Front end
The engineers opted again to go with a high chassis design. However, according to the new 2012 regulations, the nose cone needs to be lower, which is a safety requirement. As a result, the nose cone has quite a different shape to how it was in the past. The chassis itself shows absolute minimum cross sections all the way to the cockpit.
By an overall tidier design, the front suspension has been optimised for integration with the chassis and the upright. Otherwise it’s a traditional layout with a pushrod and a high-level wishbone. The dampers and springs are packaged quite differently compared to the C30 in order to support a new philosophy for the set-up of the front suspension.
The design of the new front wing benefited from directions the engineers were pursuing towards the end of the 2011 season.
Centre section
Packaging was further optimised under the side pods in order to open up more aerodynamic development scope in that area. The cooling layout is based around a similar philosophy to the C30, because that proved to be effective. It helps to get the volume of the coolers forward and allows the design of very compact rear bodywork.
Also with the roll-hoop the engineers were able to use the C30’s design as a good baseline, and managed to improve what was already a lightweight and aerodynamically efficient solution.
The KERS that Ferrari provided in 2011 was very effective. There were no major issues with its operation or reliability. For the new season Ferrari has improved the system even further.
Rear end
A familiar element of the car is the Ferrari engine, onto which an all-new carbon transmission is bolted – also supplied by Ferrari. The longitudinally mounted transmission is a very tidy, neat unit. The entire rear of the car is much more tightly packaged, helped by the gearbox design, and in addition the engineers have gone in some new directions around the floor at the back of the car. The exhaust tailpipe positions are regulated in 2012, which has had a further effect on how the bodywork design has been set out.
The rear suspension is now a pullrod design. It shows a long pullrod towards the front of the gearbox and wide angled wishbones. This design allows improved packaging of the rear spring and damper elements. Despite the change from pushrod to pullrod, in terms of kinematics the engineers maintained a similar direction to the one they went in for the C30.
The rear wing will again manage without a centre pylon. It is mounted to the endplates and the lower wing, and, of course, maintains its DRS capability.
Morris explains: “Because of the new definition in the rules we know that the disadvantages we had last year with a lack of the strong exhaust effect will be less of an issue for us now. As a result we evolved further our directions from C30 regarding the overall aero development of the car.”
Finally, Morris casts a glance at the next steps after the roll-out of the Sauber C31-Ferrari: “The current plan is to launch a fairly basic roll-out version of the car, which was defined quite some time ago. We will then be testing development parts during the upcoming weeks with a late upgrade for the first race on 18th March in Australia. Therefore the car will look quite different in Melbourne compared to the roll-out car.”
