Well, this is modern F1 and the rule books force research into the most obscure, byzantine areas. The list of legitimate performance technologies banned is quite long as we all know. Take a look at the 2011 Innovations thread. Some of what the other members and myself have posted there is quite amusing really. It's all getting a bit Rube Goldberg.raymondu999 wrote: They seem to love gimmicks too. F-duct. inerter. Their funky braking system a few years back
I'm thinking the complete opposite. Next year it will be even harder to gain low-drag down force since the diffuser is more restricted. Therefore they will have to grab down force opportunities wherever possible.myurr wrote:Everyone goes on about how draggy the back end of the McLaren was, but the team says the philosophy of the car was low drag compared to Red Bull that went high drag but high down force. Arguably the McLaren started off as the more aerodynamically efficient of the two, but the extra downforce Red Bull brought to the table more than compensated. Naturally these things are all relative - it's not high vs low drag at all, but you hopefully know what I mean.
Next season is supposed to favour a low drag approach due to the limiting of down force from the floor. Hence McLaren could actually be in a good position where simple evolution of the current car will serve them well rather than the revolution they had to go with between the 24 and 25.
That was my gut feel, but I remember reading somewhere that one of the teams was saying next year would favour a low drag car. Possibly it's because of the lack of an efficient floor that means it's not possible to generate enough down force to make up for all the drag, and the downforce/drag compromise is tipped back towards a lower downforce lower drag solution?imightbewrong wrote:I'm thinking the complete opposite. Next year it will be even harder to gain low-drag down force since the diffuser is more restricted. Therefore they will have to grab down force opportunities wherever possible.
On the other hand I am far from an aerodynamicist, so I would trust my own thoughts on this!