This is actually right, longer wheelbase means there is more space to decrease the pressure and to create a area of low pressure, so the wheel base is technically inversly proprotional to the rake for the downforce, sealing created by the floor. Now the new floor changes remember brings an angle component to it as well as the floors now cut in to as the edge angle inwards from the reat tyres.dans79 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2021, 07:34A few things you need to keep in mind when you listen to anything Ted says.ryaan2904 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2021, 06:33I believed so too, but in an interview between ted kravitz and christian horner yesterday, ted was pretty keen to believe that assuming mercs and redbulls are sealing the floor to a similar degree, mercs are always losing out on account of running a lower rake
Its in the 2nd interview, just after Valterri bottas
1) He is a sky reporter first and foremost. Thus just like the rest of his peers, he is predisposed to exaggeration and hype to engage the average fan.
2) Despite being positioned as the "technical" member of the Sky team, Ted has not technical background to speak of. He has been a reporter/presenter his entire career.
Setting all the above aside for a moment, It needs to be pointed out that Ted is making his comment under the guise of everything else being equal. However (as he surely knows) over the last several year everything else hasn't been equal.
I don't have the numbers for this years cars, and I couldn't even find a reliable resource for last years cars either so take the following with a grain of salt. For the last several years, Mercedes has run a longer car with a longer wheelbase than its competitors. This means it has a larger floor area, and thus doesn't have to work the floor as hard as its competitors to generate a given amount of downforce.
Purely for reference here are the Wheelbase numbers for 2018.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-t ... 6/5295276/
RBR - 3550mm
Merc - 3726mm (4.95% longer)
I am still doing some readings on it but as far as I understand the low rake floors will have something known as ground buffetting due to this cut which generates it's own set of vortices and these vortices will grow large enough downstream towards the rear wheels, hitting the ground and the floor at the same time causing the edge of the floor to "buffet" or flex up and down. Higher rake means more gorund clearence so this problem is mitigated. This is also why Mercedes had to "artifically" increase the surface area" (They use this term cause there is a equation where increaseing surface area mans something but I forgot ) with the curvy front part of the floor while Red Bull does'nt exactly have to make them curvy ("They can though").
This is probably what christian horner horner is on about.