henra wrote:ringo wrote:The redbull design would help them. It would help all cars not using the design. It's simply a better solution.
F1 cars are quite modular.
I'm not so sure it would help them without further modifications.
The Ramp/Tunnel solution makes me feel that it is not particularly well suited to an agressive High Nose design.
Those are normally rather optimised for maximum flow around the sidepods and unobstructed coke bottle similar to Ferrai (and Merc to some extent).
The Ramp / Tunnel solution isn't really favouring a strong undercut flow around the sides as this would lead to slow flow / high pressure in front of the tyres increasing cross flow over the ramp, which would disturb the ramp flow to the diffuser.
The tunnel can only take a quite limited mass flow due to the diameter and length of the tubing.
So I'm not sure copy/paste is a good idea in all cases with the Ramp/Tunnel solution. That said, I tend to think that the max On- Throttle downforce effect of an optimised Ramp/Tunnel solution could be superior to the Bulge/Coke Bottle Solution. The Trade- Off should be drag and Off- Throttle Downforce. (RB mitigates the latter with a very clean flow to the diffuser over the sidepods).
The On- throttle downforce advantage trumps Off- Throttle downforce a bit insofar as it improves traction out of the turns. This gives a benefit over the whole subsequent straight as well, whereas Off- Throttle downforce only helps during the first part of the turn itself.
One thing i've never heard mentioned from any article is the total flow going around the gearbox. I'm quite annoyed by this "coke bottle" talk. It's very simplistic a view. The flow is three dimensional. The flow going around the gearbox first and foremost is most critical to the beam wing, bewteen tyre and end plate and the top of the diffuser. That area the ramp exhuast is using, isn't the majority of the flow going to the rear of the car, neither is it the quality flow.
The mclaren solution is in fact just as much an obstruction. It obstructs the mid height. The redbull solution is in the best area, closer to where the slowest, lowest quality flow is, which is near the ground. It obstructs where the flow quality is at it's poorest. It's not obstructing the higher heights where beam wing flow and diffuser gurney flow is critical.
I don't think we have any substantial evidence to say how either solution works in a corner. What is most obvious is that one has less variables to account for. So i can't speak to any on or offthrottle effects. What is certain is that if there is a headwind, the mclaren solution will overheat the tyres as the exhuast flow will land further back. I can only speak to the relative speeds between car, wind and exhaust.
edit: to add to the "coke bottle" (hate that word!
) flow thing, redbull's sidepods and lotus have a certain design feature i'm still yet to divulge, but there is a stronger downwash on these side pods. Bring flow from upwards down over the diffuser. So as i said, think in three dimensions, don't assume all flow is coming from the flanks of the car.