The ground effect put the instruments in crisis
Red Bull, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Ferrari and Racing Bulls: the list of teams that have brought updates that have proven to be boomerang for the performance of the cars rather than making improvements is rather long in this 2024. Only McLaren seems immune from the virus that hit the paddock in terms of side effects due to the developments (we tried to explain why).
In Austin, Red Bull will play for the last chips on the table in the hope of giving Max Verstappen an RB20 capable of defending the Drivers’ title, the Ferrari at Monza he introduced some innovations that benefited the SF-24, even if the specificity of the latest circuits leaves the final verdict on the validity of these new solutions or not to Texas. The Scuderia from Maranello ran into difficulty when in Barcelona it introduced a package of innovations which brought out the aerodynamic rebound due to what appears to be an excess of aerodynamic load which, instead of widening the car’s operating window, narrows it, not giving gives riders the confidence to be consistent in terms of lap times. Red Bull, on the other hand, lost balance and even the last bottom brought to the track by Mercedes had bouncing as a counter-indication.
Jock Cleara Ferrari engineer, explained why it is so complicated for F1 teams to have effective data correlation between the factory and the track: “From time to time we are faced with discrepancies between the wind tunnel and the track and we are already waiting for the next one, I know that sooner or later it will happen again – Clear’s words reported by the German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport – as long as the cars are sufficiently detached from the asphalt surface it is not difficult to obtain a good data correlation, but given that the difference in the level of downforce generated is made in the five millimeters that separate the asphalt from the bottom of the car it is almost impossible to have a 100% accuracy.”
Regarding the corrective measures brought to Monza, Clear explained that they were there natural response of the Scuderia di Maranello taking advantage of the data collected on the track after the difficulties encountered starting from Barcelona: “It’s not that our tools have improved, they are identical to those we had before Barcelona, but we have understood and interpreted some elements differently. Bouncing is triggered when you have too much aerodynamic load, it all depends on how you approach this limit without exceeding it because the aerodynamic load is only useful if the car remains stable, only in this way can the driver benefit from it”.
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