we know it's not the rear when you see that a customer team doesn't have these problems with the same components as W14carisi2k wrote: ↑06 Mar 2023, 00:30It's a combination of things. The underfloor isn't as efficient and the small pod / midwing don't help the airflow over the body and around the tyres. Lewis said with the smaller rear wing that he had no grip which just goes to show how ineffective the Mercedes underfloor is and so just replacing the small pods won't by themselves sort out all there issues.
Ironically I think the initial W13 Barcelona test sidepods would probably work a hell of a lot better if they don't want to go full Red Bull / Ferrari. The front suspension I think is fine. It is the rear where the W14 lacks the most.
it has to be the front suspension and the front wing and floor interaction
sidepods might have some effects but maybe not so crucial, or the engineers were wrong and the sidepods have a big play in the interaction of the front and the floor and the rear
it could be also they still have simulator and CFD inaccuracy wich could explain that they tested the redbull concept and their and found the zeropds being superior
but shovlin said they made upgraded all their tools to account for porpoising and have better correlation and we see that because the car doesn't bounce anymore
did they understimate the improvement of other teams? but they said after testing that the team knew the gap would be even bigger than what it was today
it's a W13 with no bouncing but small lap time improvment, nowhere near the 1,5 gain they were expecting last year with the zeropds
edit: not sure if it's true but it seems the other concept has been in the wind tunnel more than 2 weeks ago