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Old 18 Aug 2009, 09:42 (Ref:2523558)   #7
csirl
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Join Date: Jun 2009
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Western Hemisphere
Posts: 425
csirl should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
The big issue at the moment is turbulance in the wake of a car reducing the downforce on a following car and total amt of downforce. The OWG changed the rear wings, but the teams were able to produce the turbulance using diffusers instead. In past years, where things have been changed to reduce downforce, the teams have always managed to find it elsewhere. IMHO, no matter what you do, the designers always find a work around to get back anything that is lost and you end up back at square one.

How do you prevent this?

Easy (in theory anyway) - you write the rules in a different way and bring in some additional scrutineering tools.

Turbulance - instead of specifying sizes etc., you put in the rules that it is illegal for any structures on a car to cause a reduction in downforce for a following car - set a % or value OR is not allowed to cause X amount of turbulance. It is possible to devise tests for these. Turbulance can be measured in a wind tunnel. You could also place each car in a wind tunnel with a standard car (or even only a front wing) x metres behind it and if the car causes a loss in downforce, it is banned. May not even need to put the cars in an actual wind tunnel - could be done by computer.

Downforce - this is an easy one to test for. You write in the rules that you are only allowed X amount of downforce full stop. How do you test? Place the car on a scales in a wind tunnel. Weight of the car will increase in proportion to the downforce.
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