Quote:
Originally Posted by Sodemo
But the teams won’t want to do that because it will upset their underbody aero platform. I am aware you can offset the tyre flex difference with a softer or harder spring.
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I may be missing something, but I think if your overall spring rate is the same, the amount of movement between the bottom of the car and road surface will remain the same. The relative movement between wheel centerline and road will be less and relative movement between wheel centerline and bottom of car will be more. To make up an example of compression in a bump (note, numbers are made up, as I have no idea what might be typical static ride heights for these cars and relative compression between tires and sprung suspension)...
Current car...
Tire deformation (tire as spring) = 20mm
Sprung suspension compression = 10mm
Total movement of floor relative to road surface = 30mm
Future car..
Tire deformation (tire as spring) = 15mm (harder spring, so less movement)
Sprung suspension compression = 15mm (softer spring, so more movement)
Total movement of floor relative to road surface = 30mm (overall spring rate is unchanged so the overall movement for the same force is the same)
To be fair, I can't expect there to be zero impact of shorter sidewalls. This above view is a very simple view of suspension and there are other factors at play. But IMHO, I do not think classic issues of "short sidewalls means harsh ride" are probably not going to be a big factor. But as always I could be wrong. I think the bigger impact will be that teams will be moving yet again to another round of learning new tires and associated setup.
Richard