JPBD1990 wrote: ↑22 Jul 2022, 14:21
Scarbs talking about the floor change impacting balance front to rear - anyone clever enough to understand how? Eg would they be looking to move the balance slightly frontward or rearward - and why? The Ferrari has seemed strong on turn in so I can’t imagine they need more downforce at the front? But I have… no idea.
It changes the pressure distribution and the local load. This of course can move the balance. The balance thing is probably more a trade-off. Ferrari has a very good traction but the new cars, in general, are front-limited. So "strengthening" the front, if Scarbs said this, can be advantageous in different ways. In theory, they could now reduce the AoA of the frontwing, reducing drag. Also Ferrari had some problems at the front with graining (if memory serves). More load at the front can reduce graining. But i think this change indeed does not "strentgen" the front, but more load is transfered to the rear. If you look closely the outer tunnel is much lower. The inner ones are slightly higher, but that does not compensate the change of the much lower outer one. With the outer one smaller and the inner ones higher, Ferrari probably wants to work the rear floor and diffuser work harder and generate more aero-load there. Together with the change of the undercut and the coke bottle area, it really seems like they try to create more aero load at the back, not at the front. This would make it possible for them to use a rear wing with less downforce, reducing drag and gain the last 2 or 3 kphs Topspeed they need. But at the end of the day only Ferrari knows what they exactly want to achieve with this "balance-change". But the teams are now understanding this generation if cars much better and what changes are needed to get the most out of them. Its definetely a significant change, but also more of a "fine-tuning" of the cars load distribution and a trade-off with the intention of a better compromise than before, i think.
