What is interesting is not so much the winged side impact spars, but the way the floor is split between the sidepod and the lower side impact spar.
I initially thought this wouldnt be legal, due to the continuous surface regulated in 2011 to ban the double diffuser. But the 2011 rules sneaked in a revision in that the floor can feature openings forward of a line 450mm ahead of the rear face of the cockpit opening. This sits roughly inline with where the cockpit padding lowers down to chassis height, currently the sidepod fronts and side impact spars sit forward of this point.
A split in the floor will effectively move the floors leading edge backwards. This will have two effects:
Firstly, the centre of pressure will move backwards, as the suction peak at the floors leading edge will be further back. This will create more downfroce at the rear axle & less at the front, which will compensate for the loss of EBD, but the front wing will have to make up the deficit to keep the car balanced.
Secondly, there'll be shorter floor, which should be less sensitive, something Mercedes worked out last year when they designed the SWB & hence short floor for the what they thought would be a lack of EBD effect on the W02.
Losing this front 15cm of sidepods will reduce the volume left for radiator ducting and the coolers themselves. This does tie in with the belief that Ferrari have some sort of 'surface cooling' idea up their sleeves.
Bookmarks