basti313 wrote: ↑17 Apr 2017, 16:25
mani517 wrote: ↑17 Apr 2017, 16:19
I'm not a very technical person, so, struggling to understand Pat Symonds' point of view about the flexing floor flap. He says "it isn't a cheat or anything like that", but, he also says "it isn't legal as it stands, IMO".
Rules don't allow a closed section and it isn't a closed section... so, why would he say it isn't legal? Can someone help me understand his opinion?
I think the flexibility is the problem, not the slot.
But there are two problems and because of them no one really cares:
- It draw our attention when it was wobbling around. But it should not wobble, it can not do anything good for the aero when it wobbles up and down like mad. At this point it was simply broken.
- Merc is running a very similar flap. For others I did not check it. But I do not think Ferrari has found the holy grail with its cut in the floor, this is a rather standard piece in F1 and is on the cars since 5 years now. I think RedBull started this cutting.
Thanks for the response. May be, the length of this cantilever flap is making it flex a lot more than intended. Then again, if the intention is just to bleed the high pressure air from underneath the floor and flexing is counter-productive, it can't be too hard to fix -- unless, they don't want to change the shape of the flap or the material for some specific reason.
[edited] the more I think about it, Pat's point about the shape of the flap makes good sense. A slot running at an angle to the spine of the car is going to bleed a lot more air than the one that runs parallel to the spine of the car (like Merc's flap). So, may be, the flexing is the by-product of the length and shape of the flap & volume of air it bleeds from underneath the floor.