Mostlyeels wrote: ↑08 Sep 2023, 00:28
CjC wrote: ↑07 Sep 2023, 23:52
Rather insightful:
https://www.racefans.net/2023/09/07/mcl ... -2024-car/
Stella has changed his tune about bringing any 2024 ideas to the 2023 car.
He was against it a few races ago now he’s open to the idea if it’s feasible.
Also he says anymore upgrades coming are only worth a tenth or 2 so we won’t see a massive leap again
Lots of great little tidbits in there. Windtunnel working well, and improvements to aero leading to directions that the chassis needs to improve.
“Because when you put small rear wings, then you reduce the suction at the back of the floor, the floor offloads, and then the whole car kind of tends to ‘switch off’.
This echoes things I've heard (around here probably).
Yeah if you wade through the 48 pages of rear wing discussion you'll see me and LionsHeart discussing it.
And he reiterates the point that the car suffers a little from the low DF rear wing. And this because the package as a whole isn't sufficient for it. It is the sliding scale of DF and drag. If you could make the car itself less draggy and keep the DF, or keep the drag on the car but have it create more DF for it, then you can lessen the wings for an overall net gain.
Our car, outside of the rear and front wings, is draggy however, the wing only removes a portion of the drag in comparison the likes of Williams, Ferarri and Red Bull, and probably Merc too.
What surprised me a little is that he said that the car became draggy as a result of the Austria upgrade.
it doesn't say it in this article but as part of the designs of the 24 car they will put focus on lowering the drag of the package itself as Stella has previously said that the drag is the biggest problem of the car, more so than low speed issues, but perhaps that is because they hope to remedy that a bit this weekend.
I have a feeling the drag fix will be to do with front tyre wake and how we deal with outwash, including those first three vortices of the floor which seem focussed on dealing with outwash as well as the front wing endplates as well as a more refined Sidepod.
And another thing, don't forget we have the new Tech Directive on the structure and rigidity of the front wings this weekend! Even if there is a single tenth to be found compared to those around us, it all adds up. The team are confident it doesn't impact them. I trust Stella's word on this.