The Racing Thread

[AWP]

In most forms of racing, the cars are now nearly identical. Tire and fuel management, coupled with driver intelligence wins races.

F1 has had some great disparity in aero. Mercedes nail the first turbo-hybrid in..2014? but the others caught up after a few years. Aero however is the real sticking point these days with limited tunnel and CFD time.

Modern F1 cars look the same, but if you scrutinize still photos you can really see the differences in the side pods.

Ironically, Red Bull in the ground effect era (which just ended) had the most dominate car in 2023 until Checo crashed (Monaco?) and the crane lifted the car high enough everyone saw the underside. After that teams brought aero packages which closed the gap and led to McLaren's two-peat in the WCC.

 

[Topkick]

F1 has had some great disparity in aero

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear this. In NASCAR and a lot of other forms, a template is used to check cars to ensure no disparity. Hell, I think NASCAR even has a template for the drivers now, and its part of the problem.

 

[AWP]

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear this. In NASCAR and a lot of other forms, a template is used to check cars to ensure no disparity. Hell, I think NASCAR even has a template for the drivers now, and its part of the problem.

Odd trivia for you. In the 80's cars were weighed and met a limit but drivers were not. A guy like Alain Prost who was 10-20 pounds lighter than other drivers had a .1 - .3 advantage before they even took to the track. That's why today you see drivers weighing in as soon as they step out of the car because the weight limit today is driver+car. The cars to "scrutineering" and that weight is combined with a ticket provided to the drivers after they weigh in.

Just a very, very trivial example of individual designs, all from 2025 cars where even the endplates are different. NASCAR's running spec, F1 has tech adopted by NASA and SpaceX. SpaceX even poached some engineers awhile back.

 

[BloodStripe]

You're embarrassing yourself.

I love it when Mommy and Daddy fight.