F1 tech expert prompts intrigue by spotting ‘crazy’ Ferrari exhaust movement

In F1’s latest Tech Talk video, a series that takes a deeper dive into the latest upgrades up and down the grid, host Sam Collins revealed some unusual movement on the rear-end of the Ferrari. 

The extreme vibration was picked up by F1’s advanced, high-speed phantom cameras while the Ferrari was cornering during the United States Grand Prix weekend. 

Collins described it as “something quite unusual” and “something I’ve never seen on an F1 car before”. 

“I decided to take a look at both Ferraris through the same sequence of corners and to see a number of different laps to see if they did it more and more, and the results, I have to say, were breathtaking,” he explained. 

“All of the exhaust tailpipes in F1 are made from a type of special steel called inconel, it deals with high temperature and is quite lightweight, a very special sort of metal.

“Everybody uses it and they all sort of perform in the same way. It’s not something that you see big differences in. 

“The [oscillation] comes as the tyre rides onto that kerb on the apex of the corner but at this point, the tailpipe starts going really crazy. 

“Look at the shape it forms. As we go through the corner you can see that it deforms quite substantially as it starts to deflect. 

“The shape of the tailpipe is no longer round, it’s more like an egg. It gets pretty extreme at the moment the car bottoms out and you can really see the difference at this point. 

“You can see that change from a circle to an egg. That is absolutely spectacular.” 

Having examined footage of other cars going through the same corner - including the Red Bull, Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin - Collins found the trend was only noticeable on both Ferrari SF-23s. 

Collins suggested the bizarre wobbling may have prompted Ferrari to change the exhaust systems on both of their cars for this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. 

“It is not a surprise that when the Ferraris arrived at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, they had to change the exhaust systems on both of their cars,” he said. 

“Now they didn’t have to do that in Mexico, so I just wonder did they find, due to that massive deflection that we’re seeing, is this something that the team have had to deal with and understand?”