Zoom Ferrari chasing third straight victory in Spain

In theory, Formula 1 has enjoyed a long three week break since Felipe Massa took his F2008 to victory in Bahrain. In practice, it has been a busy time both on track and in Maranello: back at the factory, all the data acquired at the first three races of the season has been carefully analysed, while the Vairano facility was the scene of an aero test. The aforementioned Massa, along with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen all took part in a four day test at the Catalunya circuit, which hosts this weekend's fourth round of the World Championship.

Although it is Ferrari's stated aim to introduce small improvements to the car at every round of the championship, the changes which will make their race debut in Barcelona can be described as a new aerodynamic package and the most visible element of change is the slotted nose.

Media reaction to this component has met with much amusement within the factory as tales of an investigation into how the press found about this part are very wide of the mark. News of the slotted nose design has been around since last December and the team never denied the rumours that something unusual in the design sense might be on the agenda at some point in the season. The idea that this nose is Ferrari's championship winning 'secret weapon' is also an exaggeration.

"The influence on car performance of the slotted nose has been greatly over emphasised," says Chief Designer Nikolas Tombazis. "You cannot measure the effect of one component in isolation and the nose is just one part of a bigger package and in fact, its effect is not that big. Overall, we expect the new aero package to produce some improvement in performance, but it would be wrong to call it a race winning item."

However, the nose itself is of interest for purely technical reasons. "The main challenge with this part was its design and manufacture," continues Tombazis, "as we effectively had a part which, by virtue of the slot, has less carbon fibre, less material and yet still had to conform to all the usual FIA crash tests, which it passed successfully. This was a big challenge for the people involved in producing it."

As to the actual purpose of the slot in the nose, the simplest explanation is that it improves air flow around the floor of the car. With a conventional nose, air remains trapped at that point under the floor of the car, whereas the slotted nose allows some of this air to escape, thus allowing the floor to perform more efficiently.