maxpp wrote: ↑21 Mar 2022, 05:17
Emag wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022, 14:58
KingHamilton01 wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022, 14:07
Just curious to know how difficult would it be for McLaren to change concept at this point in the season? for example if they wanted to go for an undercut in the sidepods, could that be something they could realistically change or to many fundamental components that would need to be move like radiator layout etc. Think there is at least some scope for changing the way sidepods would aid airflow to the rear of the car if that isn't working as intended and not creating the high pressure airflow they want at the moment.
For the record I do believe they are somewhat compromised by there brake setup atm, so they have some time in hand there for sure. But as the team said that could be the 3rd-4th race in before they get on top of those issue's clearly not easy manufacturing the part's they need for the brakes or they have decided to adopt a new philosophy from another team there.
This is not a matter of having an undercut or not having an undercut. You can put an undercut on that car and it will probably work the same, if not worse. I understand, you look at the other cars, you look at McLaren and the first difference you see is the lack of undercut. But Mercedes doesn't even have sidepods yet they qualified a full second ahead. F*cking Aston Martin has the biggest undercut of them all and they are tied for the slowest car on the grid ...
Eye aero is bullsh*t and pointless. You can't know how good a concept performs just by looking at it. So no, their issues aren't magically going to disappear just by opening up a path below their sidepods.
Aston martin are losing 0.75 seconds from porpoising solutions, and are working on revamping their car. And btw using your eyes to analyze a cars aero is all we can do, do you have their wind tunnel and CFD data? NO. You can figure out the core concept of a car by seeing it just with your eyes, the details are different.
You “can” use your eyes to analyze aero… You most probably won’t be right, unless you are an experience aerodynamicist… Most of us fans, do not have the knowledge, experience and understanding to visually determine why a concept would or wouldn’t work… The example this season with Ferrari is a classic, where everyone underestimate them by saying that it was bulky and therefore draggy, while Mercedes was the slimmest and therefore with very low drag… It appears that is the complete opposite.
It’s too early to say if the MCL36 concept is bad, is it just a matter of setup? Is it possible that because of how constrained they have to be for parts they didn’t had the right combination of Rear Wing / Front Wing that would suit Bahrain? Is the size of the Tunnel Inlets the problem? Is it the sidepods? Is it the new suspension layout?… We just don’t know at this point and without knowing what or where is the deficit, we can’t bluntly say that is “the concept”.
It is clear that something isn’t working as expected and it seems that even the team is trying to find those answers… Unluckily, we can only wait and see what they come up with, but I don’t think it will be soon.