2022 Winter Testing Part 1: Barcelona 23 - 25th February

[SmallSoldier]

Leclerc, Sainz, Max and Albon about following another car.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lecl ... y/8495163/

George & Lando reported that the slip stream was massively reduced, compared to last few years, so echoing the Ferrari drivers comments really, and I suppose what should have been expected really

The new cars are supposed to direct air upwards than sideways like the old cars, which means in a straight line any car behind will have a bigger slipstream effect! But they don't...any ideas why??

The way I understand it is that with the previous generation of cars, the turbulent air from the diffuser and the air that was out washed (by the front wings + brake air ducts + bargeboards) ended up right behind the car, which meant that the following car had less air resistance and therefore slipstream… The new cars are sending most of that turbulent air upwards instead of right behind, therefore the air resistance for the car behind doesn’t change as much and there is less slipstream

[LM10]

How long until the track dries out? Might not take long as it's already dry enough for Inters.

*track wetted to test wet tires*

everyone: ah damn now we need to wait for it to dry up

Yeah, it kind of was like that.

[dans79]

Leclerc, Sainz, Max and Albon about following another car.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lecl ... y/8495163/

George & Lando reported that the slip stream was massively reduced, compared to last few years, so echoing the Ferrari drivers comments really, and I suppose what should have been expected really

The new cars are supposed to direct air upwards than sideways like the old cars, which means in a straight line any car behind will have a bigger slipstream effect! But they don't...any ideas why??

https://www.racefans.net/2022/02/09/new ... -straight/

“The theory is that if you create a shape where, as the downforce is produced, that always kind of produces up-wash at the back of the car, so you get this kind of rooster tail coming up at the back,” Newey explained. However, he said “if that then back fills or side fills from underneath, then the wake from the car goes above the car that’s following it. So therefore, the car behind keeps its downforce much better than it does currently.”

Another way to think of it is that this years cars punch a much smaller hole in the air than last years.

[e30ernest]

I haven’t heard much about porpoising today. Have the Teams solved the issue? Or has it just become a nonfactor?

Can still see it in some of the clips from today's highlight video from F1's Youtube channel:



Particularly Ferrari at 4:37, and Red Bull 4:48.

[Chuckjr]

On these Venturi effect cars, when the air exits from the diffuser under the rear wing, is it moving faster, the same speed, or slower than the air moving over the wing?

[McL-H]

How long until the track dries out? Might not take long as it's already dry enough for Inters.

*track wetted to test wet tires*

everyone: ah damn now we need to wait for it to dry up

Yeah, it kind of was like that.

And the first wet GP they complain about Pirelli’s not being able to disperse enough water, disregarding their role in not properly testing these tyres for them.

[mrluke]

Leclerc, Sainz, Max and Albon about following another car.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lecl ... y/8495163/

George & Lando reported that the slip stream was massively reduced, compared to last few years, so echoing the Ferrari drivers comments really, and I suppose what should have been expected really

The new cars are supposed to direct air upwards than sideways like the old cars, which means in a straight line any car behind will have a bigger slipstream effect! But they don't...any ideas why??

The issue with "dirty air" is that its moving in the same direction as the cars (to an extent) meaning it has less energy to be used for downforce. Therefore it also offers less air resistance which creates the slip stream.

By reducing the "dirty air" cars following will get more downforce but also more air resistance therefore less slip stream.

The cars are also lower drag (I believe?) which means the leading car is slowed less by the air, therefore the potential reduction in drag to the following car is also less.

To get maximum slipstream you want a super high drag car punching a massive hole through the air, with the following super high drag car encountering much less resistance.

For overtaking what you really need is variation between the cars. The holy grail is cars doing the same laptime but getting there in completely different ways. Somebody gaining 0.5s in each corner and losing 0.4s in each straight is going to have more opportunities (and a better battle) then a car gaining 0.1s in each corner and nothing on the straights, even though overall laptime differential is the same.

[JPBD1990]

Excuse this persons meme, but this is the first footage I’ve seen of a car riding kerbs hard.

Does anyone have footage of other cars riding kerbs, and do we know how each car compares? I’ve heard Ferrari are needing to run much stiffer, which I think this vid demonstrates. I wonder how that compares to others…

[JPBD1990]

Super interesting thread from the legend Tami from Gazzetta. Posting here instead of individual teams because it mentions several (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, redbull)

(It starts with Ferrari but click through the following posts)

[PlatinumZealot]

Quite disappointing. I was expecting sub 77 seconds lap based on certain considerations. Seems like nobody was willing to throw the car around. They are close to 3 seconds slower than last year's pole. If we add that this is winter time where the track is faster by around a second, then it's around 4 seconds off for like for like track conditions. Most long run times were in the 83/84 seconds zone, which definitely put the cars on par with last year's race laps. So that says nobody pushed the cars on fumes.

Last year's car were extremely developed along that regulation path. We are talking the same aerodynamic philosophies from 2014, and even earlier really.
With these new ground effect regulations, the teams are still figuring things out on a more basic level. So three, four seconds a back with 50kg more weight is not surprising.

[InsaneX_Badger]

Quite disappointing. I was expecting sub 77 seconds lap based on certain considerations. Seems like nobody was willing to throw the car around. They are close to 3 seconds slower than last year's pole. If we add that this is winter time where the track is faster by around a second, then it's around 4 seconds off for like for like track conditions. Most long run times were in the 83/84 seconds zone, which definitely put the cars on par with last year's race laps. So that says nobody pushed the cars on fumes.

Last year's car were extremely developed along that regulation path. We are talking the same aerodynamic philosophies from 2014, and even earlier really.
With these new ground effect regulations, the teams are still figuring things out on a more basic level. So three, four seconds a back with 50kg more weight is not surprising.

Very true, I still remember how much evolution there was between the 2017 and 2018 cars, once the teams start racing the understanding of what will unlock pace in the race will become more obvious

[JPBD1990]

Interesting to compare best 2nd and 3rd sectors in particular IMO.

[dans79]

Interesting to compare best 2nd and 3rd sectors in particular IMO.

What I personally found interesting, was that Hamilton's theoretical fastest lap was 0.509 seconds faster than his actual best lap,none of the other front runners had that kind of delta. That could mean Merc is sandbagging, or the car is a mess/handfull!

It would be interesting to see the sector times from his fastest lap, so they could be compared to his fastest sectors.

[JPBD1990]

^^ good point and interesting to consider. You’re right the others didn’t have such a delta, so my theory is Mercedes (as they’ve appeared to do in the past), tested at least at some stage ‘per sector’ - so trying for best sector 1 independently, best sector 2, etc etc.

[Ryar]

Interesting to compare best 2nd and 3rd sectors in particular IMO.

What I personally found interesting, was that Hamilton's theoretical fastest lap was 0.509 seconds faster than his actual best lap,none of the other front runners had that kind of delta. That could mean Merc is sandbagging, or the car is a mess/handfull!

It would be interesting to see the sector times from his fastest lap, so they could be compared to his fastest sectors.

Anyone that has watched F1 for a decent amount of time would tell you, it's how a driver decides to use tyres for each sectors on different laps. On one lap, you could drive harder in S1 and set that as your faster time and agree to let go S3 or save in S1 and use it in S3. Combining best times from 3 sectors of different laps is naive to say, theoretically, this would have been the best time. Sandbagging? Yeah, everyone is holding back and doesn't want to show which is no brainer. RB and Ferrari didn't even choose to go to C4 or C5. Make whatever of that.