bagajohny wrote: ↑06 Mar 2023, 12:19
Since half of AMR23 is Mercedes car the only performance differentiator element remaining is floor of the car.
That is an exceptionally wrong way to look at things, PU, gearbox and rear suspension are not half a car. They have their own chassis, with its own layout, stiffness, weight, etc; their own front suspension which is very different from W14 and the whole car still works. Finally, the entire aero package is completely different. There are very few similarities between the two cars and suspension setup is very different for sure.
bagajohny wrote: ↑06 Mar 2023, 12:19
I dont think SF23 has the right floor design to work with limits set by TD39. The tyre deg issue only started after it. Also bear in mind that AMR22 had better race pace compared to 1 lap pace. That was since they switched to RB philosophy. Now this year for AMR23 they have a new philosophy which does not follow RB completely. It seems to be a mix of RB & Ferrari philosophy. Now i am not an expert in this but as far as I understand they(Ferrair) cannot just change the floor and expect it to work without changing the whole philosophy of the car.
Tyre deg issues did start after TD39 as we all know - including the team. Tyre degradation is linked to suspension, not aero. Suspension setup range was compromised for F1-75 after TD39 to accommodate the necessary changes, with ride height as the biggest factor that had to change. Ride height messed with both the suspension and the floor aero. The floor downforce reduction can (and apparently did on F1-75) cause further aero balance issues that lead to further performance losses. And we are talking 1-2 tenths per each issue at least, so at least 5 tenths per lap overall + worse tyre degradation than others.
The suspension is always very important and right now with 2022+ regulations it seems to be even more important. It must be able to accommodate various ride height and other setup changes according to the track specifics and how the floor can interact with the track itself, without causing too much bouncing or plank scraping over the bumps. Lets not forget the ride height change with varying fuel loads over the race as well. Ferrari were quite open during SF-23 launch when they said they worked a lot on expanding this setup window with suspension design, are we to believe they made rookie mistakes and made things worse?
There is not a single team of engineers on the grid that would do something like that
Having a completely redesigned suspension means you need to re-learn how to set the car up. On top of different floor philosophy than last year (also something Ferrari mentioned) there are big changes to front wing design. All of these things are very complex, their interaction is very complex and needs time to be fully understood and set up accordingly. RB had similar issues with RB18 in the first few races, not counting fuel pump issues leading to DNFs.
Last but not least, if Ferrari moved the floor CoP to the back (which I think it did, seeing how skinny the rear wing is) then having lower load than expected on the front wing might force you to change the ride height and sacrifice some floor downforce so you could balance the car. Or, you just accept gradually bigger understeer in higher speed corners and try to make it work. Or find a compromise between the two, sacrificing some downforce to reduce understeer to bare minimum, which can also lead to further suspension setup issues to make the car feel similar in low speed corners as in high speed ones. Sounds like some of the problems Ferrari talked about over the weekend, doesn't it?