Team: James Allison (TD), Simone Resta (CD), Corrado Lanzone (Head of production), Loic Bigois (AD), Dirk De Beer (HA), Mattia Binotto (HE), Bob Bell (Tech Advisor), Rory Byrne (Tech Advisor), Massimo Rivola (SD), Maurizio Arrivabene (TP), Sergio Marchionne (Chairman)
Drivers: Sebastian Vettel (5), Kimi Raikkonen (7), Esteban Gutierrez (Test)
yes, i think too,techF1LES wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember Ferrari running this version of the diffuser last year.
To me it looks like brand new floor with Red Bull-esque outer edges.
Yes like teams do with vertikal strakes aldready.wesley123 wrote:imo the horizontal louvres are to deal with a pressure difference. On the inside of the end plate there is a good open area, while on the outside the airflow is spoiled by huge amounts of winglets generating downforce.
I think the slots are there to bleed airflow from the inside to the outside to tidy up the airflow and improve airflow out between the end plates/diffuser.
That pretty summsup my the whole point of this train of thoughts:Just_a_fan wrote:Wings work because they have high pressure on one side and low pressure on the other (in simple terms). Naturally, the high pressure air wants to move in to the low pressure area (this is obvious in everyday life). To do this, it rolls around the end of the wing. This is fine. However, the wing is moving forward so the air rolling round the end forms a spiral - the vortex we see sometimes. On aircraft, the vortext is reduced by the little upturned ends we see on modern airliners.
Why is this important? Because the vortex has the effect of reducing the effective span of the wing. And if you reduce the span you reduce the lift (because lift is a function of the pressure difference per square metre of wing surface).
Wing endplates are very good at reducing this issue which is why F1 wings can generate so much downforce. However, because the rules limit the position of the rear wing and the teams want it as high as possible (for clean airflow), the wing is close to the top of the endplates. The 'bubble' of high pressure above the wing builds up and spills over the top of the endplate. This means the vortex can be generated afterall. By putting slots in the endplate the teams allow some of the high pressure air to bleed in to the low pressure air outside the endplate (lower pressure because it is moving quicker than the air above the wing).
What vortex is created is going to be rolling anti-clockwise (looking at the left side endplate looking from the front). The area behind the wing on the inside of the endplate is at lower pressure. By putting a cut out in this area the teams allow some of the low pressure area to try to set up a clockwise vortex. This counters the anti-clockwise flow and so reduces the overall vortex created.
The vortex has another effect - it creates drag because it contains a lot of energy; energy that has come from the car. Reduce the vortex and you reduce the drag and increase the downforce.
In summary, the slots and cut out improve the overall L/D of the car.
+ 1dren wrote: The biggest change I see is their radiator layout. It allows them to finally have similar sidepod undercut to all of the other teams. They always had odd sidepods that had the opposite of an undercut.
Originally, I thought those might be new rearview mirror housings. Maybe they they aren't being shown on the launch car for some reason? Could be something else altogether?
