Ryar wrote: ↑19 Dec 2021, 07:45
ringo wrote: ↑19 Dec 2021, 06:58
But the redbull for me was a masterpiece in downforce efficiency, braking, and agility. Coupled with that Honda motor it was a very consistent car and predictable. I think the qualifying sessions are where it simply looked like it was on rails.
The flexi wing regs may have hurt them somewhat. And was there some ruling on the ERS?
RB16B had its own challenges. C
oincidentally, it started with new construction of Pirelli that came in Silverstone. The car suddenly lost its front bite, causing balance issues. They had to sacrifice the rear end grip to balance front. It was the same case in Hungary, Turkey and Mexico. Because of the lack of front grip, Max had to adjust his driving and started to break early to get the front rotating. Conversely, the new compound seemed to have helped Mercedes as it reflected in the uptick of performance and as speculated, it helped them in sealing the diffuser better (with stiff side wall) which was a struggle with new breakduct regulations of 2021.
One of the worst elements in F1 of the last decade is Pirelli. For God sake, fire Pirelli and bring Bridgestone back. How long do we have to endure their inefficiency. Unpredictable tyres, pressures matching road cars and unending reliability issues of tyres. Never in F1 was there a period where one element was this bad. It's because of their rubbish tyres we see a sham like drivers queuing up in the last turn causing mayhem.
That's not how tyre aerodynamics work though. And that's a bit on overreaction to fire Pirelli!
Outside of causing drag and a dirty wake, the biggest problem of the tyres is that their jiggly-ness (or vibrations) causes ripples, or turbulence to the aerodynamics of the car near the diffuser. The stiffer the tyre the more stable it is and the less this effect.
The RedBull car has higher rake, so it's floor is further away from the tyre squirt area and brake ducts are closer to the floor and help to alleviate this disturbance from the tyres. The Mercedes floor is closer to the ground, and its brake ducts are farther away from it, so it suffers more pain from the tyre disturbance.
When the stiffer tyres were introduced ( as a request from RedBull post Baku), the tyres improved the floor aero for all teams, but as you know, it made a better improvement for Mercedes and Aston Martin, since their floors were suffering quite bad already with the prior construction.
So no, the new tyres did not damage RedBull, it helped all teams, but it did help to alleviate the handicap Mercedes and Aston had with the chopped floor.