Quote:
Originally Posted by Snax
Just a little micro-management going on at the rear of open wheel cars these days.
 |
Quote:
Originally Posted by arcosine
Probably the fins pump cooling air though the brakes.
|
I'm assuming this is taken from behind the rear wheel, so those fins are leading air up and away from the wheel.
Looks like a lot of work cleaning up the wake, probably using the vortices formed at the tips of all those fins to specifically shape it for one thing or another.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Apparently skin friction and interference drag are over-rated?
|
The regulations are so strict about the bodywork that teams in open wheel series have resorted to exploiting loopholes in areas not covered by regulations. So, no, you're not going to see a smooth sidepod with trim winglets on top of it like Michael Schumacher had back in the day (the tricky little winglets that flexed juuuuust enough to reduce drag in the straights, then popped back up to give extra downforce in the corners)... instead, you get smooth areas where rules prevent adding wings and unregulated areas, like the bargeboard shown here, that sprouts wings and fences and vortex generators like barnacles.
Sort of like what happens when you tell fighters they can't have spiked knuckles in a fight, so they put spikes between the knuckles, instead.
Even the mirrors need to have an effect, as there's so little else you can do. Ferrari, in particular, ran into some trouble by putting a wing on a miror and calling it a mount...
