F1 tech analysis | New floor for Mercedes and Aston Martin

F1 arrives at the technical Circuit of the Americas with five rounds left. It's a thrilling circuit with some sections that recall some of the most famous corners of the whole calendar, like Maggots and Becketts and Istanbul’s turn 8. However, this circuit still has some bumpy sections that could make these ground-effect cars quite unstable, making it tricky for the engineers to find the right setup.

The limited time (only an hour of practice on Friday) could strongly impact this weekend, as teams will need to make the car is as fast as possible around COTA, not only in qualifying but also in the race. This is a demanding track not only for tyre management but also for fuel consumption. Despite this, some teams have decided to bring some upgrades this weekend. 

Mercedes and Aston Martin with a new floor

Mercedes and Aston Martin are expected to bring a new floor in Austin, despite the sprint race format, which could make it difficult to test the new parts and find the right set-up for the weekend. Mercedes are expected to bring a completely new designed floor that might take inspiration from Red Bull’s 3D-modelled floor. It could give some useful data and information for the 2024 car.

Mercedes also hopes it will improve the W14, which has suffered from rear instability since Bahrain. Moreover, it’ll be difficult to adapt the car to the bumpy circuit with the new floor: in fact, the surface could make the car unstable in some braking zones, thus damaging some elements underneath the car. Toto Wolff’s team hope that this update works well. It’ll have a role in tracing the birth and development of the W15 to make the car competitive from the beginning. The design of next year’s car is fundamental, so they can start designing the 2026 car as soon as possible, as the new rule changes will be quite impactful. 

Aston Martin's new floor should help the Silverstone-based team come back fighting with the other top teams (especially with McLaren for the 3rd place in the Constructors’ Championship) and also create a good base for 2024. Rumours are saying that the new floor should be different at the floor edge and in the floor edge wing, the big flow diverter at the entry of the Venturi channels.

These changes should provide different management of the turbulence coming from the front tyres and increase the general downforce produced underneath the car. Together with this new package, the team has decided to run the maximum downforce rear wing already used in Monaco and Singapore, which should provide a good level of traction out of slow corners like turns 11, 12 and 15 and also a good rear stability through the fast and flowing first sector. 

Red Bull with full load, McLaren and Ferrari with a different wing

Red Bull are still willing to dominate and win all the remaining races on the calendar despite having already secured both the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championships. For this reason, the Milton Keynes team have decided to bring the same maximum downforce rear wing spec they already used last time out in Qatar, which could help regain the load lost due to increased ride height caused by all the bumps around the track (higher ride height means less downforce generated by the Venturi channels since they are not so close to the ground).

Beyond this choice, no significant changes are expected. The hope is that this weekend, Sergio Perez will be able to perform at the top level he already showed at the start of the year to secure P2 in the Drivers’ Championship. Both Christian Horner and Perez have stressed the extra amount of work applied during the off-week.

McLaren and Ferrari have both adopted a medium downforce rear wing but for different reasons. The Woking team’s main goal is to reduce drag along the straight between turns 11 and 12 while still generating a lot of downforce from the Venturi channels to be fast in sectors 1 and 3. This weekend, they are still expected to be able to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari for the podium and maybe even with Red Bull for a possible victory. Moreover, if they keep scoring as they did in the last few races, they could easily overtake Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship this weekend, which was hard to believe when the season started. 

On the other hand, Ferrari will try to bounce back from Qatar's performance: for this reason, they adopted a medium downforce rear wing that, matched with a high-downforce front wing, should provide enough grip for the drivers to attack the fast sequence of corners in sector 1 and still have some traction left for the slow hairpins. A crucial aspect for the Maranello team will be making the tyres last in the race to gain some key points on the Mercedes to finish P2 in the Constructors’. They have high hopes for the weekend, even though Sainz confirmed that “the fuel tank is still giving them a bit of headache”.

In conclusion, with all these updates and different set-up choices, another weekend of great action and fun is set to start soon in Austin.