FDD wrote: ↑15 Oct 2024, 14:01
Was asking because I did not see any info about that, so I was wandering if I missed something.
AFAIK they'll go in that direction if they find out that aero gains are appreciable with pull rod layout and if I understand well the front part of the car is dictating the whole aero flow design approach all along the rest parts and in that case we can expect other changes also. Maybe with pull rod switch they can make over bite sidepods inlets more effective, I'm guessing and you'll give, (I expect)
your opinion on that.
There are also some packaging differences other than aero. In an interview this year, Newey said that they chose pull-rod because a push-rod would be almost horizontal with their design approach so they went with pull-rod. While this might be true, angled pull rod generates slight outwash and angled push-rod generates inwash, so I doubt Newey didn't take this into account. But misdirection is still crucial in F1 and critical details must be kept secret
In my view, if it tuns out to be true, the biggest and most important change for next year will be moving the cockpit to the rear. Nugnes might be right when he says another new gearbox will be made to also allow PU to move to the rear and I guess fuel tank and batteries would move as well. All of this will allow a more loaded rear end and these cars suffer from a weak front by design (very high front wing per rules and you need to keep it unloaded as much as possible to allow the floor to work at optimal point) so it's a lot easier to add rear downforce than front.