The shape of teams’ sidepod designs has been thrust into the spotlight in F1’s latest ground effect era as initially there was a fascinating variety of different concepts at play.
However, the advantage that Red Bull appears to have gotten from its downwash concept appears to have won out as many of its rivals have followed suit in copying it.
Ferrari abandoned its in-wash solution at the Spanish Grand Prix to move closer to Red Bull’s idea, while Mercedes moved away from its zero-pod idea a race earlier in Monaco.
But while there has been an obvious change of path for teams, many of them have played down the significance of what they have done, insisting that sidepod shape does not make a critical difference in the overall performance of a car.
But that is a viewpoint completely dismissed by Stella, whose own team has aggressively changed its sidepod shape this year and which has helped it make a dramatic step forward in performance.
Instead, Stella thinks that the way that the sidepod helps with airflow both over and around the car and floor area is key to lap time.
“If there's any team that says that the bodywork and the sidepods don't have an effect in the current regulations, there's this long nose, Pinocchio style,” said Stella, in reference to the fictional wooden puppet whose nose grew every time he told a lie.
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“Every aerodynamicist from simulation, to wind tunnel, and measured data at the track, knows that the two things actually work together.
Source: Autosport