Ferrari 'flick tails' make impact during the Miami Grand Prix

Ferrari surprised everybody in pre-season testing with the appearance of their flick tail (FTM).

By adding a vertical flap behind the exhaust tailpipe Ferrari, and subsequently Haas, were able to create more downforce.

The tail uses the exhaust flow to drive upwash between the diffuser and top rear wing. Their rivals were unable due to the regulations to directly copy Ferrari’s idea.

However, there is always more than one way to achieve the same aim, and by Miami teams used their added development time to bring alternative exhaust flap solutions.

Exhaust driven aero background.

Teams have been using the exhaust to boost the aerodynamics, since the eighties. Typically by placing the exhaust plume in or around the diffuser.

This reached a peak in the early 2010s, when exhaust blown diffusers, we’re creating huge amounts of downforce at lower speeds.

Despite several attempts from the FIA to prevent this, 2014 then saw updated rules that placed the exhaust above the rear impact structure and well away from the diffuser.

However, teams still managed to use the exhaust gasses, along with a winglet to create downforce in between the top rear wing and diffuser.

Subsequent regulations enforced a cone shape exclusion zone behind the exhaust tail pipe, this was a practical defence against teams using the exhaust plane to drive aero.

Development opportunity

With the new 2026 regulations came a rewriting of the exhaust position and the rear body work rules.

In the writing of these, this cone shape exclusion zone was not written into the new regulations. Instead, a wider exclusion zone was written in to account for no bodywork behind the exhaust line.

However, this zone used the gearbox differential centreline as the datum.

With the removal of the lower rear beam wing in 2026, teams wanted to find a way to drive upwash to create a low-pressure area behind the car to create downforce.

The new rear wing support beam did not allow for creating this upwash, therefore, different ideas needed to be found.

Ferrari, in deciding their rear end aero and mechanical package decided to push their differential as far back as possible, allowing a small but legal piece of bodywork to fit behind the tail pipe exit.

With Haas using the same gearbox, they soon adopted the same flick tail solution as Ferrari.

It was thought at this stage., no other team could develop an exhaust flap, due to their differential position being too far forwards.

But with Ferrari emerging from testing very early with their flick tail and the enforcement of a 5-week development opportunity caused by the Middle East crisis.

Five additional teams arrived in Miami with some form of flick tail, each using slightly different interpretations of the regulations to allow it.

How does it work?

F1 cars create down force by accelerating airflow under the car creating low pressure and by expanding it outwards through the diffuser.

In addition, they create a similar pressure difference with the top rear wing.

Teams need to consider the air flow for both of these devices working in coordination with each other, as they effectively form a cascade of aerodynamic surfaces.

Ideally, the diffuser needs a low-pressure area behind it. To allow the air flow to expand into, which helps drive faster air flow under the floor creating downforce.

The rear wing is similar, but also, it’s underside greatly benefits from accelerated air flow. Such as driven by the exhaust plume to create lower pressure and again more down force.

The exhaust flap manages to achieve both of these to some degree or another, depending on each team’s design.

Although its immediate impact is most likely to be primarily on the diffuser upwash.

Exhaust flow hits the flap placed behind the tailpipe exit. So rather than the exhaust flow going largely rearwards in the same direction as the tailpipe angle, it is deflected acutely upwards.

This drives upwash and lowers pressure behind the car.

You will note most of the team’s interpretations of the exhaust flap, also combine similarly angled extensions up from the diffuser exit.

This helps drive more flow through the diffuser, as it works with the upwash.

The upwash coming up from the tailpipe and flap may also accelerate the air flow under the rear wing, which helps its underside work more efficiently.

This seems to be a win-win situation with both the diffuser and top rear wing working to create more downforce. However, the flick tail is not without its drawbacks.

Clearly, this solution will only work when the exhaust is blowing at higher revs, therefore, when the driver is off throttle or at part throttle, there will be no effect.

This can create some sensitivity to the car’s handling. As downforce varies with the drivers handling of the throttle pedal.

This sensitivity is nothing new in exhaust blown aerodynamics and will have been well considered by the teams beforehand.

By chance, the new power unit regulations actually helped the teams in this regard.

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In order to recover energy off throttle or at part throttle, the drivers all running a much lower gears keeping engine RPM higher and therefore the exhaust gases have more velocity.

One drawback, many people have pointed at the exhaust flap, is that it creates back pressure in the exhaust, robbing the car of some peak horsepower.

This may be true, but we also need to consider the exhaust tail pipe regulations.

The actual pipe diameter coming from the turbocharger to its exit is actually much smaller, than the regulated minimum.

You will often find teams need to expand the tailpipe from a narrower bore at the turbo, to meet the regulatory minimum at its exit.

This means that any blockage caused by the exhaust flap, will have less of a back pressure effect on such a large bore exit.

Miami solutions

As explained above, all teams without a Ferrari gearbox have a differential position too far forwards to exploit a full exhaust flap.

Despite using a Ferrari engine, Cadillac run their own gearbox, which has a different differential position. Therefore, they cannot exploit the set up in the same way as Ferrari and Haas do.

Hence, the nine other teams need to find another way to position an exhaust flap.

This largely seems to have been achieved by stretching the definition of the exhaust mounting bracket regulations, allowing them to place a combined bracket and exhaust flap behind the tailpipe exit.

So far, none of these solutions could be big described as extreme as the Ferrari/Haas solution.

But the other teams may choose to become bolder and create more extreme interpretations, in order to seek more performance from the flick tail.

As of Miami, we saw flick tail solutions using the exhaust bracket work around from Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Alpine.

Meanwhile, Ferrari have gone even further with their initial interpretation of the flick tail. In some respects, it is a less aggressive solution.

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The proceeding diffuser extensions and winglets are now positioned at a flatter angle and ahead of the rear wing support beam.

It’s possible this may have been done to reduce some of the inherent drag the Ferrari car has, in order to aid their top speed in a bid, keep up with their rivals on the straights.

There is one feature on the Ferrari Miami setup that visibly demonstrates the near vertical upwash the exhaust flap creates.

You will see a number of ‘V’ shaped ridges on the hump behind the exhaust flap.

These are known as vortex generators, in this situation they will be working with the up flow from the diffuser and trying to have it remain attached to the rear impact structure and hump.

This will keep the flow as smooth as possible up around the rear of the car.

By looking at the orientation of these vortex generators, which will be angled to the direction of the air flow it’s quite visible, just how close to vertical the air flow is in this area.

Potential future?

Given the performance that these flick tails provide, it would not be surprising to see all eleven cars with a solution before the end of the season.

Whilst those seven teams currently with them will no doubt further develop their ideas.

However, comments from the FIA over the weekend suggest once more the concept of exhaust driven aerodynamics is not considered a direction the sport wants to follow.

It’s long been the viewpoint of the FIA that aerodynamics should come from the effect of air passing over the car due to its direction of travel, rather than burning fuel to drive downforce.