Rake

[ATL11]

Do we have any stats on what rake levels are used on current F1 cars?

& is there a correlation on Rake level & success?

I would imagine it'll be based on tracks and regulations, but just as it's the buzz word in F1.

 

[MCLS]

What is rake anyway?

 

[ATL11]

Pitch of the car I believe, how much the nose is heavy, etc

 

[MCLS]

Ohh right

 

[Pyrope]

I have no idea whether this data is even collected, let alone where it would be published if it were.

 

[Galahad]

I think only the teams themselves know what they're running.

You might be able to hazard a guess from photographs, if you could get a side-on view low down with the floor visible, but I'm not aware of it ever having been done in a detailed way.

 

[ATL11]

Okay I know it's took me some time, but I got the camera out for the Chinese GP to see if I could tell the difference for the Rake settings for the cars and was surprised how well you could see differences:

 

[ATL11]

Ferrari Slight:

 

[ATL11]

McLaren Hamilton Level & Button Slight:

 

[ATL11]

RBR Like a slide:

 

[ATL11]

Mercedes decent amount:

 

[ATL11]

Force India, I'd say slight but not a good angle:

 

[ATL11]

Be interesting to see how Turkey changes this?

Your thoughts on what you can see?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

I googled rake angle and this is what came up:

I have a feeling this isn't what we are talking about, is there any chance someone can write up exactly what rake angle is and how it affects an F1 car?

 

[Jru]

The Ferrari doesn't seem a million miles from the RBR to my untrained eye.
Rake is the angle of the car relative the to the ground as far as I am aware.

RBR have claimed that it is their extreme rake that causes their front wing to touch the ground and nothing else. Whilst I am not seeking to drag this topic back to that one, they are linked discussions.

 

[Fenderman]

Ah, what is Rake? In a nutshell the Rake (or more precisely the Rake Angle) is the deviation of the floor plane from the horizontal. In ATL11's pic's the Red Bull's clearly have the biggest deviation with the rear of the chassis very visibly higher than the front. There are two significant effects of this in that a steeper rake angle will accelerate the airflow beneath the car due to a greater release of pressure as it flows past the lowest point of the floor. The other major effect is on the weight transfer under braking or acceleration as the mass of the car is more or less 'preloaded' toward the front end.

I'm curious as to how and why the RBR handles so well with so much rake as common sense would suggest that the car will be predisposed to diving on braking and that the ground effect of the floorpan and rear diffuser ought to be weaker therefore giving the car less grip. In theory the front wing will be presenting more drag and therefore more aero downforce at the front, so again compromising downforce and grip at the rear. Hopefully, there is someone with a deeper insight who can solve the problem for us (obviously Mr Newey is keeping this one close to his chest!)

 

[Brogan]

I expect the flexible front wing has a lot to do with how the Red Bull can handle so well with such a relatively high rake angle.

 

[johnnoble1990]

When looking from the front i swear you can see how dramatic this angle is. The front wing seems to slope more which makes me wonder if that is how it flexes because it will be catching more of an air load, forcing it downwards. Maybe this is why other teams are struggling to make one because it is change of car philosophy, rather than one upgrade needed.

 

[Slyboogy]

The rake on the Red Bull car is the most notable, then Ferrari...

The rest don't seem to have much of a difference to previous years