It's more of a general principle solution. The issue they are trying to solve here is the 'endplate' (the vertical fence) and arched footplate. Those pieces of bodywork are hindering flow from getting underneath the the horizontal pieces of the footplate. Underneath the wing, you have a negative pressure area which on interaction with the flow from outside creates a very powerful vortex, which aids in creating downforce from the wing. To get around the issue, Mercedes already installed slots on the horizontal section to bleed flow into the tunnel in the past. However, the new solution should be quite beneficial as it will raise the pressure gradient.wesley123 wrote:Maybe it's main benefit is under low ride heights as it would effectively allow flow to bleed into the tunnelturbof1 wrote:Not the same function though as the RWEP louvres. It's to feed the vortex inside the "tunnel".
Lookbacktime's pictures actually accentuates a subtle, but important difference too: the pieces inbetween the slots are now flatter and more horizontal, opposed to the previous solution where they had they had a small negative AoA. The change attempts to raise pressure underneath the horizontal sections I believe, all in order to raise your pressure differential.
It's a very similar principe to a diffuser.
