Xero wrote:flexcon wrote: ↑14 May 2019, 13:21
Just me or is that front wing gone ever further in the same direction as Ferrari - going for in wash?
Looked to me that Ferrari, Torro Rosso and Alfa would change to the direction of Merc and Redbull.
They have gone more towards the same direction as Ferrari, but it's going for more out-wash, not in-wash.
Will be interesting to see if McLaren do some more extensive back to back tests with the old front wing, which can have the outboard section adjusted relatively high to create more frontal downforce. Maybe they're at a point where need to start sacrificing tyre wake management in order to get the front downforce they clearly need?
I can't remember seeing any comments from the weekend suggesting a change in the car's balance with the upgrade? I think tyre temp issues may have masked any improvements.
The team has to be really careful, tire wake management is why the outwash design exists... And I would argue that managing the wake is more important than Downforce since the TW (Tire Wake) can create havoc to the rest of the aero in the car and make it completely unpredictable (just like in 2018).
The team was also suffering from understeer and not enough DF from the front wing (reason why it was running their low drag Rear Wing at the beginning of the season), this new wing allowed them to go for a higher downforce rear wing and kept the car balanced (which is a win for the team).
If there was a problem this weekend was with rear grip, which could be a more mechanical issue and also temperature related (the team seemed to be better on the lower temperatures of FP1).
But, so far the wing seems to be doing exactly what was needed of it, increase front downforce, while managing the outwash... They will need to keep refining it until they bring their next concept.
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