2017-2020 Aerodynamic Regulations Thread

[godlameroso]

How powerful are the sidepod fences? It's obvious that they have to deal with the outwash of the bargeboards, the turbulence of the front tires as well as any longitudinal airflow all at once, while also guiding air into the sidepod inlets.

[Blackout]

An interesting CFD comparison between the effects of the thumb nose and the thin nose
https://salientedge.com/blog/2018/5/16/ ... ose-part-2

[MtthsMlw]

According to AMuS any tyre squirt slots will be banned for 2021 to cut down on DF as Pirelli doesn't want to develop new tyres for 2021.
Source
PS: One could update this thread's title to 2017-2021.

[Sevach]

Pirelli are such control freaks, Bridgestone wasn't this paranoid under stable regulations.

[jjn9128]

TBF to Pirelli the cars had less downforce in the Bridgestone era. Also they weren't deliberately making tyres to fall apart. Don't get me wrong Pirelli have been just about the worst thing ever to happen to f1 but it's not entirely their fault/ineptitude.

[Morteza]

[Morteza]

[Blackout]

https://twitter.com/LukeSmithF1/status/ ... 7958726656

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29087&start=15 ; )

[jjn9128]

For supposedly stable regulations they sure are making a load of changes...

[Morteza]

https://twitter.com/LukeSmithF1/status/ ... 7958726656

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29087&start=15 ; )

I totally missed that topic. I'll post them there

[Morteza]

For supposedly stable regulations they sure are making a load of changes...

Yup, the rules were supposed to remain stable to cut down on costs. Now they are adding more and more changes to counteract Pirelli's incomptenece, adding more cost

[jjn9128]

Yup, the rules were supposed to remain stable to cut down on costs. Now they are adding more and more changes to counteract Pirelli's incomptenece, adding more cost

I'll defend Pirelli a bit. The teams were the ones who rejected the 2020 tyres. But as we now know the fia value development of rear brake ducts at $500,000 - that's a drivers wage for a mid/rear field team.

[mzso]

It would have been more sane to backtrack on their position and get Pirelli to produce tougher tires for next year.

[Bandit1216]

Hi all.

I hope this is not covered before but I have a question about double diffuser -ish type advantages. Because merc is still so dominant I'm wondering more and more what their advantage is. Especially because it's not obvious where they get their downforce. Not for me at least. Not saying they cheat but:

Would it be within the rules, or perhaps a good way to bend the rules, when you create extra air movement above the diffuser with air coming from completely somewhere else? A bit hard to explain what I mean. Let's say you use a s duct type hole in the nose. Or perhaps even the air intake above the driver. I can think of other places to harvest cool air. Maybe from where the plank begins, above the plank where the air splits to left and right. Would it be possible to channel that air all the way to the diffuser secretly. Would it even benefit? Also intake above the engine is now more then just an inlet. 2/3 is used to cool a radiator. I'm quite sure it's not allowed to harvest cool air under the floor, or introduce extra air under the floor, but what about the area above the diffuser?

Could you mix cool air with the hot air out of the body to create extra downforce? Or jet cool air out and upwards somewhere between the diffuser and the rear light/crash structure. Or simply use cool air from completely somewhere else to create a blown diffuser?

Am I just thinking of things thought of by others, way before me, or talking complete BS?

[jjn9128]

I hope this is not covered before but I have a question about double diffuser -ish type advantages. Because merc is still so dominant I'm wondering more and more what their advantage is. Especially because it's not obvious where they get their downforce. Not for me at least. Not saying they cheat but:

Mercedes advantage is in everything. The have the best engine on the grid, but also because they design it they have the cooling tuned perfectly - one of the reasons they're poorer in traffic than others. Ferrari and Red Bull have this but are down on power compared to the Merc. They have enough money that they can make parts lighter-weight than most of the rest of the field - if the COG can be lowered by 10mm it's worth ~0.1s/lap. They have a good aero-platform, but also a stable aero-platform so the drivers are able to push with confidence - unlike the Ferrari and Red Bull which seem to have handling issues with one of their drivers (Albon unstable rear, Vettel can't get the tyres turned on for qualifying). It also means the car is gentle on its tyres because the drivers aren't sliding, and Hamilton seems to be better at keeping the tyres alive. They understand the Pirelli tyres, after their secret tyre test in 2013 they seem to have an innate and unmatched understanding of the Pirelli rubber... make of that what you will.

Once you start adding up all the little advantages then it becomes a big advantage. I don't think there's a trick they're just outspending and out-engineering their rivals.