Red Bull RB7 Renault

[FW17]

Yup. A hole means you have a donut type thing where there is material around the perimeter of the orifice, but Red Bull goes and does it the other way. There is nothing saying the floor's edges have to be perfect squares/right angles

Then this will be allowed, which is not the case

[raymondu999]

First off, that's a picture from 2 years ago. Second, I wasn't aware that was illegal. AFAIK McL raced that in 2009

[mith]

This cut is, as far as I know, perfectly legal and they ditched it because it wasn't working the way they expected.

[Lindz]

The way I see it, a hole or opening is a gap that is surrounded by _____ (bodywork, floor, etc) if you are looking at any given surface. The rules state that the floor can not have any holes or openings in the central 90cm, and it must be a continuous surface. If RBR make the floor shaped a certain way where some areas just ahead of the diffuser are narrower than the maximum 100cm, from plan view with will appear to be a hole or opening. But in reality, it is just the shape of the floor's edge, as it is not fully enclosed by the floor (ie having '4 sides', etc).

The exhausts (and 'openings' in the floor) are clearly wider than 5cm. To me, this is good lateral thinking, and legal.

Does it ever say that the continuous floor surface MUST be 100cm wide in that area? If no, then they are in the clear.

[ESPImperium]

Yup. A hole means you have a donut type thing where there is material around the perimeter of the orifice, but Red Bull goes and does it the other way. There is nothing saying the floor's edges have to be perfect squares/right angles

Then this will be allowed, which is not the case

Im thinking of combining things in this here. So, if if you were to take this cut out with the Mercedes W02 exhausts with side skirts that came the entire way from the side pod turning vane. Im not talking about old 1980s skirts, but skirts that came from the floor upwards.

Gasses would be able to flow under and over the diffuser to increase downforce at the diffuser.

[ringo]

there is no loophole, red bull just have a perfectly legal narrower floor.

3.12.10 In an area lying 650mm or less from the car centre line, and from 450mm forward of the rear face of the
cockpit entry template to 350mm forward of the rear wheel centre line, any intersection of any bodywork
visible from beneath the car with a lateral or longitudinal vertical plane should form one continuous line
which is visible from beneath the car.

This is what mclaren have, which is 350mm ahead of rear wheel centre line; 350 is about 20mm ahead of the rear wheel surface.
Not to be confused or combined with this:

3.12.9 In an area lying 450mm or less from the car centre line, and from 450mm forward of the rear face of the
cockpit entry template to 350mm rearward of the rear wheel centre line, any intersection of any bodywork
visible from beneath the car with a lateral or longitudinal vertical plane should form one continuous line
which is visible from beneath the car. When assessing the compliance of bodywork surfaces in this area
the aperture referred to in Article 3.12.7 need not be considered

Now redbull simply have a shorter continuous line. No loophole there,they just did a give and take with the floor area.

[Lindz]

Yup. It's just a 'shorter/narrower continuous line'. No step or 'hole', thus not illegal.

[Robbobnob]

also to add, the only place where the 'step plane' or the floor needs to be, (other than the aforementioned regulations) is where there is sprung body work, deemed to be everything that is the body of the car apart from the suspension members, wings and rear view mirrors.. hence why the tea tray goes right up to the front of the chassis.

Therefore the McLaren solution is legal in its entirety and if RBR were to mimic the MGP W02 exhaust solution, they could correctly cut out the floor right up to where the bodywork starts, a big opening not sure if it would be efficient though

[Formula None]

[FW17]

New front wing better than last year's

[Formula None]

^ Wow.

[raymondu999]

It's been there since the last 1 or 2 tests

[Formula None]

There's actually a whole thread dedicated to it. Looks like more twist than I've seen in the previous photos. The squashed aspect ratio could be exaggerating things. The DRS activation implies its not during braking.

[furnik28]

ithought they banned those screens it the pits due to O.H.S regs

[zgred]