On the eve of the first day of testing in Bahrain, anticipation is growing for the official start of the 2023 season. Unlike other teams who hid their most interesting solutions, Ferrari took to the track right from the first meters of the demo day in Fiorano with the bypass duct that aroused so much interest at the presentation of the SF-23.
Ferrari has introduced an interesting duct that allows you to move the flow from the lower part of the belly to the upper area of the side, where a periscope air vent expels the cool air which accelerates the hot air that comes out of the gills, favoring cooling of the 066/7 power unit and improved aerodynamic efficiency.
Ferrari SF-23, detail of the bypass duct which is OK for the FIA
Photo by: George Piola
The revisited S-duct that can be seen on the sides of the body of the red, while previously this concept had only been observed between the nose and the front of the chassis, was obviously shown by Ferrari to the FIA technical department who did not object to allowing the solution was being fitted in the car from its debut on February 14th.
The solution, therefore, for the staff of Nikolas Tombazis is perfectly legal, even if all the single-seaters are subjected to the usual checks before the start of each season and the International Federation itself does not want to make specific comments on the individual cars before the opening race scheduled for the first weekend of March.
Formu1a.uno’s colleagues wrote that the first request for regulatory clarification on the SF-23 bypass duct had arrived at the FIA, even though the Cavallino team has not received any complaints on the matter at the moment.
Requests for clarification should come as no surprise: a team is fully entitled to ask the technical stewards if a solution is to be considered legal even after a different regulatory interpretation, analyzing the idea with a different eye from the one with which it was conceived and presented to the FIA.
The issue is on the table, but the Maranello staff are looking at the tests with confidence and don’t seem to fear surprises on a solution that has already sparked strong debate among enthusiasts.
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