Brenton wrote: ↑04 May 2018, 20:54
Interesting views on the philosophy of what F1 cars should and could look like. We have to ask if we want F1 cars appearance to be frozen for eternity... Banned from evolving as it did throughout F1 history. What if we had this view in the 60s? F1 cars would still look like they did in 1967 before wings.
I mean... I don't think aesthetics are a consideration for F1 rules per se... the front wing is where it is because it works best in clean air which you get at the front of the car, getting it lower aids the ground effect. In the 80's they worked out putting the rear wing higher gets it into cleaner air - they added the beam wing to reduce pressure behind the car to make the floor work better. The air intake is above the driver for the same reason it operated in clean air and gave nice ram pressure for the N/A cars. As designs converged on these principals the rules were written to limit performance, but became written around the basic shape which had become "how F1 cars look" or the "DNA of F1" or whatever. So now instead of the rules saying - "bodywork can be a maximum of 1400mm wide" the rules specify volumes for "front wing", "rear wing"...etc
All the ailerons and flaps of a fighter jet wouldn't work in F1 because there's a difference between low and high speed aerodynamics, well it may work but it'd be inefficient, so you're kinda stuck playing about with variations on front wing/rear wing/underbody. Look at a LMP1, Formula E (gen 2) or an Indycar - they produce downforce in the same way as F1 for the same reasons, albeit with subtle differences in implementation. Plus they have varying degrees of covered wheels for efficiency.
We know more about aerodynamics now than in the 60's so there's less experimentation to do, just refinement of existing concepts. Let's not forget how slapdash some aero in the past was - F1 cars were sculpted by designers (even as near as the 90's - some better at understanding aero than others) rather than defined and tested by scores of aerodynamicists.
especially if you want to make something representative. I'm fiddling with something based around a hybrid of the aeroscreen, halo and Indycar screen, with some of the LMP1 rules I like thrown in too. It's made the chassis super wide at the cockpit so I'm toying with the idea of 4WD with the ERS-K moved to the front axle.
I'll try to rectify that... no idea what happened.
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