Vanja #66 wrote: ↑01 May 2023, 22:14
I was hoping someone else would write about this pehnomena, it was on my mind for a while. Last year, Ferrari controlled the bouncing, was right on the edge and "got away" with softest possible suspension setup, with a right combination of mechanical grip and ride height on the edge to prevent excessive plank wear. This year, they chose not to pursue this for one or several reasons, which might have to do with PU reliabilty since TD039 is no longer enforced basically. Also, they may have designed the car for slightly lower ride height to begin with, which leaves lot less room for bouncing without bottoming out (something that was often the case with F1-75 early in the season)
So in short, Ferrari is running a suspension which is quite stiff, however in Q they get to a point where they can extract the maximum from the car since they are running fast which increases downforce which lowers the car just right. With extra fuel, they can't run as fast, stiff suspension keeps the car higher then optimal and lap time is slower than usual. One way to get better would be to push much harder, but thanks to FIA, FOM, Ecclestone and Pirelli - you can't have a stint of 20-30 qualifying laps.
With extra fuel weight you can certainly never get to the apex speed you have in Q, no matter how much you push. So, insufficient speed leads to excessive ride height leads to insufficient downforce leads to insufficient speed... How to solve this? Softer suspension? Yes, but then you may have excessive squat, dive, heave and possibly also bouncing/porpoising - altogether and unstable aero platform. So, what do you need? Suspension geometry with more anti-dive and anti-squat to begin with.
Alternatively, you can also do another thing - you can design your floor for slightly less downforce on purpose. A floor that has a few tricks that help it not to choke, stall or otherwise get penalised when your car is running almost on the plank. A floor with a smaller throat length and a location for peak downforce, so you know exactly how it will behave during braking, acceleration and roll - because even slight roll causes a lot of difference in downforce between inside and outside halves...
So - you give up on a few floor downforce points knowingly. But you don't care that much, since you also have a suspension that allows you to run the car really low at all speeds, so you have a predicatable and stable platform that runs low both in Q and in Race. At all times. At all speeds. At all tracks, bumps or no bumps. On all tyres, no matter their stifness... In short - you design an RB18 floor and suspension and further improve it with RB19.
What can Ferrari do with their car right now? Beat Red Bull at their own game? Hardly, they are a year and a half ahead already. Try and redesing the floor and suspension to try and achieve these effects partially, while keeping slightly more floor downforce? Probably the only thing that can be done, since everything else requires complete car overhaul - so no sooner than next year. It will all be in vain if they don't sort out internal issues in strategy and operations department, as well as reaching reliability goals they set for themselves.
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