Vanja #66 wrote: ↑24 May 2022, 13:25
Couldn't help but notice my name being mentioned more than once recently in this thread, in some cases way out of context and again without any actual argument to demonstrate I was/am/will be wrong about whatever.
So, please don't mind me not having the time to go over all of it, I will only repeat what I've already said earlier about top 3 cars this year:
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I claimed launch-spec W13 carries at least 5% more drag than launch-spec F1-75, still do and sadly we won't see how it behaves compared to other cars since team obviously chose to keep going with zero-pods
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I gave an opinion that zero-pods + wing-mirror are not that low on drag on their own and overall, as the wing has a high installation angle and induces strong form drag as well as a strong tip vortex
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I didn't quantify if launch-spec sidepods are higher on drag than the complete zero-pod design, sadly I still don't have the time to do it
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Wolff stated that W13 carried more drag in Bahrain than the other two cars; as this was a clear statement it must have been very evident and undoubtedly clear to them that their car has too much drag overall
Now, with more races going by we have a clearer picture on the power output of all 3 cars as well (F1-75 on top, RB 5HP less and W13 no more than 10HP less) we can safely assume W13 had about 7% more drag
with DRS open than RB18
in Bahrain, which was closest to launch spec even with sidepods changed. As Merc and RB have similar RW flap surface opening and whatnot, we can also say most of this drag difference came from the
rest of the car. That means chassis+sidepods+tyres+FW, just to be clear.
The fact that W13 chassis w/o RW isn't low drag showed this weekend again, when W13 wasn't that much faster on straights even with significantly smaller RW compared to RB18 and F1-75. RW choice and DRS flap geometry for each race this year proved to be the biggest differentiators when it came to overall drag, ie top speed of each car. As I said at the time, I took launch RW + airbox geometry and CFD results with launch sidepods of W13 into account when I stated the infamous 5% number back in the winter. 6 races later, everything points to the same conclusion, even with completely different sidepods of W13 compared to launch spec.