DutchPanther wrote: ↑12 Jul 2022, 19:39
The leading carbon beam (just beside the end of the heat exchanger) seems to be a pure CFRP part which, in Austria, it was reverted back to the titanium spec
https://i.imgur.com/DzIK6WM.png
I believe this may be a main reason for their sidepod shape. RB surprised earlier this year with their wide and downward sloped sidepods -- the general assumption has been that this was strictly a matter of their overall aero philosophy.
Rather it may have been more about providing an aero cover for these floor supporting spars and their diagonal stays. Thus, they can make these spars as large as they want, and include a stout tension member which has some compressive tolerance, compared to other teams which have undercut sidepods or no sidepods and must rely upon aero-optimized spindly tension members which are weak in compression. As such, RB has had a stronger floor from the start.