Yeah, they went chasing some aero benefits through exhaust configuration. And it worked. Sort of. Problem was, what benefits they might have got were completely swamped by the drag caused by the very wide / flat sidepods the fancy exhaust forced them to run. It looks like they've realised that was a major blind alley (the rules for this year on exhaust exit placement pretty much ensured that), ditched the fancy exhaust & redesigned the rear bodywork / sidepods PDQ for the Spanish GP last weekend. Much better area ruling / coke-bottle / call it what you will now. I take my hat off to Alonso; how he managed to wrestle that car as it stood to a win is beyond me. It looked a complete dog. That it's probably the ugliest car ever to have a Ferrari badge on it (even now -the nose is hideous) doesn't exactly help.
Still, they're not alone -the '09 McLaren was a boat-anchor for the first two thirds of that season until they finally managed to make it come good. How much of the car as-designed was left by the end is open to question, but I think it's safe to say 'not a heck of a lot.'
Still, they're not alone -the '09 McLaren was a boat-anchor for the first two thirds of that season until they finally managed to make it come good. How much of the car as-designed was left by the end is open to question, but I think it's safe to say 'not a heck of a lot.'
Agreed, over the decades the best racing I've watched is SCCA club racing and Saturday night dirt ovals. At the 'grass roots' level it's all about pride.
GM
Can't really see the exhaust setup, but you're right about the nose design. Frankly, I figured they all would have been jacked up like this by now. Seems like the driver's legs, feet would go to sleep from being so high up though.
GM
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