chrisc90 wrote: ↑07 Feb 2023, 18:41
If the W13 struggled with floor downforce, then surely the raised profiles underneath will only mean less downforce given the higher height to the track?
Even more odd that rear wings weren’t skimmed down once the spa td039 come in and they ‘realised we can’t run the car on the deck’
So for Merc they should have been experimenting with a floor which produces more downforce allowing to trim the rear wing right out. But I don’t think I remember them doing that?
I'm not an aerodynamicist so I can't tell you why their floor didn't work, other than a general presumption that it probably just wasn't a good design. They did make changes to the floor, and probably improved it, but closing the gap to the leaders is not the work of a minute. The entire car was built around the launch spec floor. They had quite a lot of unravelling and backwards steps to make.
The budget is capped. Maybe they ran out of money. If there was no budget cap we would have seen more floors and more rear wings. I can only assume that the budget cap is the reason we didn't but it's the same for all teams.
A lion must kill its prey.