BreezyRacer wrote:
I would only state that high drag really doesn't have to equal high downforce. While Brawn have had a good aero balance on the car from the beginning they also are the only team using that incredible cow catching, drag producing splitter design on the front. That is a centerpiece of their aero design. It would be interesting to see Brawn go more conventional on the splitter and add air straighteners to the outer corners of the sidepods like all the other teams and see where they wind up. If they don't, can you imagine how slow they will be at Spa and Monza?
If Brawn could scrape up the cash they should give it a try. IMO, this will be their best chance of a championship (either drivers or mfrs) for a good long time. If they fail this year they run the risk of low sponsorship monies in the future. They should go for it now.
I wouldn't be so hasty to say this. A few things come to mind...
How does the air get to where it is at the middle of the car? Generally it can be scooped up and over or it can be split R&L of the cockpit.
How do these differing approaches interact with the front wheels? The "wide nose scoop up and over" method creates a bit of a low pressure void under the chassis between the front wheels and this may help temper the high pressure wake area by the front brake ducts and smooth out the flow. Plus there is less air to split R&L under the driver's butt.
The F2001 was a car that had a very similar "slope nose" and it certainly wasn't a dog. Any "penalty" paid by the "drag inducing cow catcher" design can be reclaimed by a more efficient benefit of tempering the front wheel wake and calming the air as it meets the sidepod inlet area. There is also less air split R&L for better flow along the sides of the sidepods as it heads towards the rear wheels.
Aero is such a complicated matter that you can't just look at a design and say... "the cow catcher is drag inducing"... you have to take into account the whole length of the car. In the end such a design could have lower drag when all things are considered.
And finally, trap speed is indicative of more than just d/f or drag... it is indicative of a team's philosophical approach to the various track sectors, the length of the straights relative to the corner exit speed and much more. For instance, it is paradoxical but a high d/f approach of of the last turn at Barca actually results in a higher trap speed down the main straight than a low d/f set-up because the straight is not long enough for the drag penalty to offset the benefit of a higher exit speed off of the corner leading up to the straight.
Innovation over refinement is the prefered path to performance. -- Get rid of the dopey regs in F1