When I first saw Red Bull's floor, I was pretty blown away by Newey's genius.



He has been able to interpret the new FIA regulations and implore what most folks call a "double floor". I believe this was an evolution of an original concept from the beginning of the season but it wasn't working as designed so they nixed it (even brought back an old RB7-spec design), but now, having seen their pace in Valencia (Vettel 4/10s quickest in qualy and leading a full second every lap, while Webber finished P4 from P19) it's pretty darn obvious they've managed to get it to work as intended.

In lamen terms, a double floor is basically something that exposes more floor to fast flowing air. Properly channeled air (by aid of fins, sidepods, front aero etc) pushes against the floors and dramatically increases downforce.

This is especially important this year because tires and their management have become such a pivotal winning factor and during a Pirelli era where they seem to just drop off far too drastically than previous years.

More downforce equates to lower tire degradation which means more grip, longer stints, fewer pit stops strategies, better overtaking etc etc. You can imagine how especially crucial this extra edge is too in 2012, because 1-2 tenths of a second is now what commonly separates P1 from P10 in qualifying.


Here's a nice video explaining Newey's double floor:
(It also helps folks understand what behavior/effect of airflow over the pods & floor are like on an F1 car):

BBC Formula 1 2012 - 08 European GP - Gary Anderson looks at Red Bull's latest updates - YouTube


Some more pics of Newey's latest genius:
(I'm sure other teams will be evaluating how they can employ something like this asap)






Airflow Exits:
Green: Radiators exhaust
Yellow: First tunnel
Red: Second tunnel

 

crazy engineers. love this stuff! great post!

 

Awesome! I love seeing all these little details that usually go completely unnoticed during the race.

 

I don't think the other teams will be able to (or desire to) quickly copy Newey's double floor, it's taken RBR eight races to finally figure out their complicated rear end package so it's not a quick & easy change to throw on a car. More importantly, I'm not sure how efficient this change would be on non-RBR cars, as this requires a complete front-to-rear aerodynamic package that intertwines seamlessly together. The RBRs have a distinct advantage now, except on tracks that don't favor their strengths...which they're aren't many of.

 

They only go unnoticed if you watch SPEED. BBC and Sky go into great detail each and every weekend with changes like this, or if you want to check out even further detailed pictures/theories/explanations go to f1technical.net. Amazing stuff there from guys that really know physics.

 

I think we can all unanimously say SPEED channel sucks for any and everything BESIDES nascar. FML.

 

It's amazing how dominant newey is!

 

Great pics and very informative write up, thanks! Can't wait to see if RBR will be back on top at Silverstone with the double-floor.

 

Newey's design made it onto Chalk Talk on Speed channel. Pretty neat clip and deep dive of the system and how it works, enjoy:
F1: British GP Chalk Talk - 2012 - Watch on SPEED