Ferrari tried out new spray guards last Thursday at their Fiorano test track. The goal was to reduce the spray that makes it hard to see in wet conditions.
They made the track wet and sent out Arthur Leclerc with these new designs on his car. The designs could cover the wheels fully or have holes in them.
Ferrari’s reserve driver, Bearman, followed Leclerc to see if the visibility was better with these new guards. But he didn’t find much difference.
Bearman said they need to go back to the drawing board. They tried different versions of the guards but only wet the straights to test if it helped when following other cars.
He mentioned that fully closed guards could affect the tire temperatures. He also explained that F1 cars rely heavily on downforce from the floor, which makes it harder to reduce spray.
Even though the new design was more aggressive, it didn’t solve the problem. This was the second attempt after a similar trial at Silverstone last year didn’t work well.
