Ferrari reportedly change their exhaust system after observing “really crazy” deflections in F1 US GP

Ferrari have reportedly made a change in their exhaust system after the 'deflection' that was noted during the United States Grand Prix earlier by Sam Collins, F1's tech pundit.

During the US GP earlier in COTA, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had come under light for the spectacular oscillation of their exhaust pipes. The material which is used to make the exhaust pipes in F1 cars, Inconel, is a superalloy that can be put under extreme conditions that are similar to the cars.

While this material is sturdy enough, Collins noted that during the race in COTA, it reacted weirdly when the car went on curbs. There were oscillations that made the exhaust pipe shaped like an egg instead of a round. He said (Quotes via PlanetF1):

"It [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. And look at the shape it forms. As we go through the corner you can see that it deforms quite substantially."

"And as it starts to deflect you can see the shape of the tailpipe is no longer round, it’s more like an egg. It gets pretty extreme at the moment as the car bottoms out and you can really see the differences at this point," he added.

While that might have been a flaw in the Ferrari, the team sure had a decent performance in the race. Both the cars were within the top five, and if it wouldn't have been for Charles Leclerc's disqualification post-race (along with Lewis Hamilton), they would have had a great points advantage.

However, coming down to Brazil, the Italian outfit have modified their exhaust system. This could be to correct the 'flaw' that might have been noticed in COTA, or just a regular upgrade in the car.

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Ferrari drivers faced issues with cooling during Brazil Sprint

The Sprint race earlier on the Interlagos circuit was only decent for the Scuderia, especially after the orders issued to the drivers.

Both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc looked competitive enough to catch up with the cars ahead of them, but they were repeatedly asked to lift and coast through the corners. Drivers are usually asked to do this to either save fuel or keep their cars at optimum temperature, and the latter was the issue with the Ferraris.

As team principal Frederic Vasseur revealed after the race, quoted by Race Fans:

"We made a small mistake on the cooling today and we asked the drivers to do a massive lift and coast from lap two."

This hammered down the performance that both drivers had and led to a point where AlphaTauri looked fast enough to overtake one of the cars. However, that did not happen and Leclerc finished in P5 while his teammate took the final points position at P8.