The Ferrari SF90 is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by Scuderia Ferrari to compete during the 2019 Formula One World Championship. The car is currently driven by Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. The car made its competitive debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
Background
Ferrari designed and constructed the SF90 as a Formula One car to compete during the 2019 Formula One World Championship. The car is being driven by four time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari debutant Charles Leclerc and has driven in every race of the 2019 season to date. Ferrari named the car the SF90 to celebrate the companies 90th anniversary and in keeping with tradition Vettel named his car "Lina".
Initial design
The new regulations for the 2019 season meant that the teams had to adopt a new simpler front wing design and a higher and wider rear wing. Ferrari produced a radical front wing design, that tapered downwards from the middle towards the endplates of the wing, whereas Mercedes and Red Bull, their nearest rivals, went with a conventional design that is high from middle to end. This design was meant to encourage flow around the tyres with the front wing being below the maximum allowed height. Ferrari's front wing design meant that the majority of the loading would be felt on the middle of the wing and this in turn would cause the air flow to be directed to within the front tyres. This design would make the car more predictable with its downforce levels but give less downforce overall.
An anonymous senior aerodynamicist therefore commented that because the front wing wasn't creating as much downforce as the front wing's of some of its rival cars Ferrari would have to compensate the aerodynamics of the rest of the car. The anonymous aerodynamicist further commented that because the front wing didn't generate as much downforce Ferrari instead had to compensate and increase the size of their barge boards to provide this downforce. This in turn meant that rear would be unable to produce as much downforce as the front going forward in the development of the car. This would likely lead to a car prone to oversteer, therefore it was anticipated that the SF90 wouldn't develop as fast as some of its rivals and the amount of downforce the car would produce would be limited.
Ferrari also changed the engine cover on the SF90 making it smaller compared to the engine cover on the SF90's predecessor the SF71H in order to save weight and for aerodynamic purposes.Ferrari also adopted a matte finish to the car's livery instead of gloss to save weight.The SF90 also had a reworked cooling system with the engine cover developing a smaller inlet, now triangular rather than oval and the raditor air inlets were made larger. The rear bodywork was also remodeled suggesting an increase in rear aerodynamic performance.
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