AR3-GP wrote: ↑27 Aug 2022, 00:05
Where do people see the car designs heading in the next 4 years? Is Ferrari just going to keep building their bath tub car? Will Mercedes keep building the no pod? Will RB keep doing their ramp?
Despite the variability of design we have seen thus far, I'm not sure I see where the scope is to reinvent? The areas to play with are still quite limited and seem to be dictated by choice of sidepod. I can't see why Ferrari, RB, and Merc don't continue for the next 4 years with the same sidepod shape that they currently have? Anyone agree or disagree?
I'd imagine by 2024, for example, the cars will probably converge quite a lot. If you think about 2017, the cars were fairly different to each other, and you could argue that by 2020 most teams had converged on some variation of the Ferrari mid-wing from 2017, combined with ultra-tight "jelly-mold" sidepods and to a lesser extent the slim Merc nose.
I think maybe for 2023 the front three will probably go with "evolved" versions of their current designs, where they can apply things they learned this year through porpoising, floor edge design, etc. The question will be whether teams like Merc and Ferrari can replicate the smoothness and larger ride-height insensitivity of the Red Bull using their current designs, because that is probably their biggest performance asset. If they don't see appreciable gains I think we will see a lot of cars with wide, heavily undercut sidepods with the ramp design after that. Williams and Aston have already gone that way, and McLaren appears to be as well. There must be a reason.
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