Quote:
Originally Posted by turboguy
The performance improvement gained by running a few mm lower is significant - so the rules must be adhered to, and the penalty severe
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Just wondering, how would the performance improvement of running a few mm lower compare to the advantage of a flexible wing that reduces drag?
I'm no expert, and I don't have the necessary data, but just a few observations - look at the effect of DRS in F1. Cars in the last few years of the V8 era (right before 2014) had arguably the most sophisticated aerodynamics ever seen in F1, and aerodynamic downforce had never been as important as then. Yet, the cars were (and still are) running significantly higher compared to the late 80s/early 90s, when they used to constantly scrape on the tarmac.
One thing that running low definitely helps for is reducing drag - the 1992 Williams FW-14 had a "low drag" button that just lowered the car all the way down. But again, how does it compare to getting rid of so much of the drag from the rear wing, as in the Toyota flex wing and DRS?
The only F1 concept that can possibly beat the late V8 F1 formula in terms of sophistication is the ground effects cars banned in 1983. I have also always wondered how the use of ground effects compares between WEC/LM and F1 after 1983. I would say that the low cars of the early 90s probably had almost no ground effects, while modern F1 cars create airflow seals through the vortex generators, and hence using a lot more ground effects. But neither those cars, nor the pure ground effects cars prior to 1983 were running very low.