How Formula 1 Wind Tunnel Testing Works and Why It’s So Important

• Wind tunnel testing is essential for Formula 1 teams to study and optimize a car’s aerodynamics.
• Aerodynamics have become vital as regulations place greater emphasis on downforce and airflow.
• This article is part of “Behind the Wheel,” a series on the highly competitive, high-tech world of Formula 1.

Formula 1 is a fast sport, with cars capable of reaching speeds in excess of 200 mph. But off the track, things are a little slower and more methodical. Months of testing go into developing each race car, and wind tunnel testing is essential to this process.

“Wind tunnel testing is simply the most important development tool you have,” said Guenther Steiner, former Haas F1 team principal and now Miami Grand Prix ambassador. “You have ideas and you test them with computer simulations, but then you have to verify that they actually work. That’s where the wind tunnel comes in.”

The wind tunnel is actually a large tube-shaped room with a massive fan at one end and a 60% scale model of a Formula 1 car suspended from the ceiling. A rolling track beneath the model simulates the road of a Formula 1 circuit, allowing engineers to study the car’s aerodynamics without having to go to an actual track.

“It’s basically just a big – well, really big – metal tube with a fan inside,” said Dan Fallows, technical director of the Aston Martin Aramco F1 team, which this month is opening a technology center with a new wind tunnel.

“Instead of moving around the track, the car stays in one place, but the road moves and the air flows around it,” Fallows continues. “We simulate all the conditions that the car would encounter as it moves around the track and, more importantly, we can directly measure the loads that would be exerted on the car as it moves around the track in those conditions.”

Throughout the year, teams develop new parts that affect the car’s aerodynamics, such as variations on the front and rear wings, side panels and floor of the car. Teams run these parts through a simulated computer model called CFD (computational fluid dynamics), then place scale models on the car in the wind tunnel.

“It gives us a very accurate understanding of the forces around the car and, if we do an upgrade, what that would do for us,” Fallows said. “It shows us what lap time or performance gain we could get.”

Engineers also communicate with the drivers and team principal to develop the car to their liking and identify issues track by track.

“Part of the research is just trying to stabilize the car to make it easier to drive,” Fallows said. “We split it between pure performance testing and testing for track-related issues.”

The era of aerodynamics

In recent years, the wind tunnel has become more essential to the development of a Formula 1 car. Since 2022, the car regulations have placed greater emphasis on downforce and airflow, making aerodynamics vital.

“Our racing cars are currently in an era of aerodynamics,” said McLaren CEO Zak Brown. “Sometimes in the past we were in an era of powertrains, for example, but the focus on aerodynamics now makes the wind tunnel critically important.”

The wind tunnel is so important that Formula 1 has limited the amount of time teams can spend in it per week. The time allocation works on a sliding scale: the manufacturer in last place gets the most time, while the team in first place gets the least time.

“It’s kind of like the NFL, where the worst team gets the best draft pick,” Brown said. “The wind tunnel is used as a balancing act for team performance because it’s just so essential.”

The present and the future

Each team must find the right balance between using the wind tunnel to develop its current car and next season’s car. Fallows said this would be particularly important for the 2026 season, when new rules and regulations will require substantial changes to car design.

“It’s very difficult to allocate time because we have a limited amount of resources,” Fallows said. “But there’s no doubt that in 2026, people will start their development much earlier. In fact, we’re not allowed to start research on this topic until January 1, 2025, but I guarantee you that all the teams will do it on the first day of the new year.”

While wind tunnel testing is largely a long-term development tool, Fallows said it could have short-term effects. He and his engineers at the technology center in England talk with the team on track every grand prix weekend and often make adjustments in real time.

“It’s when something happens during a race weekend, for example during Friday practice, the drivers or engineers give you feedback, you go into the wind tunnel, you identify the problem, you fix it and you apply the solution to the car before it even goes into qualifying. It happens more often than you think.”

As is often the case in Formula 1, teams are very secretive about the specifics of their wind tunnels. For example, Fallows confidently claims that the wind tunnel at the new Aston Martin Technology Centre will be the most advanced in Formula 1, but can he reveal why?

“Um, not really!” he laughed. “Unfortunately, it’s a closely guarded secret, but we’ve improved some of the things that other teams have. When the wind tunnel is up and running, it’s going to be the best in a lot of areas, which should give us an advantage.”