Ferrari not changing front wing concept but will have "quite a lot" more downforce

After presenting Ferrari's new 2020 challenger, team principal Mattia Binotto went into more detail on the technical side of the car, explaining the team will stick to last year's front wing concept.

Ferrari's decision to focus on reducing drag rather than increasing downforce with their 2019 car was a costly one as they lost more time in the corners than they made up on the straights.

The front wing concept Ferrari had for the SF90 in 2019 was still bolted on at Tuesday's presentation of the SF1000, and Binotto explained this wasn't just for show.

“We will not change our concept, it will remain like that, even on whatever we may test later on," the Italian was quoted by Motorsport.com.  

"I think this is the right concept for us. I think we improved a lot the downforce, not only through the wing but if you look at the car itself, turning vanes especially.

"It's quite a lot of high complexity, I would say. The entire car, the slimmer car, makes as well the back of the car and the diffuser work better. So, finally I think the overall [downforce] has certainly increased.”

Increasing downforce typically goes hand-in-hand with increased drag and therefore reduced top speed and Binotto knows this, although he does think his crew have found the right balance between low-drag and high downforce as he underlines they'll have a much stickier car in the corners now.

“Where is the right balance? I think it's difficult to know, difficult to know what the others are doing as well. But certainly we increased by quite a lot our downforce.

“As I said, I think the starting point of this car has been the one of last year, so we have not changed our concept. So let's say that the wheelbase and rake [are] pretty much similar.”