The benefits of clean air - laptimes

[freytheviking]

Firstly, I have been lurking on the forums for a couple of months now and I must say, this place is fabulous for any car/racing fan. I am slowly becoming more interested in the technical aspects of F1 and was wondering if any of you know what the concrete benefits of being in "clean air" is.

I know that a car following the car(s) ahead of him/her is subject to turbulent air. Other than some loss of balance, how much raw lap time and down force do you reckon a driver loses? Can it be very significant as in a couple of tenths? Did a forum search and nothing came up. Thanks in advance!

[raymondu999]

It's hard - as the distance is closer the effect increases. Different cars also put out different wakes, further complicating a generalisation.

[BalazsSzabo]

It is really impossible to say. A modern F1 cars is completely built around the aerodinamics.
The loss depends on the type of the corners. In Monza it can actually be a benefit to follow a car, but if you follow a car over the whole lap, it can be a disadvantage even there. Generally the car loses so much downforce at the front, that the understeer gets tremendously huge and you feel the car won't turn in and you have to hesitate for a long while to get on the throttle.
Back to your question: I think you can lose two-three tenths in ONE single corner, but it all depends on many factors.

[munks]

At one point I read that these racecar aerodynamicists don't really consider it truly 'clean air' until about 20 seconds after the previous car has passed. I know we're talking about some sort of decaying function, but it would really be interesting if you could detect any performance change at that length.

But yeah, I agree with BalazsSzabo, you could lose several tenths in an important corner.

[freytheviking]

Thanks for the responses. I wonder if the OR departments of the various teams take this into account when building their race simulations.