the final design, as alluded to by the team when suggesting that this is simply its ‘A-spec’ car with which to go testing.

The current design features is a P-shaped inlet along with wide bodywork, again similar to what we’ve seen with the previous generation of cars to help manage the incoming wake turbulence.

The rear portion of the bodywork is quite conventional too, with a high waisted undercut creating space to the floor.

The downsloping upper bodywork doesn’t make its way down to the floor at the rear, parroting some of the shapes seen when teams ran the semi-Coanda exhaust solutions around 2012-13.

Ferrari is also being cautious with cooling. The rear outlet is by far the largest we’ve seen so far, leaving room for some more shrink-wrapped solutions to appear later.

Given Ferrari has described this as its A-spec car, there are a handful of interesting technical novelties on display.

The sidepods have a Cobra-style vane mounted on top of the floor (inset, above), helping to direct flow off the side of the chassis and around the undercut. This is a geometry it’s used to employing, having used one beside the halo over the last few seasons.

Beside the airbox, which once again is a triangular layout and slightly larger than before, are a pair of horn-style winglets.

Though smaller than we’ve seen Ferrari deploy in the past, likely owing to what fits within the regulatory boxes, they will create their own rear flowing aerodynamic structures.

Ferrari has also opted for a serrated edge for their shark fin, which will have aerodynamic implications as vortices will roll off each edge that’s been created.

The rear wing is typical fare for this generation of car, with a triple element arrangement used to take advantage of the ‘active aero’ – where drivers have maximum downforce for the corners and open the wing on the straights to dump the downforce and drag being generated.

Ferrari also has more stylised central wing pillars than some of its rivals, for which two are required in these regulations, ruling out the single pillar solutions of the past.

All-in-all, Ferrari has presented a car that’s true to the prevailing regulations and has a number of interesting features, but it’s also clear that there’s a significant amount of scope for them to develop.

It makes the early phase of 2026 a fascinating prospect.

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