Formula 1 revealed its latest concept for the 2021 season last month, with that car featuring a sleeker body, ground-effect floor and simplified front and rear-wings – all of which is aimed at reducing dirty air by 60-70 per cent to allow cars to follow one another more closely.
However the wings, particularly the front-wing, came in for some criticism, with it looking very similar to IndyCar's spec front-wing as it featured very flat elements connected directly to the nosecone, with traditional endplates.
It was made clear that the concept is still very much in the development stage and since those first images (above) were revealed, F1's Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds and the FIA's Head of Single Seater Technical Matters Nikolas Tombazis, have worked to refine the wings and its been confirmed that the latest concept, codenamed 'Lima', features an entirely different design.
Whilst no images have been released yet, the new front and rear-wings have been described as "more elegant and dramatic".
The flat elements are now "sweeping", with endplates that tail off in a similar fashion to an aeroplane's wingtip – likely included to reduce the vortices coming off the front-wing. These tips won't be loaded and will therefore be open to development by the teams, which is something F1 bosses have been keen to see more of with the new car as there were fears they could all look identical with limited areas of development.
Current-spec cars have a front-wing width of 2,000mm, but work is taking place to see if the 2021 cars can feature a slightly reduced width without "negatively impacting the turbulence" – wider front-wings often results in more contact and damage, therefore a short wing would encourage closer racing.
The rear-wing has also been revised to include endplates that sweep inwards, rather than vertical and is also wider than that shown in last month's images.
The final 2021 regulations are due to be published in October, but before that, there are plans to run further wind tunnel tests to further refine the rules.
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