theprancinghorse.co.uk - News Features / F2007 Updates For UK

Although they've been tested at Barcelona and Paul Ricard, Silverstone marks the race debut for these items. Their purpose is to direct the hot airflow generated under braking away from the wheels and underneath the car (red arrow). The slit in the rim shield has a specific 27-degree angle to achieve this. The hot air accelerates the airflow underneath the car, hence helping with the extraction of air via the diffuser. This provides additional downforce, better stability and an improved aero balance. As you can see, the function of the front shields is completely different to the rears, which simply aid brake cooling and reduce turbulence.

The rear end of the F2007 has been heavily developed in the last couple of races and is now dramatically lower than before. The aerodynamic design of this area has been refined in every detail to provide an efficient and clean airflow to the diffuser, to help increase downforce and maintain the car's rear-end stability. At Silverstone, a sort of slightly curved splitter (yellow arrow) was adopted in front of the rear wheels, replacing the previous vertical one. The curvature of this new element makes for a wider channel in the airflow, broadening and increasing the airflow to the diffuser.