raymondu999 wrote:Crucial_Xtreme wrote:Pat Fry has said the 2013 car will retain the front pull rod suspension. He also said he regrets not developing DDRS & that the 2013 car will be an evolution of the F2012.
If we are to believe Gary Anderson's words that the problem in qualifying is the diffuser stall during DRS - would it really be a bad thing?
Let's say we take what Gary Anderson says as true. Absolutely no disrespect to him - he was an F1 designer, I was not, though I admit I'm a bit younger and I still have my chance
What he's saying is that during RFA period (Rear Flap Activator) the air doesn't reattach back to the rear wing, this lowers the downforce, respectively and stalls the diffuser. What that means is that large chunk of rear downforce is lost - both through the wing and subsequently through diffuser.
We know from Katz that the diffuser itself can have many setup and permutations to create donwforce, in F1 these device are rather limited and restricted in sizes - 12.5 cm height, 100 cm width and 35 cm length. Its kick angle is very aggressive, so that it creates swift expand area and thus create a sudden pressure drop. We also know that diffuser can work really well in conjunction with the rear wing, which is "driving" it. So, in that regard, what G. Anderson is saying absolutely makes sense, but what I can't understand are the specifics of the rear wind and the DRS flap - why would that be a problem and where, exactly?
A while ago I have made a comparison between different teams' DRS positions,
here's the original post.
One of the reasons for non-reattached airflow could be simple Kutta condition. The only way to understand this would be to have a look at the rear wing's various measurements, such as wind tunnel plume or CFD - smile here, you can guess why.
Other possibility would be extreme pitch sensitivity, which is rather unlikely during the race where you enable DRS on the straights, and presumably the cars are running on a flat field, whereas in qualifying that's rather possible, as DRS is activated in various places. The effect of pitch sensitive car will, IMHO, disturb the freestream flow that would otherwise feed the DRS compartment.
