Vettel’s suspension decompressing upon braking at spa

I’ve always wondered if the drivers can feel the car compressing while accelerating? due to how the downforce increases as you accelerate

I would expect this to be negligible compared to the acceleration G’s they pull. But their bodies are like sensors and they feel any slight imbalance of the car, so I actually think they can feel it.

That’s actually really interesting to see! Does it reduce drag when compressed?

aero downforce at high speed compress the car, for optimal ground effect and less drag, especially at the the end of the fastest straight of the track. Then when braking the car has longitudinal weight transfert, so rear wheels are unloaded. This helps car to turn. It was best part of the track to observe that.

It does as it reduces the rake. In 2017 McLaren and Red bull had some fancy suspension that would lower the rear on the straights to gain more speed, but it was banned before 2018.

I remember some of the recent Red Bulls looking very similar. Even the front wing looked to be change shape considerably as aero load was removed.

Non linear deformation is a thing, has to do with how you lay up.the carbon sheets, it’s why they started hanging weights off wings. Static they were legal, under load the rear wing for example would basically do a DRS down the straight before there was DRS.

And to think, this is the low downforce setup.

It’s just the reduction in downforce from reduced speeds combined with weight transfer to the front of the car. The only way to stop that from happening is to have essentially no suspension travel.