Why F1 teams had to unlock cost cap handcuffs for Belgian GP

But, against the backdrop of the cost cap, teams have had to be especially cautious about spending on development – and have had to be convinced about performance gains to justify the spending.

That prompted a possibility of teams holding back on too much for this weekend race in Belgium to try to get through it as best as possible.

And while there may not have been the extent of changes we have seen in the past, F1 teams still focused on a raft of new front and rear wing tweaks to better chase laptime.

Ferrari was looking to achieve its lower downforce and drag targets with a new rear wing and beam wing assembly.

But it only gave it an outing in FP2 before switching to a familiar low-downforce specification for the rest of the weekend.

Nonetheless, the new wing features a flattened-out mainplane and top flap, which almost eliminates the spoon-shaped design that’s usually favoured by the Scuderia.

Meanwhile, its submission for the car presentation document suggested it also had a single element beam wing solution at its disposal, in order to skew the aerodynamic interaction between it, the diffuser and the rear wing above, but it’s not yet been seen on the car.

Furthermore, unlike some of its rivals, Ferrari hadn’t listed a new front wing amongst its upgrades for Spa, but that’s not to say that it hasn’t trimmed the uppermost flap to help balance downforce front-to-rear.

Mercedes has a number of new parts available for the W13 in Belgium, as it hoped to be able to build on the momentum it had gained in recent races.

The front wing features revisions to the wing tip elements where they meet with the endplate, as the team looks to improve how the airflow behaves as it migrates around the outside of the front tyre.

The rear wing features revised flap distribution, in keeping with the demands of the circuit, whilst the Mercedes designers have clearly kept a keen eye on a design first introduced by Alpine in Saudi Arabia, whereby the conventional endplate cutout is cast aside and a full height section is utilised instead.

McLaren also opted for a lower downforce configuration for Spa, with a new specification rear wing and beam wing layout added to its available pool of parts.

One of the lower downforce rear wings that the team had at its disposal was a more traditional design, whilst a design that features a trimmed upper flap is also present.

In this instance the central portion of the wing has…