bhall wrote:A bit of a reset.
I think the idea of somehow getting air flow "under the car" via a high nose is a bit misleading, as air flow truly under the car comes from
under the sidepods on either side of the plank. The purpose of a high nose, on the other hand, is to help move air
around the sidepods to the back of the car. That's why the area under the cockpit is dominated by a splitter. This is easily seen on last year's high-nose Ferrari.
http://i.imgur.com/IjLrb4J.jpg
F138
The new car relies on an adverse pressure gradient, which is an area where pressure rises downstream, in this case suddenly, in order to encourage flow to spill over the nose and around the sides. This flow is further directed by the camera pods to move toward the splitter to be turned around the sidepods.
http://i.imgur.com/FpioMKP.jpg
F14 T at Jerez
As shelly mentioned, a potential advantage of this nose, as well as with the Mercedes design, is the low-pressure zone (read: downforce) that will be created under the nose. A disadvantage is that air flow spilled over the nose will lose energy as a result of the adverse pressure gradient. To combat this, Ferrari uses elements on the barge boards that are effectively vortex generators which attempt to "energize" flow around the sidepods. (And please excuse my lack of artistry below. Air flow will not be turned as sharply as I've depicted. Ferrari has likely ensured that all turns are as gentle as possible, otherwise turned air flow on top of the nose can contribute to lift.)
http://i.imgur.com/rQIm4Hz.jpg
F14 T
Incidentally, Mercedes does things a bit differently. Instead of using a sharp adverse pressure gradient to encourage flow to spill over the nose and eventually around the sidepods, they use this: the batwing, from which tip vortices are shed to "energize" flow around the sidepods. (I have to admit that the novelty of this solution tickles me to death. It's a barge board under the chassis.)
http://i.imgur.com/dki5gV1.jpg
W05
These designs have the potential for less drag than other dick-nose designs. Not only does the phallus have a tendency to disturb air flow, simply allowing a loooooooong boundary layer to form under the chassis carries the risk of increased drag due to the tendency of boundary layer flow to thicken downstream, which effectively
increases the size of the chassis. This was an acceptable trade with high-nose designs because of the significant increase in mass flow - and teams still tried to tidy up the boundary layer, as scarbs would say, wherever possible. Such a trade may no longer be worthwhile.
http://i.imgur.com/asJmWSf.jpg
FW36
All of this is to say, there are no black-and-white, good-or-bad solutions this year. At least not yet. I think the designs are simply too immature to judge at this point.