bill shoe wrote:raymondu999 wrote:*slightly* off topic here, but IIRC last year in Canada so many teams were afraid of graining due to slipping/sliding that they slapped barn door wings on. And McLaren did that too, plus they had the f-duct so just slammed on massive wings for the added downforce.
I was also suprised by the large size of McLaren's Canada wing and especially by the large flap (large flaps have smaller angle change during DRS operation and therefore less drag reduction, this has been extensively discussed elsewhere).
This keeps getting bandied about, I'm honestly not as convinced by the logic as other people seem to be...
1) Yes, the AoA of the open wing is steeper, but so is the AoA of the closed wing – which one creates relatively more drag than the shorter wing? Why?
2) The slot is the same size. From the really dumb simplistic model of air resistance that says that it has the same absolute reduction in surface area hitting the air, so has the same reduction.
I think your comments are dead on-- McLaren will be giving up qualy pace (straight-line speed) in order to gain race-pace via longer stints on softer tires with less slip/wear.
I really doubt anyone will go the way of a barn door this year – with 2 epically long DRS zones basically covering half the distance of the track you really want your gear ratios set up for very high speeds, and your aero with it.