tranquility2k4 wrote: ↑31 Aug 2018, 11:44
I have a bit of a 'novice' technical question that hopefully someone can clarify. I can see in the comparison of the Monza wings for Merc, Ferrari and RB that Merc appear to be running more downforce when just looking at the vertical flap of the wing, however, when looking at the horizontal flap, as has been noted by others, this is significantly shorter compared with Ferrari and RB. Sorry I'm not sure of the official names for these two parts - what are they? Also I always think of 'how much rear wing someone is running' as being based on the vertical part - what is the role of the horizontal part and how much would this increase / reduce downforce if it was increased / reduced in length.
In short - will Merc's horizontal piece being shorter result in a large reduction of downforce and overall will it mean they maybe have less downforce from the rear wing than Ferrari's configuration?
Generally simplified speaking, the horizontal part of the wing provides surface where the pressure provides usable downforce. Therefore generally you want to increase the this part as much as possible, because it "only" provides downforce and no induced drag, ergo downforce for "free". The vertical part of the wing, the flap, generates the pressure differential between the top and bottom surface.
But the pressure difference between the top and bottom surface always creates a vortex on the wing tips. This is "bad" since you put energy into a change of airflow, that doesn't provide you with downforce. To lessen this effect, you can decrease the pressure difference towards the wing tips, or as in the F1 case, you "create" a counteracting vortex (the slots in the rear wing endplates).
This also means that a narrower wing (aka the Mercedes design) should be more efficient.
But all this is very simplified and all the interactions on a design can produce very different effects. (I think that the Red Bull is running such a flat wing because the general flow field are going more over the top of the sidepods, ergo they have a tendency to go down. This means that the effective angle of attack is higher than it looks. While on the Mercedes and Ferrari it seems to go much more around the sidepods, therefore the stream has less downwards momentum)