It feels like such a small detail that saves the drivers seconds
In: Engineering
At the speeds the cars are traveling drag is tremendous. Drag is squared with velocity so as you go faster there is exponentially more force required to overcome drag. Allowing air to pass through the rear wing instead up being forced up (creating downforce) gets rid of that induced drag which is a major thing that is going to stop a car from going faster at high speeds.
At those speeds, there isn’t a lot of force that can be applied to the ground via the wheels because the car is in a high gear and going straight so the downforce won’t help add any speed.
So you can get rid of the downforce to get a big reduction in drag which lets you go faster.
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