I'm not suggesting that the diffuser stay is not there to support the diffuser. That is its primary purpose. I agree. It is more mass efficient than thickening the diffuser by several kgs.Owen.C93 wrote: ↑10 Jul 2024, 20:41I meant legality wise, not literally.
The stay is there to stop the diffuser losing volume and also for durability. They have stiffeners on the side walls of the diffuser because they have a tendency to bend inwards from the suction.
The floor takes 100s of kgs of load and it's most weight efficient to use wire stays to resolve that load to the chassis than it is to add titanium or carbon stiffeners.
It just shouldn't be overlooked that from an engineering point of view, there are side effects that may be allowed by design choices. Whether those side effects are measurable or inconsequential, there is still a mechanism for what was described.