Ben1980 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2024, 15:40
Bottoming out makes me think of porpoising, which isn't the case? But, last year the plank noise was also loud on the car.
Bottoming out has somehow become synonymous with both Porpoising and with a stalled floor, so it's a little confusing. There are similarities and a relationship, but it's not really the same.
When Lando crashed on the slight curve at 300kph last year the car was said to have bottomed out on the bump. It did, but with such extreme forces that this caused a stall of the floor when downforce was being used to keep the car pointing in the right direction.
So bottoming out isn't bad necessarily, just means the car is hitting the ground. There's not really any evidence right now that the car is hitting the ground for any reason than the car is stiff and very low, and not because porpoising is causing the car to bounce through repeated "mini" stalling.
There's a nice interview with Pat Symonds and Ted Kravitz on Sky this week with Pat explaining that they are removing the rules around porpoising because it's just not an issue any more for the cars.
It is the source of this article here, for instance:
https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull- ... comparison
Which I just found particularly interesting because he apparently said what I've been saying, which is that the flow through the car, the engine bay and cooling, is critical to the efficiency of this formula. Demonstrating that sometimes I can get it right. He's also suggesting that RB are a step ahead right now.
Still haven't seen a good look at the cooling setup yet, as far as I know, but I'm certain we've done some work there.
