Basically there are 3 states you need to take note of.
1. Aero-neutral exhausts – when the exhausts are nowhere near the diffuser, and are basically like they were in 2009; they didn’t affect downforce
2. EBD, without overrun blowing (basically Silverstone. The exhaust is only blowing gasses out when your foot is on the throttle. This makes the car sensitive because when you’re lifting your foot from the throttle, downforce decreases all of a sudden)
3. EBD, with overrun blowing (what we’ve had for the season except Silverstone. In this case because the exhaust gasses are coming out regardless of how much throttle you’re giving, it is basically the same as Case 1, except you have more downforce in slow corners, where you’re not usually flat out)
Case 2 is what the REd Bulls had up to Valencia 2010. Mark understood that the downforce production was directly linked to how much throttle you put in; so he changed his driving lines and driving style in order to maximize the length of time he was on throttle. Seb never changed his driving style as such.
In effect, what basically is is that Mark Webber on the whole is just a slower driver; but his special technique in Case 2 helped negate some of Seb’s natural speed advantage. Next year the cars will handle a lot closer to they are now; rather than they did in Silverstone (Case 3 and Case 1 are basically the same, except Case 3 has more slow corner downforce.)
Indeed, you could see Mark was taking very weird lines through corners in 2010. I wasn’t the only one to notice it. Pat Symonds also noticed it and wrote about it in F1 Racing magazine. Mark Hughes (Autosport/BBC F1 analyst) also noticed it. He wrote as such:
At this part of the season, Webber was genuinely able to get more from the car’s exhaust-blown diffuser.
In its initial form, this component required a very specific driving technique to maximise the time on open throttle – which increased the downforce boost from the exhaust plume – and Webber was superb at it, consistently squeezing just that little bit more from it than his team-mate.
Vettel continued to be better at living with a little bit of entry oversteer, and that ability to adapt to the car moving around him was maybe partly why he was not as insistent on adapting his technique to a feature that calmed the rear end as soon as you got on the throttle.
From Valencia onwards however, the Renault engine was running software that retarded the ignition off-throttle, using the extra heat created to maintain exhaust flow to the diffuser even off-throttle.
Suddenly that downforce boost was there even during braking and Webber’s specialised technique was no longer required. That improvement, in other words, took away a key Webber advantage
Sourced from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9127533.stm
Unfortunately, it’s not that Seb has an advantage in Case 3, it’s that Mark had an advantage last year.
