Quote:
Originally Posted by Sodemo
Whenever I look at F1 from decades ago, its not the high speed but the low speed performance that takes my breath away. That is what we have lost with today's cars.
I think colloquial evidence suggests that a mid-2000 car had about 2600kg of overall downforce, so roughly half what we have now?
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This is true, but 2024 Formula 2 cars with 1500-2500kg of downforce also weigh 795kg, nearly the same as Formula One cars. The 2024 crash test regulations are tough, really tough! A tub weighs nearly 150kg now, compared to 60kg in 2005.
So F2 cars are also slow in slow corners, so dropping F1 cars to F2 downforce levels or less is not going to do much IMO. I'm guessing the superior low speed performance of 2021 F1 cars was due to the 50kg less weight (25kg of which in 2022 is safety stuff anyway), the much softer suspension and the more sophisticated suspension elements allowed.
I'm not sure how much was due to the flat floor and rake working better at low speed (obviously a car with rake could get the front wing really close to the ground to improve front wing ground effect and rotation and eliminate low speed understeer, then bleed that front downforce off at higher speed as the rear squats).
Everyone wanted to try venturi tunnel cars as the answer to close following and it worked somewhat in 2022.
