The cape is to feed the bargeboards more air. The floor also has raised leading edges. The rear wing also has a raised leading edge vs the lowest part. Raising the leading edge encourages more airflow to be funneled into the low pressure side. The more mass of air you have flowing over a surface, the greater the effect of that surface.ispano6 wrote: ↑23 Jul 2020, 06:46Exactly, race trim is loaded with fuel and the rear is stable. The low fuel runs is when the car seems to suffer.godlameroso wrote: ↑22 Jul 2020, 18:58High rake car will also experience much greater change in ride height with fuel weight. By it's very nature high rake car sees the rear squat a lot to bleed off downforce at speed. Thus the high rake philosophy is one where maximum downforce is generated at lower speeds and as the rear squats drag and downforce are reduced. Getting the car to squat at the right amount at the right speed range is probably tricky. Because the chassis deforms and performs differently at different speeds, and also the ride height changes which causes the downforce to work differently at different speeds.
Perhaps the car works better in the race because the ride height is moved to a more useful range due to the fuel weight. Why it's hard to get the pace from the car when it's on fumes.
I agree the nose seems to lift and causes the instability. Looking at the leading edge of the cape the angle looks like it would generate lift, but given that's so obvious there must be some benefit that outweighs the potential decrease in downforce from channeling the air from the cape in such a way. Based on Max and Alex's feedback that the car understeers and leads into a spin, it seems the center of rotation or aerodynamic balance is too far forward at the tea tray and would be more neutral and toward the barge boards if it had lower rake.
So the more airflow you have reaching the diffuser, or the top of the diffuser, the stronger the floor will be worked. The airflow being worked by the car is limited, you have to try to feed the most critical aero surfaces as much air as possible for them to do their thing.