Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks
You'd have to do the modelling.
Newey wanted FW14B style front wings with the little fins running inside the front wheels, but most categories including Indycar and F2 now use the wide front wings as they obviously significantly reduce drag from the front tyres.
The big rear wing's counter rotating vortex pair is an important part of lifting the wake of the car over and above the following car, so the dirty air goes over the following car instead of at it.
Obviously Formula Ford-style cars with no aerofoils or downforce at all would have no difficulty with dirty air, and indeed a beneficial draft instead. But is there an appetite to reduce cornering from 5G to only 1.5-2G? That will make the cars at least 25-30 seconds per lap slower.
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Id rather they mandate they have F3 sized front and rear wings. Part of the problem is the reliance on the front wing to A) generate downforce and B) be integral to the handling profile, ie offering a handling balance. As soon as a car gets close to the rear of another, air hits that front wing first and disrupts it, producing understeer. If you reduced the reliance on it, when a car gets close to another, the DF loss wouldnt be so significant. If you had F3 sized wings, lets suppose that the current F1 wings as a baseline produce 500kg at 200kph and an F3 wing produces 200kg at the same speed, again using a general rule, if you are a second behind another car you lose half of the downforce from the front wing, with the F1 wing, thats 250kg but with an F3 wing it would only be 100kg.
Also that front wing should be scraping along the tarmac, ive no idea why they mandated to position them so high (well actually I do, its to provide airflow to the floor, but it seems like they have prioritised overall downforce generation over the ability for a car to be able to follow, because if the front wing was lower, ok it may give less airflow to the floor, but the wing would be in cleaner air.