I don't know, really. It depends on what you mean here.Ferraripilot wrote:bhallg2k wrote:
(For what it's worth, I think maybe both the tunnels and the hub wings on the Red Bull are required to achieve the same goals with Renault exhaust that other teams manage to achieve with Mercedes/Ferrari exhaust without the aid of tunnels and hub wings. That's the price Red Bull and other Renault teams pay for a very fuel-efficient and "driveable" engine with minimal cooling requirements.)
So you're saying their solution possibly is an answer to their exhaust solutions inherent braking instability. That's a valid argument which possibly supports an argument that such brake ducts are just a band aid for a more paramount issue.
The Renault engine is reputed to have the best "driveability" of the current lot. If that's true, and because there's really quite little that separates the performance of all the engines, I think the Renault is (conversationally speaking) 0.X% more responsive to driver inputs. So, when a driver in a Renault-equipped car goes off-throttle, the (relative) loss of exhaust flow happens 0.X% faster than it would on another car. This was not an issue when off-throttle exhaust blowing was allowed, because the difference in exhaust flow on-throttle and off-throttle was minimized. That's not the case anymore.
So, when a Renault car goes off-throttle, the exhaust flow responds in kind, whereas when a Mercedes or Ferrari goes off-throttle, the exhaust flow continues 0.X% longer, which does indeed contribute to braking stability. That discrepancy is significant in a game that measures itself in tenths and hundredths of a second. I think the tunnel and hub wing solutions are a way for Red Bull to minimize losses Mercedes and other non-Renault teams don't suffer, ergo those teams simply may not need those solutions.
