I don't know anything. That statement will become important later. I may be out of sorts, but it seems logical to me that there is at least some correlation between F1 wind tunnel data and road car applications. The data can't be directly extrapolated from F1 to road car since they are very different, but information on aero principles revealed during the development of an F1 car should have some positive effect on road car development, assuming those departments share data and methodologies.
This part doesn't require an assumption IF the first part is true: flawed data from the source would poison the target data. Would the results in either format be credible? I don't believe so, but I'm also not a scientist or very smart, so keep that in mind, and I refer you to my first sentence on this post. In this instance, the Michael Crichton coined term, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect might be relevant.
The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect occurs when someone reads something in a publication about which they are knowledgeable, and sees errors that indicate the author does not know the material. When the reader flips the page to the next article, about which the reader may be ignorant, the reader disregards the author's previous lack of knowledge and assumes this next article is factually correct.
Ferrari admitted that their wind tunnel was calibrated incorrectly a few years ago. It took a while before the tunnel was back on line. The problem forced Ferrari to use Toyota's wind tunnel in the interim. Toyota's gas pedals may be suspect, but their wind tunnel is accurate--probably. This had to have had a detrimental effect on road car aero development, yet no one seems to question whether or not the newest Ferrari road cars will stay on the road while at speed. The current cars are the fastest and most powerful the company has ever produced.
How comfortable would you feel at 190 mph in your brand new Ferrari if someone told you the aerodynamics of the car *might* be flawed? Maybe this isn't an issue at all because there is no correlation between F1 aero and road car aero. Even so, if the engineers working on the F1 car didn't catch the wind tunnel issue right away, why would the road car team fare better?
I don't know how the teams at Ferrari work, and whether or not they even share data between departments, but the marketing department has no problem emphasizing Ferrari's racing successes to build interest in the road cars and strengthen the majesty of the marque. However, given Ferrari's poor form in F1 over the last several years and the wind tunnel issue, how long can the situation continue in this manner before it has a detrimental effect on Ferrari's reputation as a whole?
Or will the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect do the job and keep the Ferrari faithful queuing for a chance to own every new model even though they may be fatally flawed due to a developmental birth defect? I wouldn't want to bet my life that the road car team got it right when they have repeatedly failed to do so in F1.
Racing was always seen as a way for manufacturers to engender public adoration and sell more cars. That's supposed to only work well when the race team wins. You can't continue to sell your road cars as being developed by winners when you can't win. Eventually the customers will wake up and start to question what they are buying. Or, maybe they won't.
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