Well, yes, but…
Nevermind. Ride safe…
Not being a Smart butt.
Last Fondo. A friend took off in a pace line. The group surged. 380 watts into a head wind.
A few dropped off. I went back to the second group. A few of us rode comfortably and sensibly.
The bigger pace line crapped out. We passed them and got to the finish line. Started lunch. The bigger group finally arrived.
I’ll take 2 smart people pulling the right amount and the right amount of time. Vs a Big Surge group of 12.
Don’t need a lot. Just need to be smart. And safe.
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We’ve practiced both fairly frequently with our junior race team, and my impression is it’s technique rather than number that makes most difference. I’ve done bigger groups that in theory should have more rest, but have a few surgey riders so fall apart quickly, whilst really small groups (3-4) that are fast because they’re smooth and communicative.
It’s definitely worth getting the hang of calling out and dropping precisely onto the last wheel at lower speed before trying to speed up. We may start a session at 15mph, and slowly build up to speed over 20mins, and it really helps. If your friends want to do such a formation, maybe suggest doing such practice.
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On the wrong topic…doing 32 MPH (51.5 KPH) with no wind, no elevation, and a cda of 0.25 takes about 500 watts per the handful of cycling power calculators that come up with a quick google search Cycling Physics Calculator being the first one I tried
So…in a large group you could be spending a very low % of your time on the front and average relatively low (<250 watts) power and maintain that speed - but the time on the front looks like it’d certainly be north of 400 watts for even the most aero of road positions
On the right topic…to truly do a full rotation I wouldn’t want pulls that short with less than six riders. In a race and not a group ride the dynamics would change for me a bit, but for efficiency on flat ground I’d say six would be the smallest
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Agreed, wouldn’t generally bother doing rotating paceline with less than 6 in training. Can do it, and it’s quite good for practicing skills, but with a small group you’re more efficient just doing single file and short pulls. Racing is slightly different I think. Firstly because you have closed or partially closed roads so can form an echelon in crosswinds whereas on training rides (on our local roads at least) for safety reasons you need to keep things straight which negates a lot of the benefit of having 2 lines in a crosswind. And secondly because if you’re in a break a rotating paceline is a good way of ensuring people are contributing somewhat evenly and not doing soft turns. So in a race a rotating paceline might make sense even with only 4 people.
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Continuing on the tangent, ronan mclaughlin did an interesting video lately using an aero sensor and trying out a number of different equipment choices on a the new Cervelo Soloist. They post his CDA with different setups and positions.
The whole video is worth the watch, but they lost his cda at about 10:05. When he added the upgrades and was in the aero position he was at 0.254. Per what I could find he rides a 56cm frame and is 182 cm and 68 kg.
But unfortunately for the OP he didn’t spend any time taking about the optimal number for a paceline. I blame Outside for that 
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Not enough staff left to even make a paceline.
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Depends who is in the paceline but somewhere around 6 is what I like.