Vanja #66 wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 20:48
maygun wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 14:03
Thanks for your answer, but still I don't have a clear understanding of what do you mean by peak downforce.
What I understood from peak-downforce is that, imagining a plot where on x axis I have speed (and other variables maybe like ride height, yaw conditions, temp etc), y axis is the downforce, and the maximum point of the graph (related to x axis) is the peak (the max value) and the area under the curve is available downforce. Imagining in a lap, peak value is where the maximum downforce I am obtaining during the lap, and the available downforce is the value I get on average during the lap. (you can change the lap variable with ride height, temp etc.)
So you are suggesting that they have optimised the peak value instead of the area under the curve? This sounds like a very-very foolish way to optimise performance if they did that.
Something like that. Peak downforce is usually achieved at the lowest ride height (now that there's basically no rake when cars are running), 0 yaw, 0 roll, no steering angle. Basically running on the straight. But corners aren't straights and neither are kerbs, bumps and any other running condition - and all of those mean a certain loss compared to peak downforce.
Peaky cars have high DF values in a very narrow operating window and this typically means you always have a more or less compromised setup. At worst you have a snappy car which has huge losses in certain corners/conditions, typically losing diffuser load and thus having oversteer snaps. W15 has some issues with rear end at high speed, for example, so it's still not quite well balanced, but it doesn't seem to be too peaky, just lacks some floor performance. The problem there is that W15 still had high speed bouncing in Jeddah, even in corners, which means their floor downforce is compromised if they go too low.
On the other hand, W15 treats the tyres well and doesn't look stiffer or softer than Top 3 cars, so in my view suspension is good enough and their troubles are completely aero related. They need more floor downforce and they need to find an aerodynamic solution for bouncing.
Seeing that W15 is bottoming and snap oversteers in the high-speed section at Jeddah it means that they lack understanding about at least these areas:
- how to seal the floor edges (or should I say Venturi tunnels) when the car is in an unsettled state, as Andrea Stela was saying
- how to design/setup a downforce limiter/staller switch in order to get rid of the peak downforce when the proposing effect is occurring (maybe the steps/kicks in the floor are responsible for that thing?)
- how to design a stiff suspension and damper setup that need to be enough compliant to run smoothly over the bumps and kerbs and not unsettle the car (double rate suspension system?)
On the same note could someone with better knowledge enlighten me on how they setup the car in qualy to not proposing and wearing the plank, knowing that at the beginning of the race is the heaviest in the whole weekend, but furthermore having a lower ride height to generate enough downforce levels not to step out the rear of the car, something that W15 is facing at the present?