And we know they will c**k it up anyway... as Oscar cruises to maximum points... lol
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2024 Formula 1 Season thread
- Thread starter Apple fanboy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
There is some interesting video‘s out there of Piastri his flexy rear wing, he basically has a mini-DRS. No wonder a Ferrari + DRS + slipstream couldn‘t get to the Mclaren on the straight. Mclaren is actually cheating.
Red Bull was on to something when they accused Mclaren of cheating, but it wasn‘t the front wing but the rear wing.
Red Bull was on to something when they accused Mclaren of cheating, but it wasn‘t the front wing but the rear wing.
I saw that too. Looks like the gap on the DRS fin goes from about 12mm down to around 6mm. Let’s hope that isn’t the difference that has made this season the most exciting for a few years.
I agree. There was a good article in AutoMotorSport where Horner reveals the Barcelona Floor Upgrade in 2023 was the big mistake. The article discusses Red Bulls unwillingness to see the issues as anything more than a deficiency on Sergio’s part.
It’s only been Max hitting the human limits of driving that has changed Red Bulls willingness to admit the issues.
The article is fairly damming IMO. I probably owe Sergio an apology for falling into this mindset as well. Singapore will be a huge race for him.
Red Bull has been quiet on McLaren‘s Rear Wing. The RB20 R Wing bends in the same manner. The MCL38’s is quite a bit more pronounced.
Wasn't there an issue with another team a year or two ago about this? Not sure which team it was...
Maybe the problem with the Ferrari + DRS + slipstream is that the donkey is a tad slow... Maybe need a few more donkeys in the system? But what a change for William's from being basically mobile chicanes and all weather road hazards.. To know getting points, and good haul of points.. Mercs not doing great, did Baku 2021 do that much damage?? Maybe Toto/Russell and the Merc management should have taking a 25% pay cut to lure Newey... After all he is staying in the UK...
Red Bull had a front wing a couple of years ago that was flexing and Christian Horner was very smug about it and dismissed the accusations. Thankfully he’s not a hypocrite and complaining now it’s another team with a flexing aero part….. Oh he actually is lol.
The Race has posted a video about it:
So tiny? When Lewis Hamilton his DRS was 0.2mm out of spec, he got disqualified.
But this is the problem of F1, what the FIA do depends whether they like you or not.
A bit too cynical for my liking. It is more to do with there they have appropriate testing documented, and/or technical directives that provide clarification. As was explained above, the teams often work in the grey area, push the boundaries, so the FIA runs a bit behind at times. Sometimes one team has the benefit, the other times another team.
If they don't crack down on this McLaren, then they'll lose the old Ferrari International Assistance title.
Sarcasm aside, it would be nice if the rules allowed more experimentation, we might see some interesting new car deigns.
I loved the old days when the changes were extremely radical. A Tyrrell with 6 wheels, a Brabham with fans, a Lotus with sliding side-pods, another Lotus where the entire car was a huge ground-effect tunnel (didn't work, but radical), the mega-flat Brabham BT55 for instance, the CVT Williams.
Exactly, the FIA have their regulations and tests to verify that the teams follow those regulations. Lewis's wing being out of spec failed the test, McLaren's wing passed. If the FIA consider this a problem, they will modify either regulations or the tests to close that loophole. This is how it's always worked.
Aerodynamic surfaces will always be deformed in different ways when under high loads. There's no way around that and the FIA testing leaves some leeway for that within the regulations. I'm sure all teams are looking for ways to make that work in their advantage. But it's not as simple as just copying McLaren's approach—assuming that it indeed is to their advantage, it might not be for all we know—either as the entire package needs to work in synergy.
There is the difference that the existing DRS wing has technical regulations defined for it and Lewis exceeded those. Any car with such an aberration would have been disqualified.
McLaren's DRS wing meets the technical regulations as a complete unit. What has to happen now is for the FIA to decide if the "expanding gap" at the ends is in violation of the spirit of a technical regulation ("moveable aerodynamic devices" is probably the easiest) or not.
If it is, McLaren will have to revert to a prior rear wing geometry that does not allow for said "expanding gap". If it is not, then expect the other teams to rush new wings into development with similar effects.
Will the decision be over the gap, or the size of the gap? My understanding is the R wing on the RB20 and the W15 also create a gap, although not remotely close to the size of the MCL38?
Years ago McLaren MP4-29 had another trick with the rear suspension that also had an aerodynamic effect. There was a great analysis of this done by Enrique Scalabroni at the time. Don't think it's still available, shame because he's very clever.
Mclaren has form in finding these solutions that tend to raise eyebrows.
For way too many decades we had 1 team dominate, "would it be brilliant if X or Y started winning.." We went through too many years of Merc, then RB, and wondering if in the next 25 years, there might be a 3rd team.. Here we have this.. and wow, what a great season, Max making mistakes, RB in 2nd on the log, wow, insane, intense, this is good stuff...But no we cannot have nice things, cause WOKE....Some precious useless princess has to moan to mommy about so and so said a rude word, or farted too loud or or a wing flexes 1 micron more and thus is 1 cm/hour faster than a donkeykart from Italy.. So unfair to the donkeykart racing enterprise.. Ban the wing, why not just cancel the damn season, race virtual on xbox?
Danny Ric expecting to be sacked after Singapore apparently, Liam Lawson to replace him. What a nose dive his career took after 2018, he’s so lucky he’s been given these chances but unfortunately he’s finished. Nice guy too but it isn’t called the Piranha Club for nothing.
Mclaren have always been one of the most innovative teams on the grid. They changed the sport in the 80’s when they were the first team to use carbon fibre monocoques and this created the standard. I loved the 2020 F-Duct too and how it took so long for teams to realise, eventually with other teams drilling channels and modifying their own cars to mimic it. They’ve had some genius ideas over the years.