9 replies to this topic

[Ev0d3vil]

Did anyone catch the lap when Massa was explaining his pole lap to Brundle? He said Fernando's car helped slipstream his way to pole. 2006 Italy rings a bell?

[SamH123]

Yes I saw that.

Brundle wasn't buying it though

 

I would have thought Massa might be in the dirty air zone 

[P123]

I'd be surprised. If anything, the race demonstrated that there wasn't much slipstream at all for following cars.

[Fonzey]

Yeah I think Massa was way off with that comment. Brundle was having none of it

[Tapz63]

Yeah he was way off I'd say, Alonsos car was 5 secs down the road.

[Lights]

It could be that Massa noticed that he had more topspeed while driving. But my guess is that it could also be because of optimum car settings for the last shot in qualifying. Especially when Williams realized they had a fair shot at pole.

[DanardiF1]

The air is probably still quite disturbed from the previous car going through it, but there'd be no wake as such... Sportsmen tend to believe whatever though if they think it makes them faster/better.

[Dolph]

Massa confused the slipstream with the 6 tenths that was leaking from Fernando's car.

[Scotracer]

He was clearly talking about the Vmax differences between following Fernando and not...but there's so many potential variables I'm cautious to say anything.

 

What is clear, though, is that the wake dynamics of an F1 car are a very black art. If you were to assume that the overall air pressure behind the car is less than ambient then you would get a benefit...if tiny.

[Tapz63]