Musa wrote: ↑30 May 2018, 04:23
roon wrote: ↑30 May 2018, 01:00
NL_Fer wrote: ↑30 May 2018, 00:51
It looks like with all the tight rules aero is more fixed than in the past. They can adjust the wings, but a chassis itself is high downforce or low drag. Sure the RB has efficient downforce, but who knows it is more efficient than Ferrari or just biased for more downforce.
The body/engine cover shape of the RB14 seems unique in the field. I think everyone else has essentially the same thing going on; rounded sides and undercuts. Nothing new for RB, either, considering how similar the RB7 is. But no other team has pursued similar paths in all these years. I wonder why.
I think this unique body shape is not popular because of its cooling requirement which is difficult to master (due to its sidepode sit very low compare to the cooling air intake) Red bull is still having a difficulty some time with this. The advantage is the car COG is lower then the normal sidepode. Hence less downforce is required to achieve the same stability in the corner as other car. Imagine your car has lower cog but it generates same level of downforce as the other car on the grid. Thats why red bull is very fast through out the corner.
But of course to achieve the same level of downforce as the others is quite difficult since there is no sidepode undercut to lead the high energy air to the rear end of the car. My personal view is red bull achieved it by manipulating the vortice created by the wing on top of the sidepode. I remember them having to fine tune it to make it work.
This is my personal view. I might be wrong though.
The wings that are above the barge boards and the sidepod are there to increase mass flow. They generate a small amount of lift on their own, but in directing air downwards to interact with the rear of the car it generates more downforce overall as it increases the pressure differential between the top of the diffuser and the floor side, as well as energizing airflow that interacts with the rear tire further constraining tire squirt, and finally the increased air mass also interacts with the underside of the rear wing(and other assorted winglets).
The greater the air mass the more effect it has on the aero surfaces, so channeling air becomes an important way to generate downforce, particularly when critical downforce generating areas are also in zones that are prone to flow stagnation without some air flow channeling up-stream.