segedunum wrote:I must admit to being suprised by this car. I know it's not yet the full monty and that things will change a great deal in winter testing but I can't imagine this being anywhere near good enough, even just looking at the general profile of the car which can't change radically.
The first thing you notice is the front wing. That has to change, obviously.
It has a noticeably higher nose, probably to maximise the volume of air under and to the rear of the car and to get the maximum downforce possible from the smaller diffuser. While that sounds sensible, and we saw a similar thing in the 90s with regulation changes, but depending on the numbers and how much performace can be got out of a more efficient rear end I half suspect we will see a RB7 next week with a lower nose. With things like KERS the lower centre of gravity might just swing it. It might be too much to manage, but it wouldn't surprise me.
The sidepods are nowhere near as undercut as I would have expected them to be. Remember that with the smaller diffuser this year every component forward of it is more vital than ever in clawing back the downforce lost and gaining an advantage. If you can channel and increase more air to it then you do it, and you clear as much space as possible to accomplish it.....
....Which leads on to the push-rod suspension that seems to have been so much discussed. If a push-rod layout is the right way to go then I wonder why Ferrari have come up with a more elaborate configuration, apparently in an attempt to gain some of the advantages of a pull-rod layout and opening up clearer channels to the diffuser. It just sounds like hacking something to be like something else.
The reason why of course is because they didn't have time. Red Bull have had a pull-rod suspension for two years, and they would have designed a new gearbox and components in the rear of the car specifically so they could use that layout well in advance. If anything is the wrong size, shape or angle back there then you can't make it work. Unless Ferrari had planned to have a pull-rod rear suspension months in advance they simply can't do it.
I'm going to reserve judgement on how their season will go until I see what happens in winter testing, but unless they get a raft of components on that car in the tests or there is some secret hidden weapon somewhere I have a feeling this thing is going to tank. Sticking my neck out there, but the one goal Ferrari should have had in their sights was to go well above and beyond the RB6 development path. I can't see this doing it.
The under cut helps but it is not necessary if the sidepods are as narrow as can be. One danger of too much undercut as well is air accelerating in the undercut, which lowers the pressure over the floor.
If you look carefully at the rb6 and rb5 they have no undercut, but a fillet; the complete opposite.
the F150 is actually a carbon copy of an rb5 midbody and roll hoop and engine cover split, with a Mclaren nose and intakes and wannabe pull rods.
which is not bad. They know what they need to do to win. The RB6's DDD has too much influence on the width, and they probably realized that the 5 is the correct one to mimic, being much more extreme with the single diffuser.
I find the 5 to be more extreme than the 6 in the rear.
