I present you the Variante challenger for the 2024 Mantium competition.
It was conceived as an evolutionary development of the 2023 car, leveraging the strengths that allowed it to win the final race of last Season. Namely, a powerful underfloor, an unconventional diffuser, and harmonized upper surfaces.
Development involved the following parts:
Wheels Deflectors - simplified to achieve a more predictable behavior;
Cooling Intakes - in a top-down configuration to capture more air for the same frontal area;
Radiators - miniaturized to enhance sidepods undercut and open development paths;
Sidepods - more sculpted and steeper to offer better flows to the rear end;
Cooling Exhausts - tightened to maximize downwash on the Rear Wing;
Diffuser - volumetrically enhanced, and with a widened throat to lower peak pressure.
These changes allowed for a CLA increase of about 0.350 (6%) with no drag penalty, over last year's car.
Don't worry, such numbers are not too revealing because I haven't factored in mandatory changes around suspensions and CFD settings, nor the Rear Wing trim for Suzuka, conceived to balance the car while decreasing drag.
I'm quite happy with Winter development, which consisted in 50 iterations (including petty ones that I
had to run...).
And, all in all, it's still a car with many unrefined parts ...which is good, because it won't let me run out of ideas during the Season.