there was no wind yesterday, ideal conditions. there was likely a positive impact from drafting behind the car but minimal at 22km/h compared to cyclists as it goes up exponentially with velocity, and less impact than being behind one or 2 human pacers for 15k
Excellent article. Maybe the car provided ~10 second benefit which is much smaller benefit than what he would have gotten from 10 km of traditional pacing (1 minute benefit) right behind another runner.
People saying he drafted hard and people saying car had little to no effect are both wrong. It seems he was gonna break the WR with or without the car. We can agree on that, right? But lets not kid ourselves, the car helped. And people underestimate how far behind a car there is still some drafting effect. Not much, but there is.
This was modelled for sub2 when everyone commented on the size of the car race clock. It was shown the car had no effect, it was all due to the human pacers. But the theory was out and was continually pushed including in letsrun articles - you have to be very close or it can actually have a negative effect due to the turbulent air. It would be nice to explain away 30s of this crazy run, but I don't think the car is relevant.