Red Bull RB15

[HondaPOD]

Redbull Honda closes the chimney in the top of the engine cover.

[Marti_EF3]

Seems that the "mini shark fin" is smaller too

[Pyrone89]

As someone mentioned: “ funny that the one car who doesnt use lots of rake is the one dominating”. Perhaps time for RB to start thinking if their rake approach is the best car concept?

Furthermore in Silverstone and to less extent in Hockenheim I noticed massive sparking from the RB’s, so much so that I wonder how that does not slow the car down by constant friction. Especially in Silverstone sector 1 it was 1 long firework show uninterrupted.

[Sieper]

Those are just the titanium skidpads skidding over the asphalt. It presents no meaningful drag. The lower you can get the car to the ground the better the downforce from the Floor and diffusor and the better the benefit of the high rake works. The disadvantage from a low sitting car is bottoming out and possibly losing control because of it, at the very least you not being able to position he car as wanted.

If the spec 4.0 delivers then I think you will finally be able to judge the concept of this car and what RBR and Newey do.

Offcourse the Merc is a top car, there are many things the Merc team has going for it but have Some confidence.

[Pyrone89]

Those are just the titanium skidpads skidding over the asphalt. It presents no meaningful drag. The lower you can get the car to the ground the better the downforce from the Floor and diffusor and the better the benefit of the high rake works. The disadvantage from a low sitting car is bottoming out and possibly losing control because of it, at the very least you not being able to position he car as wanted.

If the spec 4.0 delivers then I think you will finally be able to judge the concept of this car and what RBR and Newey do.

Offcourse the Merc is a top car, there are many things the Merc team has going for it but have Some confidence.

Yeah I meant the bottoming out. Wasnt it at Suzuka in 2016 or 2017 that RIC lost time on the straight towards 130R because of too much bottoming out and the friction it creates? That is why I wondered it. But maybe if it are just the skidmarks and not more than it could be limited.

[Sieper]

If you run the car a bit higher you will run less risk of bottoming out, but you loose downforce. That is what they are doing the FPs for, to find the ideal point, together Ofcourse with the rest of the compromises you have to make for each track.

[CLKGTR]

Nice natural 'floviz' on Verstappen's car after the German GP

[Sieper]

Flowsludge. Is there a tear in the cover above the Siemens branding?

[lio007]

Is the air sucked into the area below the Siemens-logo?
For me the flow pattern points upwards from the floor. But to be honest I absolutely don't know if that would make any sense.

[Sieper]

It does, it is sped up there just like under the bottom of the car, with the real diffusor, the area above the Floor hete is also quite open, I guess this is a mini second diffusor, it will likely help to pull more air from under the Floor.

You could see the same pattern in the flwviz in the preseason tests on the McLaren I think it was, that has quite similar bodywork. In this area (non undercut, falling away side pod, going into this diffusor like flow.

[CLKGTR]

Another nice shot after the race (open in a new tab for hi-res 4000px)

[Maplesoup]

It does, it is sped up there just like under the bottom of the car, with the real diffusor, the area above the Floor hete is also quite open, I guess this is a mini second diffusor, it will likely help to pull more air from under the Floor.

You could see the same pattern in the flwviz in the preseason tests on the McLaren I think it was, that has quite similar bodywork. In this area (non undercut, falling away side pod, going into this diffusor like flow.

Its pushing as much air over the top of the diffuser and accelerates as much as possible. This improves the performance of the diffuser.

[godlameroso]

Those are just the titanium skidpads skidding over the asphalt. It presents no meaningful drag. The lower you can get the car to the ground the better the downforce from the Floor and diffusor and the better the benefit of the high rake works. The disadvantage from a low sitting car is bottoming out and possibly losing control because of it, at the very least you not being able to position he car as wanted.

If the spec 4.0 delivers then I think you will finally be able to judge the concept of this car and what RBR and Newey do.

Offcourse the Merc is a top car, there are many things the Merc team has going for it but have Some confidence.

Yeah I meant the bottoming out. Wasnt it at Suzuka in 2016 or 2017 that RIC lost time on the straight towards 130R because of too much bottoming out and the friction it creates? That is why I wondered it. But maybe if it are just the skidmarks and not more than it could be limited.

Isn't it cool that ride height is calculated to wear away just less than the max plank wear over the race? Crazy when you consider that every bump on track has to be taken into account, the forces involved, the driver and fuel load. Then balancing suspension compliance, kinematics, as well as platform control(ie accounting for pitching, yawing, flexing) over transients and steady state corners.

[godlameroso]

Is the air sucked into the area below the Siemens-logo?
For me the flow pattern points upwards from the floor. But to be honest I absolutely don't know if that would make any sense.

It makes perfect sense if you're trying to aim a vortex in between the engine cover and rear wheel, particularly if you're using the undercut of the engine cover to do so.

The air under the car will always be faster than the air above it because the air below is squeezed into a smaller volume due to the road and floor being so close to each other.

If you look closely these cars already have the ground effect tunnels that they plan for 2021, they use the bargeboards to form vortecies to create the outer wall of the "tunnel" since the floor is flat, the vortecies keep the air from spilling out from under the floor. Ironically you have to spill some air from the side of the floor to create the vortecies which fence in the airflow going underneath the car. If you spill too much air trying to seal the floor you don't get enough flow in the actual floor itself. Conversely if you don't spill enough air to create a consistent vortex along the floor, it spills out of the floor under yaw and you get horrible downforce instabilities.

So one needs to find a right compromise of floor sealing vortecies created by the bargeboards, while allowing and directing enough mass air flow to keep the diffuser sucking.

The RB15 has been fine tuning this compromise since the season started and have started making serious gains because of this. I'm just glad the chassis has enough flexibility to allow development.

I still think those wastegate pipes have something to do with it, because the car's performance has increased with the timing of those pipe modifications.

[Pyrone89]

Those are just the titanium skidpads skidding over the asphalt. It presents no meaningful drag. The lower you can get the car to the ground the better the downforce from the Floor and diffusor and the better the benefit of the high rake works. The disadvantage from a low sitting car is bottoming out and possibly losing control because of it, at the very least you not being able to position he car as wanted.

If the spec 4.0 delivers then I think you will finally be able to judge the concept of this car and what RBR and Newey do.

Offcourse the Merc is a top car, there are many things the Merc team has going for it but have Some confidence.

Yeah I meant the bottoming out. Wasnt it at Suzuka in 2016 or 2017 that RIC lost time on the straight towards 130R because of too much bottoming out and the friction it creates? That is why I wondered it. But maybe if it are just the skidmarks and not more than it could be limited.

Isn't it cool that ride height is calculated to wear away just less than the max plank wear over the race? Crazy when you consider that every bump on track has to be taken into account, the forces involved, the driver and fuel load. Then balancing suspension compliance, kinematics, as well as platform control(ie accounting for pitching, yawing, flexing) over transients and steady state corners.

Yeah absolutely amazing how they do it