So far we’ve only ever seen the two air vents in the upper part of the fairing of the Aprilia RS-GP 2023 that ran in the Sepang tests. We had already observed the two upside-down NACA air intakes at the Noale MotoGP debut on the first of the three Shakedown days held by Lorenzo Savadori in Malaysia.
Detail of the air vents on the sides of the fairing of the Aprilia RS-GP in the Sepang tests
Photo by: Oriol Puigdemont
We had talked about the appearance of a bypass duct on the Aprilia fairing. What is it about? A carbon duct that draws the air under the fairing on each of the two sides and moves the flow from the lower part to the upper one, taking up a concept that was seen on the Formula 1 Ferrari F2008 in 2008.
The nose with the “hole”, as the most innovative and original technical solution of the Cavallino of the 2008 season was called, was developed by Marco De Luca, the current project manager of the RS-GP which at the time was working in Maranello .
Motorsport.com is able to show you an image of the slit that has been opened under the fairing and which feeds what we defined for simplicity as the Aprilia S-duct, while the GPOne colleagues had managed to grasp the carbon ducting which allows you to move the air from below to above, creating an increase in aerodynamic load on the front wheel without increasing forward resistance.
Ferrari SF-23, detail of the bypass duct
Photo by: George Piola
The beauty is that we did not expect that the aerodynamic concept taken up by De Luca in MotoGP would also be fashionable again in F1: on the launch day of the SF-23, Ferrari sent the red car onto the track with a bypass duct that refers to the muzzle with the hole: a vertical slot under the vent of the bellies channels the air which, thanks to a duct, is expelled into the upper recess of the side, speeding up the extraction of the hot air from the radiators from the gills which have been opened for engine cooling 066/7.
It is curious to note, therefore, how an idea that has its origins in 2008 can be simultaneously back in fashion in two categories of Motorsport as different as F1 and MotoGP.
Ferrari SF-23: entry and exit of the bypass duct
Photo by: George Piola
Will the bypass duct be a winning key for Aprilia and Ferrari? We don’t know this, but it is at least extraordinary the fact that two technical realities so distant from each other and with regulations without points of contact, arrived at almost identical moments to propose an idea which, obviously, found different declinations on the SF -23 rather than on the RS-GP.
Marco De Luca, Aprilia’s project manager, and Diego Tondi, Ferrari’s aerodynamics chief, probably don’t even know each other, but they came to re-propose a similar aerodynamic concept in very different fields almost at the same time! Unbelievable, but true…
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