2015 Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil

Redirecting the majority of the downforce from the wings to the underside of the car just moves the problem to another location on the car.
The problem is Turbulance around tighter corners, this removes that.

Also having more mechanical grip in the form of wider rear tyres would help as well in theory.
 
Apparently you can't overtake here according Lewis, welp lets not race here anymore then.

Putting my cynical hat on, I think he knows it's perfectly possible to overtake here, and this was an carefully worded response..........is he inferring that he wasn't *allowed* to overtake here? Hmmm.....

(Either that or he was just a bit rubbish today, which is probably the more likely reason......)
 
What Lewis meant, and did expand to say at one point, is that you can't overtake a similar performing car here. The Merc's had the same car, he had no advantage in performance like Verstappen et al did. I'm not necessarily defending him, but it's not like he is the only one with that belief.

Anyway, very boring race that was.
 
Yes, but redirecting the turbulence from over the car to under the car won't change anything.
That's not exactly how it works.

Especially if you have diffuser situation fixed.

More air hits the top of the car then the bottom, therefore the Turbulant effect is significantly higher.

Other ways that can remove some turbulance would be to cover the wheels or go for a smooth closed cockpit, but I don't see that happening in a way that favours this.
 
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What Lewis meant, and did expand to say at one point, is that you can't overtake a similar performing car here. The Merc's had the same car, he had no advantage in performance like Verstappen et al did. I'm not necessarily defending him, but it's not like he is the only one with that belief.

Anyway, very boring race that was.
This whole theory that it is hard to overtake at Interlagos is nonsense! I don't think Mercedes themselves believed it; they just said it to appease Lewis. Fact is if a car with a lower top speed can pass a car with a higher top speed around Interlagos, then in identical machinery it is perfectly possible. But of course, fanboys will take any excuse as to why their favourite driver didn't win; even when visible evidence to the contrary suggests otherwise.

Nico has simply been the better driver this weekend, as hard as it is for some to accept it. That's why he won!
 
This whole theory that it is hard to overtake at Interlagos is nonsense! I don't think Mercedes themselves believed it; they just said it to appease Lewis. Fact is if a car with a lower top speed can pass a car with a higher top speed around Interlagos, then in identical machinery it is perfectly possible. But of course, fanboys will take any excuse as to why their favourite driver didn't win; even when visible evidence to the contrary suggests otherwise.

Nico has simply been the better driver this weekend, as hard as it is for some to accept it. That's why he won!

You're missing his point though

What Lewis meant, and did expand to say at one point, is that you can't overtake a similar performing car here. The Merc's had the same car, he had no advantage in performance like Verstappen et al did. I'm not necessarily defending him, but it's not like he is the only one with that belief.

Anyway, very boring race that was.

Just because Verstappen was making it happen doesn't necessarily make it any easier.
 
Nico did exactly what he had to do. He won the pole, he got a good start and made no major mistakes in traffic. You do that at tracks like Interlagos, Monaco and Barcelona, that will earn you a victory.

He just needs to figure out how to fend off Hamilton at places where he'll be under more constant attack.
 
This whole theory that it is hard to overtake at Interlagos is nonsense! I don't think Mercedes themselves believed it; they just said it to appease Lewis. Fact is if a car with a lower top speed can pass a car with a higher top speed around Interlagos, then in identical machinery it is perfectly possible. But of course, fanboys will take any excuse as to why their favourite driver didn't win; even when visible evidence to the contrary suggests otherwise.

Top speed is not the only factor when it comes to overtaking. Tyre performance/grip and fuel levels are just as influential. All of the overtakes we saw today were on cars with varying performance levels at the time and many were heavily assisted by DRS. Owing to the slow, tight nature of 2/3 of the track, overtaking just isn't possible. You have the first two turns, and the following one (in the dry). That is about it.

Overtaking an identical car is hard on ANY track, it's pretty common sense as to why. Especially when that car is your team mate, negating any strategic benefit you might be able to come up with.

Nico has simply been the better driver this weekend, as hard as it is for some to accept it. That's why he won!

I wouldn't disagree with that, obviously. Again I'm not trying to defend Hamilton, he lost fair and square two weekends in a row, but that doesn't mean he didn't have a valid point. I'm absolutely not saying he won because of the track stopping Hamilton overtaking. That is of course ridiculous.
 
You're missing his point though



Just because Verstappen was making it happen doesn't necessarily make it any easier.
Renault is known to be down on power and sure enough, Verstappen was one of the slowest in the speed-traps yesterday. Yet with the help of DRS we saw him pull a pass on Sergio Perez, who was the fastest in the speed-traps. So in identical machinery, with one having the speed-advantage with DRS, I really can't see where the difficulty is.
 
Joke double standards. Team Crybabies AMG got away with it in Monza, a Williams chucked out for 1 tyre.
They didn't test properly then. That's why they got away with it. Presumably they test it properly now. It would be strange if they had not learned from it.
 
Joke double standards. Team Crybabies AMG got away with it in Monza, a Williams chucked out for 1 tyre.

Erm, no... the accusation against Mercedes was something completely different and the FIA took the measurement at the wrong time (as per the regulations). There was no case in the rules to answer.

Williams were measured in the right way (according to the regulations) at the right time (regulations) and, for whatever reason, failed to be within the formula.
 
Its not the downforce, its just where that downforce is located.

Remove it from wings and put it under the car.

Putting it under the car is not the answer. Ground effect was banned because of the nasty habit that mounting a kerb tended to fire a car off into the barriers at high speed.

Downforce itself IS the issue. The Diffuser is the real problem. Ban them and make all teams run with non modifiable single element flat plane wings (like they used to run at Hockenheim when it had the long straights.)

Then give them big durable tyres and you are good to go.
 
I really think we're arguing a moot point at this point. Downforce is not going anywhere any time soon. So many technical advances have been aimed towards creating more downforce, and that trend isn't going to magically disappear. You reduce the amount of bodywork they can use, they'll just modify the designs until they get back to the numbers they see now. These teams have some of the best engineers in the world who are paid to do such. Removing the wings completely would not only completely set back F1 technically, but also priority wise. They'd lose their claim to be the fastest road racing series in the world to things like WEC and IndyCar, and Bernie's spent too much time making sure that never happens. It's a giant problem that will likely not ever be solved, despite how much all the armchair scientists scream and kick for it. 2017 looks promising, but compared to the current V6 turbo era, soapbox racing looks promising too.
 
What if they moved the rear wing higher up?

Lower wing is the answer, front wings with less flaps/elements/canards is also the answer, while ground effects allow for downforce under the car that doesn't kick up so much turbulent air, to where others can follow. Also bringing in mechanical grip such as wider tires and the bonus of active suspension would greatly improve racing and probably produce even faster cars.
 

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