Big unknown is if a cape or J vane setup is going to be better for next year.zibby43 wrote: ↑14 Oct 2020, 20:19The rule change for next year has actually turned out to be a pretty major one.TNTHead wrote: ↑14 Oct 2020, 19:47Agreed that many times before Merc was starting earlier than others. But this time the rule change is minor so when developing this years car that can be applied to next years car it is also beneficial for next years car. So flow conditioning development on the front wing should not be a waste of time.
This kind of narrative good be part of psychological warfare: the mercs are unbeatable!
A 10% reduction in downforce from areas of the car that are critical in producing efficient downforce.
No moor floor slots. A significantly reduced floor surface area. A change in the fins around the rear brake ducts. And a reduction in the length of the vertical diffuser slats. (Just to name a few.)
The floor/diffuser are vital areas, especially for high-rake cars. To be able to claw back that downforce efficiently is going to be a major aerodynamic engineering challenge.
I too thought it was going to be worthwhile to just continuing developing '20 cars all year back when I wasn't paying much attention to the '21 rules changes. But now I think the scope of the changes are almost on par with the FW/barge board/RW tweaks of '19.
High rake car is not a disadvantage, the RB 16 was simply behind on development. It still is, the cape, and new brake ducts took a while to get on top of. Their rear wing endplates took a while to develop, and now the innovations it has brought for the front wing and rear suspension.
All of that takes time to develop and dial in. Mercedes had very developed brake ducts at the start, Red Bull is catching up with their own version.
The loss of floor area is going to force even tighter sidepods. Which means more extreme cooling solutions. I wonder how much that's going to cost.