Rake in F1

[Jake899]

Hello,
Everybody is talking about "rake" this season and the difference in performance between "high rake" designs and "low rake" designs. Can someone concisely explain what this term physically means on the cars? Where is the different rake located and what constitutes high or low. as a bonus, perhaps you could explain also why one is proving better than the other. I'm intrigued!

[MontyPythonX]

Rake is just the angle of the car relative to the track. As you can see below, Red Bull have a higher angle than Mercedes therefore have "higher rake".



There are plenty of videos out there that can explain why different teams go for high/low rake better than I ever can hope to.

[MontyPythonX]

Autosport have a video detailing how the regulations have affected the cars this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG1hpopWE8g

[Jake899]

Thanks guys. I didn't realise it was so simple, I imagined it would be the angle of the nose relative to the tray leading edge or something more detailed like that.
Obvious thoughts: does high rake present more upper surface to airflow giving more drag but higher downforce- but lifting the rear would make it harder to channel air effectively underneath, removing the floors effectiveness. A higher rear end allows more suspension travel at the rear surely? You'd think a high rake car would allow more adjustment of the front to rear mechanical grip. And we're talking less than 1 degree difference. The technology behind F1 and they way the teams find performance is so interesting.

[anonymous-user]

I feel the rake discussion is being overly worked by the media in this 3 week break as there is no F1 news otherwise. It’ll disappear in a few races time once the season gets going at pace. As for what is better or not, there isn’t a single answer to it. It’s part of (a large part though) of the overall performance. I’m no expert but the idea is to get the air flow under the floor to move at very high speed and not exit the sides of the floor, instead going out the back under the diffuser. Many pundits believed this years rule changes would affect the high rake cars because the gap between floor and ground is larger. Now Aston Martin and Mercedes have said it’s actually the opposite. All teams agreed to these rule changes though. Aston Martin have been caught with their pants down. Mercedes will probably work it out / Hamilton will make up the difference.

[Jake899]

I wonder what the difference is in rake between full acceleration and full braking. Can the car compensate itself for that or is that against the rules like the automatic suspension banned back in 93?

[Jordaann10]

Scarbs has done one of the best videos i've found on the rake topic and why it may have effected merc more than other teams, his theory is that the new rear brake duct winglets rules have a part to play in the loss of performance for low rake cars.

It's quite interesting as a lot of talk around the rule changes effecting the high rake cars the most was due to the removal of the slots in the floor, as it would be harder to seal the larger volume without them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kvvsQzvPUg

[SturdyHSV]

Jake899 said:

I wonder what the difference is in rake between full acceleration and full braking. Can the car compensate itself for that or is that against the rules like the automatic suspension banned back in 93?

https://youtu.be/6Mxm_Vb25II?t=55

Covers heave dampers and such which cover what you're wondering about

[guards red]

It's hideous. Makes the cars look jacked up at the back - everything a racing car shouldn't be.

[MontyPythonX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsEvs5Vbry0

I suspected it wouldn't be long before Stuart did a video on rake...
Haven't watched it yet, but his stuff is usually very good at explaining things.

[markcoznottz]

guards red said:

It's hideous. Makes the cars look jacked up at the back - everything a racing car shouldn't be.

Yep. Something I’d ban straight away. It’s a visual sport, the cars look better sucked to the ground.