Your rhetoric is indicative of inciting a reaction. As if Mercedes ran the car intentionally illegally.Cs98 wrote: ↑23 Oct 2023, 15:13This race is clearly not a good benchmark for a new upgrade when it is revealed you've ran the car illegally.
Let's just put it on record, we both think each other are biased. I mean, you accused me of calling the floor illegal when I did no such thing. Clear bias. But who cares? Make a good argument instead of resorting to these claims of bias.
The plank wear was not measured after the sprint race. And it's not the plank wear itself that yields performance. Setting the car up too low will yield a performance advantage for the entire race, even before the plank has worn down below the limit. This is a clear performance advantage and thus we will have to wait to truly evaluate the effect of their new floor.
From The Race:
What's wrong with just saying there wasn't enough time to get optimum set up and both Ferrari and Mercedes where slightly more aggressive than others? We don't know the measurement of each planks wear, and it might have been miniscule gnats ball hair out of the window by Merc and Ferrari or conversely in by RB/Macca.HOW MUCH OF A PACE ADVANTAGE WOULD IT BE?
It’s impossible to answer this question with even an educated guess based on the available information.
There are various parameters. It’s true that running lower can make the ground effect floor work harder and therefore generate more downforce. However, at a bumpy track, it could well be specific parts of the circuit or even kerb strikes with the underside that are responsible for the illegal wear.
What’s more, if you run the car too low and are hitting the ground, that could have a negative effect. So you could spin almost any kind of argument for performance gains or losses, but there’s no definitive answer.
However, there’s nothing to suggest that the Mercedes or Ferrari were running in a ride height range that would have transformed their pace either way.
Teams are also cautious about plank wear because it is almost inevitably an instant exclusion, so it would be absurd to deliberately take the risk just because it confers a performance gain.