A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
Thank you. Based on the approx. line markups...
Shortest wheelbase - McLaren, Ferrari
Longest wheelbase - Aston Martin
Furthest back driver position - McLaren, Red Bull
Furthest forward driver position - Ferrari, Mercedes
Thank you. Based on the approx. line markups...
Shortest wheelbase - McLaren, Ferrari
Longest wheelbase - Aston Martin
Furthest back driver position - McLaren, Red Bull
Furthest forward driver position - Ferrari, Mercedes
Yes.
Purely speculatively, the McLaren looks to be the one that is going to rotate quickest in slow corners, as it has both shorter wheelbase and "most likely" closest-to-rear-axle CoG.
Also do take note of the differences in
a. location of leading edge of floor and that of the undercut.
b. orientation of the front's top wishbone w.r.t wheels - the RedBull and Ferrari are opposite extremes.
Thank you. Based on the approx. line markups...
Shortest wheelbase - McLaren, Ferrari
Longest wheelbase - Aston Martin
Furthest back driver position - McLaren, Red Bull
Furthest forward driver position - Ferrari, Mercedes
Yes.
Purely speculatively, the McLaren looks to be the one that is going to rotate quickest in slow corners, as it has both shorter wheelbase and "most likely" closest-to-rear-axle CoG.
Mercedes came up with the longest wheel base for the 2017 regulations, which initially made the car poor in low speed corners, while offering great range for medium and high speed corners, whereas Ferrari had shorter wheelbase and was ahead on slow corner performance. By the middle of 2018, Mercedes had found solutions to make that wheel base work better than Ferrari in slow corners and in 2019, they were far superior. While theoretically, it's a good argument that a shorter wheelbase can rotate better than longer, but having right solutions on longer wheelbase can offset that deficit.
There seem to be some much larger driving cooling scoops (located around the front suspension panel area) this year? Is there some new rule about maximum cockpit temperature or something?
I guess if the FIA wanted to, they could even mandate quite a large scoop (F-duct inlet size?) so as to reduce driver fatigue in hot races.
There seem to be some much larger driving cooling scoops (located around the front suspension panel area) this year? Is there some new rule about maximum cockpit temperature or something?
I guess if the FIA wanted to, they could even mandate quite a large scoop (F-duct inlet size?) so as to reduce driver fatigue in hot races.
After the Qatar 2023 issues with overheating additional cooling scoops can be mandated at events if it's declared hot enough.
How many of you feel that mainstream media (TV channels, broadcasters, online sport media) are using the "zeropod" word a bit too presumptuously, without bothering to really understand what they are talking about ?
Was there ever a 'zeropod' ? No. W13 had a sculpted/shrink wrapped vertical 'pod' (there can't be no pod because there has to be some 'stuff' that needs to be placed laterally to the engine, that needs a supply of cooling air). It was a 'pod' for sure.
Now they are at it again (some of the names who have been reporting on F1 for ages, and who indeed have some level of technical understanding, doing so, is incredulous). This time, calling whatever RedBull may bring for Japan update as potential 'zeropod'. Something Newey might make work where Mercedes failed. This utter bollocks, don't you think ?
Mercedes chased an aggressive close-to-ideal-teardrop shape with minimal front area, couldn't make it work because dealing with front wheel wake and flow into rear coke bottle region became an 'oops' moment once the car hit the road. No matter what bandages they tried over 2 yrs, it wouldn't work the way the wind tunnel told them. So they abandoned and adopted the 'now standard' RedBull philosophy, which actually is adding bulk to the teardrop shape that they originally envisaged.
The fundamental RedBull concept is to block a lot of air just to the sides of the cockpit and bleed a portion of it sideways (to sideswipe the front wheel wake, not allowing it to 'come back in') and to shoot the rest of it (via a crude 'venturi' between the bottom edge of sidepod and top of floor) along the middle-to-rear portion of the floor-top, to the rear of the car, where the diffuser, beam wing etc need as much encouragement as possible, from the air coming off the bodywork, to work at their drag v/s downforce equation at peak efficiency. Everyone has relented to this idea finally, and all teams have converged onto the same basic Redbull framefork for 2024. The differences across teams (apart from the floors) , whatever is visible via bodywork, is in how the 'conditioning details' of this fundamental flow concept is devised.
What Redbull have done with RB20, is to refine this further, by 'amplifying' this affect, via some clever packaging choices. Just because there are some elephant-trunk-pair/sausage-pair structures (and thus borne gullies) near the engine cover top that was seen before on the Mercedes, and just because the nature of cooling inlets has changed (in fact, with RB20, I feel the total area of cooling inlets is much more than even RB18, if we consider the 'angle of airflow' into all these openings) , that doesn't suddenly mean RedBull have abandoned their fundamental concept and gone the W13 Merdeces way. Far from it. The fundamental concept of RB20 is still the same as RB18/19.
Morover, the "sidepod cover removed" images of the RB20 circulating in the F1 media space, clearly shows, there are actually now, 'more' radiators in the RB20 than in 19/18. No way is all this going to be shrink wrapped into engine and resemble the W13.
Can't the F1 media understand this ? Come on....
Are they doing it because reusing the beaten-do-death 'zeropod' term is clickbait ? or because 'RedBull is trolling Mercedes' is a bigger clickbait ?
THE REDBULL RB20 WILL NEVER ADOPT THE AERO PHILOSOPHY OF W13. Apart from a few forums like this, where the general public who have a technical understanding chime in, and apart from niche experts on Twitter , everywhere else, the headlines of written columns, Youtube discussions, roundtable chats, all have the term "zeropods".
Look, you are ofcourse right, but what formula1 also is, next to the actual driving, is a theater show. With production values, colours, props, mirrors and smoke, main characters, supporting actors, scripts, direction. Reviewers, journalists, spectators and the larger audience. All play a role and part of this is the often ridiculous dramatization. There is a need for it to keep the circus alive. In that regard drive to survive is actually spot on.
Look, you are ofcourse right, but what formula1 also is, next to the actual driving, is a theater show. With production values, colours, props, mirrors and smoke, main characters, supporting actors, scripts, direction. Reviewers, journalists, spectators and the larger audience. All play a role and part of this is the often ridiculous dramatization. There is a need for it to keep the circus alive. In that regard drive to survive is actually spot on.
I'm not sure that naming the actual concept of the RB20 or whatever they may bring to Japan (after seeing the packaging unter the corver it's clear it can't be "zeropods" which they will bring) is helping to keep the show alive.
In one of the live testing broadcasts one of the opinions was that the inlets next to the halo on the RB20 might me what the W13/W14 was missing to make the zeropod concept work. If that's not being absolutely clueless, it's borderline trolling.
In one of the live testing broadcasts one of the opinions was that the inlets next to the halo on the RB20 might me what the W13/W14 was missing to make the zeropod concept work. If that's not being absolutely clueless, it's borderline trolling.
In one of the live testing broadcasts one of the opinions was that the inlets next to the halo on the RB20 might me what the W13/W14 was missing to make the zeropod concept work. If that's not being absolutely clueless, it's borderline trolling.
The sport is lead by the least among us. Truly disgusting reporting. Wow.
The SF-24 is better suited to Leclerc's driving style and is the car that hid the least in race simulation. It needed to obtain important data on tyre consumption. Red Bull on the other hand very heavily sandbagging with less fuel and less hp
Interesting that most of them have gone back to vanilla mirror housings. Last year there was surprise that the RB19 mirror was so plain, now the others follow.
I wonder if the plain housing just gives better performance, or if the benefit of a more complex mirror is too small to be worth the development budget under the cost cap.
