What is Slipsteam and how does it help in racing?
In: Technology
Imaging instead of air we had chocolate pudding everywhere. To move around the track, you have to push your way through the chocolate pudding.
The car in front has to do a LOT of work pushing that pudding out of the way and making a car sized hole in it. But that hole doesn’t collapse immediately behind them. Behind that car there will still be an opening in the pudding.
If you drive right behind the first car, your car has to push a little bit of the pudding out of the way, but not nearly as much as the first car. So you don’t have to push your engine as hard.
This isn’t quite accurate – in air you’re not leaving an actual hole, but you are leaving air behind you that’s moving forwards and following along with your car. That means if another car stays in that area, their car gets pulled along with you – meaning they have to do less work to keep up.
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