What is Slipsteam and how does it help in racing?
In: Technology
A slipstream is the area behind a car where the air is less dense. This happens because the car in front is pushing the air up and out, and not all of it is going to immediately get sucked back behind it. When you’re in the slipstream, you have less air for your car to push out of the way, so you can typically go faster.
That said, sometimes it’s not necessarily a good thing. For example, F1 cars only weigh about 800kg, but produce another ~2000kg of downforce from the air pushing down their wings. But when they’re in the slipstream, they don’t have as much downforce because there’s less air pushing down. While they can follow in a straight line a lot better, they can have a harder time cornering behind another car without all that extra downforce helping to give their tires grip.
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