Aero ?

[FiremanRob]

I am a bit confused about the affect of aero on the car behind. I have been hearing for ages that the car behind suffers from this problem, destabilising the air over the front wings and therefore loosing downforce, ok so far.
I have probably bored you so far about my liking for Australian V8 Supercars. Whilst watching them last weekend, the commontators were making a lot about the affect of this air on the rear of the leading car. Saying that having a car following really closely, upsets the aero on the rear of the car in front destabilising the rear. Hope I have explained that correctly. Never heard of this before.........

[weyland yutani]

I heard this whilst watching the V8s too. Aero Push I think they called it, as though the car behind is pushing a wall of turbulent air ahead of itself and affecting the rear downforce of the car close ahead. First I've ever heard of it and sounds a bit odd tbh.

[zac510]

I've heard of it in Nascar but not any circuit racing ever.

I guess it works like blocking a diffuser.

Do the new control chassis have proper aero/diffuers?

[entropy]

Not just a common phenomenon in NASCAR whereby if you get close to the car in front you take air off their spoiler and loosen their rear-end but I remember this was common in CART in the mid-late 90s as they were uber-sensitive on superspeedways to "having the air taken away" you could easily lose control.

[RobGT81]

Yup, big thing in NASCAR as mentioned. When the trailing car inches up to the lead car, the parasitic drag(pressure drag) is reduced on the rear of the lead car. This lets him go faster but also reduces downforce. Reducing downforce and a little "rub" is a handy way to get rid of a guy ahead of you.. rubbings racing!