Dafnalina wrote: ↑20 Sep 2023, 04:10
Is there any chance these upgrades will hinder our strenght in high speed corners? Wouldn't that be something lol. With the old package, I'd say Suzuka and Qatar were the closest we'd get to a win, and podium contenders for sure. With the new one, I guess we'll see during the practice sessions. Too bad red bull will be on top of the game once more.
Yeah it is totally possible for an upgrade to improve some areas and retard others. I'd expect an overall improvement though and personally I don't think it will have impacted negatively the high speed corners, I'm actually thinking it will have some improvement as we appear to be getting more air to the rear and handling the tyre wake a bit differently. More air to the rear will help with the expansion around the diffuser and overall grip.
My gut feeling is this tyre wake is what will help with low speed. The sidepods are wider at the front and similar in their middle and I think this is designed to deal more with the lower speed wake, or to be more aggressive with the wake earlier, collect it to keep it away from the rear tyre but still maintaining the pod dimensions in the middle to catch a more aggressive wake, clean it up and protect the floor. But I'm doing armchair aero any may be totally wrong. but I think we weren't dealing well with the wake at low speeds and with the way the tyres behaved at those speeds. A different issue to high energy entrances to low speed corners though, which will likely persist,
But the Singapore speeds could be setup specific. it is why when folks are talking about RB and the performance changes among teams with Ferrari getting pacey again I say It's unique, wait for the next few races to see how it pans out.
Maybe Ferrari are faster, maybe it is Singapore. Maybe RB have lost a little performance, a bit more performance or none. It's too hard to tell at this point. There's rumours of trickery on the floor to extract extra grip but it is all heresay.
But you'd think or hope that Ferrari, Merc, RB and Mclaren might well be fighting with each other in Q. And you'd think that even with upgrades Ferrari might still drop back in the race as their tyres get chewed up, but maybe that his improved. Only a couple of days to find out but there is every indication this could be tight and hard fought at the front.