I'm also one of those F1 Tech Fans 👍 Many of the races themselves are like watching paint dry, but the competing Team's Technology and Innovation Battle is totally fascinating.
I'm honestly really surprised that happened. I thought floors were considered totally secret and something that should never be revealed, to the extent that marshalls would tarp the floor of the car before it was lifted very high. Super interesting, thank you Monaco (also thank you for raining and making an extremely boring race silly and fun)
@@PlaySA even if that was the case then thanks to the men or women for breaking the rules and showing us all and doing what the fia idiots couldn't do and that is to try and make it closer between the teams and drivers and easier to follow cars through corners and better/easier/more overtaking ect as thats what the fia promised but not only did it not happen but now we are also robbed of a title fight because at least Hamilton had Rosberg vettel and max to battle for the title during his and Mercedes 7 dominant years where as max only had Hamilton for just 1 year and Charles for a few races before going on to give us the worst season ever by winning the most poles wins podiums and points between 1st and 2nd places ect
Does anyone notice how aggressive Mercedes tries to turn the airflow, this can cause aero to be very peaky, while Redbull tries to gently turn the air and use vortices and glide plates to seal and guide the flow. Mercedes has always gone after peak downforce, ever since 2017( code name "DIVA") when we went back to high downforce cars this has always been a design trait they had, but they can no longer spend their way out the problem, they have to become efficient at solving the problems now, which if they learn to do this will make a a better team. Look at Redbull all the years with underpowered renault engines has forced them to make cars with efficient but effective aero and also a chassis that had provided great Mechanical grip.
your comment simply mirrors what is said in the video. either way, pretty sure you can't make an aerodynamic engineer even at mercedes despite your online bravado.
Mercedes chassis design prior to this recent era was never far behind redbull. Just different philosophies. They made a mistake with this recent era going for a concept that while technically effective in perfect wind tunnel conditions, was less stable in the real world than the concept redbull went with. Less bodywork ensuring the airflow follows the path you want and relying more on complex large scale vortex control that is more susceptible to outside turbulence screwing up the flow structures. They relied on the Down washing wing covering the side impact structure to create a high pressure region and high energy vortex to push out the front wheel wake. Whilst effective, in real world conditions it appears to be less stable than just having a piece of bodywork do the same job.
@@alecmillea4539 Adrian Newey is just too good at Aero design. He's a genius who likes simplicity in his beautiful designs. He's been doing that since the late 80's.
the pullrod and pushrod configuration has no material impact on airflow directly, its about packaging. the front airflow doesnt really matter, but the rear pushrod position allows for greater design freedoms in the diffuser.
I've not seen any comments about the floor beyond the gearbox, the compact RB gearbox seems to allow a much deeper arc exiting the rear diffuser and does that create the correct airflow to stall the beam wing, the so called "double DRS"? There are also steps in that tunnel, my guess is that they re-energise the air through that deep arc to optimise the desired flow rate to achieve this without compromising the balance in the corners? Very interesting review video here, thanks for sharing the insights 👍
It's very interesting but the fundamental problem remains for the teams that if you understand the current car, you're guaranteed to be at least one step behind
You're one step behind but most probably have more wind tunnel testing time. Also, the further the steps, the lower the gains. While Haas may get 3 tenths per lap from a major upgrade, Red Bull would get one-tenth. Convergence will eventually happen probably just before the regulations change again
I would like to see a tech discussion of the various front suspensions. Lots of pictures and diagrams. One thing that I am curious about is the way that the suspension members are shrouded for aero purposes and the various placements of wishbones, track rods, and the push or pull rods. Please educate us at least about the top four teams. Sometimes it is hard to even see the track rods at a race weekend.
Big surprise, probably more than 50% of the frontal area of the inlets of the floor are dedicated to making outwash. 🙄 Good thing we changed the front wing endplate regs and the regs around barge boards. lol. Cat's outta the bag. The engineers already know how beneficial that was, and will use it as a goal for the new regulation set.
Great job from Perez this week 1. Scored zero points 2. Created a huge repair bill for the team. 3. Leaked team secrets to the whole world. What a fool. This guy wants to be a world champ? Yeah, right.
I thought the Red Bull plank looked different just because it had been painted “black” and then worn only in a few spots, whilst the Mercedes one had a clear coat on it that reveals less of the wear
Red bull really tried to play down the pictures of their floor by saying it can't just be copied, other teams have to understand it as well. The thing is Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston do have smart engineers so once they see the floor in detail they will understand it pretty quickly.
Once again, the Adrian Newey car lead the way. The man is a genius. He's been up there since FW14B back in 1992. Great to see the beautiful Lotus 79 of Collin Chapman as well in the video, one of Adrian Newey's idol designers. Now that the Mercedes don't have an engine advantage, they are struggling against the Redbull design by Newey. He's just so good.
great observation. Some will say this is trivial, but all these pieces of info are like pieces to a puzzle. I am loving this If we can't get competition on track. This floor display by Perez is a gift to the paddock for not taking the fight to Max 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅. He owes us that
Exposure of the RB floor is invaluable because a: you can model it on the CFD and to compare it with your own floor, and b: the floor providing the most performance is now not a secret. Contrary to Horners comments engineers will be able to work it out.
What you can clearly see is that at Reb Bull they neutralize the vortexes with turbulators to make more downforce with newly gained straight air. And the part that goes through the keel, at the end of the car, go back into the double diffuser. Smart and very effective.
Very interesting photos of the RB car floor. It seems they have some structures just before the diffuser step that will stall the flow in about 50% of the width of the tunnels at max aero load. That might explain also why they suffered way less than other teams from porpoising early on. Surprisingly "simple" and straight on approach on this...very cool.
That was a really informative video, makes me wonder how much more important information the merecedes aero engineers will have learned from these photo's ?
I am no engineer so please be kind to me, If you compare the red bull to the mercedes there seems to be a greater bulge in the middle of the floor, so if it's sealed as it's supposed to wouldn't this mean the volume of air trying to pass through would have to travel quicker creating a pressure drop, where as the mercedes seems shallower, it's as if the mercedes wants move more air around than through. Plus if this area is closer to the center of gravity maybe this helps reduce the effects of porpoising in collaboration with the suspension keeping the car flatter enabling it to be run lower .
Jesus... its two different concepts. Red Bull has no "real" ground effect floor and needs to produce their downforce differently and in a more complex way. If it works (what it does) its more consistent, but peak downforce is generally lower untill you found ways (what Red Bull has) to compensate. Mercedes and Ferraris floors are real ground effect floors that produce downforce by speeding up the air as much as possible by being close to the ground. There is no need with this concept to have all these geometries. So its not about prehistoric or futuristic. Its two different concepts and two ways to produce downforce. One is a real ground effect floor that produces all its downforce via ground effect, the other relies more on vorticity.
@@fam.hunger5244 Ultimately, which of these concepts will have an advantage? Seems like the RB design will allow them to be efficient at any track, even those that don't require an extremely low ride height. Whereas the Mercedes concept seems like it will dominate in tracks that would allow them to ride low (because that's the only way they'll get peak downforce) but struggle in streets and bumpy circuits
In the ground effects era it's absolutely criminal the way these cars are being lifted up and allowing full access to others like Mercedes to copy from RBR and improve their shitbox.
maybe this is something F1 could do at other tracks too, i know there are reasons for it at monaco (it would take forever to get a recovery truck to the car) but up the stakes a bit for the teams if their driver crashes out on track the remains of the car get put on display for all to see
Never realised just how much design goes in to the floor. I understand more now why when a car goes over high curbs and we are told it may have damaged the underfloor, just what that means. It look a very intricate part of the overall design.
Redbull design looks like it is optimised for maximum underfloor vortex strength. Deeper tunnels with a curved roof profile to minimise vortex dissipation as it passes down the tunnel
Apologies for the rant following the relevant (positive!) comment 🙇🏻♀️🤭 Outside of the geek side of me being satisfied with the Monaco method of recovering the cars from the track and getting a very interesting and informative explanation by yourselves (so thank you for that!), I think there's one area where Monaco outshines all other street circuits in a practical sense, and that is using those cranes. Despite the narrowness of the streets, they only had to throw a couple of yellow flags and within a short time, the car was gone. Any necessary fixing of the barriers was the major issue regarding extra time with the yellow flags, but the marshalls are so good they could show the majority of marshalls at many a track a thing or two. In fact, all other street circuits could learn much from Monaco, and maybe it could improve racing at them (which is never something I thought I'd say about Monte Carlo!) Though frankly I think this addiction to street "tracks", which are often tediously boring and don't have class A licences (or class 1 - whatever it is {I'm only on coffee #2} - how could they?) is concerning. Their infrastructure is temporary, which should cause concern. E.g. the stands for the public are put in and removed yearly, the screwing together of the structure could be done improperly and there's a recipe for potential disaster. I'm not saying permanent tracks are perfect, far from it, but they're better. Monaco doesn't hold one of those Class A licences - hence the "if they were looking at the Principality now it would never get the go-ahead" trope. Though frankly, I don't think it stands because there are extremely dangerous parts of most if not all street circuits and they are constantly being added to. Imagine a mistake or fault with a car in Baku in the narrowest bit, where there is no room either side of the car (bar a marshal sucking his stomach in). If the driver is stuck and the car is on fire... I'd far rather they went to class A tracks for safety & a fan's class A for racing, with a class B for "visitor facilities". I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way.
Why is nobody talking about what appears to be a hole in the rear of the floor plate that seems to be adding air volume coming into the rear diffuser? It looks a lot like the kind of access slot you often see on jet fighters where fuel is added during in flight refueling. Which is just a coincidental similarity in appearance. But what is it doing for the diffuser? (Good view at 11:13 top inset)
Do you mean the metal insert with a circular hole in the plank? There is one at the front, two side by side about a quarter of the way further back, and one close to the back of the plank - which is the one I think you are talking about? Those are, if memory serves me right, mandatory and used for measuring the thickness/wear of the plank. They are not letting any air through. I don't see anything else in that picture that resembles a hole, certainly not in the diffuser (which is essentially all of the floor rear of the plank).
Mercedes: We got a good look at the RedBull and unfortunately our competitors also got a look at ours. The competitors: like anyone wants to copy from your shitbox of a car!
The airflow is leaving to quickly and the tunnels aren't deep enough or wide enough I'm glad you bought up real ground effects of the Lotus 79 It's all trial and error
At high speeds, the SR71's skin would expand and grow due to the heat generated by air friction. Red Bull is prob using similar approach, and nano tech in their composite materials that allows the floor to grown/shrink/deform under high speed/vs low speed conditions. Thats my hot take conspiracy.
Please please please can we have Matt as the only person for ALL future tech analysis??? I have followed his tech articles since the late 00s and had always been very informative and educational. No more half facts from Sam Collins please
I thought the New car spec was suppose to have all the teams using a standard floor design by the FAI, how come they are all different? Has something gone wrong here?
You would think that these teams would who recent raced and go for so many years with no tarp available to cover it underneath it’s all their fault for not thinking ahead
If I understand it correctly so are this floor due to all kinds of airflow. So I don’t even think it’s possible to rent it and it would be a much better Mercedes. But if will perhaps be a good platform to build a car around off.
What makes F1 well F1? Cars, drivers or venues. All three obviously but without the unique cars it would lose a lot of appeal. So it seems rather unfair to any super innovative team to have some of the most critical tech copied for free be it exposed or concealed. Not the concept but the intricate detailed design that makes the concept a physical reality. Seems to me the team that comes to track first with a part should get a royalty for every team that copies it. This would cover off shunts that reveal tech or engineers that move from team to team. And the designers could get a share of the royalties. Is not power unit information tech totally secret, why shouldn’t aerodynamics be treated the same? Especially underfloor aerodynamics. Otherwise inferior aerodynamic designers get to ride the coattails of superior designers for free. And that is more of an advantage than giving more wind tunnel time and the design simulation time.
Now that venturi tunnels and underfloor tech is 60% of the cars performance teams need to come up with way to hide their secrets when the crane looms. Have the drivers carry a sheet of hefly bag type material in a vacuum sealed bag in their firesuits or maybe some type of foam or reflective spray that will ruin photographs. Not saying have a driver kester an aerosol can into the car but one of the team photogs stationed by the cranes could hand it to them.
Bad floor good floor u still need power 🔋to push the car on the ground, its all about over charging Lewis for the floor design but the want over charge order teams 😀 😉
Ironically …… with all the talk off Monaco losing all its previous power as a venue due to a combination off things …… far more street courses in modern seasons compared to previous decades …… Singapore overtaking it as both a stamina test and visually ……Las Vegas …… if not being a crap track like Miami being more glamorous? …… f1 cars being more reliable and far less mechanical retirements…… formula e race being far more entertaining …… the simple fact that this is the only venue your guaranteed a look at cars floors (unless Monaco is swapped out for similar circuit like 🇲🇴 macaw …… not going to happen due to its even tighter tightest hairpin) .…… is In my opinion likely going to be the only thing (other then tradition as Monaco has hosted most gp’s after monza) that’s going to keep the f1 gp at Monaco keep going along.
