shelly wrote: ↑06 Dec 2012, 00:49
@dave killens: I partly disagree with you post. The undercut was first proposed by ferrari in 2003. Its origin traces back to the notorious atempts at double floor in 1992 f92a and 1996 f310.
Migeot has said that the spread of the undercut vindicated his 1992 double floor idea.
The undercut reduces losses along the low part of the sidepod: less acceleration, higher pressure, lower losses in decelerating in the coke bottle.
The idea of having a low pressure over the floor edge, which you attribute to the undercut, is instead in my opinion what's behind the overcut solution adopted by redbull in the last 3 years.
PS The coke bottle concept is just partly linked to the undercut concept, and it dates back to Durand, 1984 (not barnard's idea iirc).
Even if this is a very old thread and post i think some corrections are necessary as a lot of things are not really correct.
The undercut of the sidepods do not have their origin in the double floor, even it later with the idea behind double floors. But the idea and reason for introducing it was a totally different one than that of a double floor. The main reason for the undercut on the Ferrari F2003 was to create vortices to seal the underfloor. The vortices were created by the sharp, cut out leading edge of the sidepod. This also brought the advantage of getting more air to the rear of the car and over the top of the diffusor. But the main purpose was to seal the underfloor with a vortice. It also was not seen first on the Ferrari F2003. Jordan tried this in 2000, but failed to make it work and after just one race it disappeared.
Henri Durand had nothing to do with the coke bottle concept. When the coke bottle concept was designed by Alan Jenkins in 1983 for the 1984 McLaren MP4-2, Henri Durand just finished his master degree and did not even work in F1 yet. It was Alan Jenkins idea on a John Barnard design. Even if it was not Barnards idea - it was introduced on a car designed by him. And a car Durand had nothing to do with.
