Circuit: Catalunya Circuit - 4.655 Km Driver: Kimi Raikkonen Car: F2008 Weather: Air Temperature 11/18 Degrees, Track Temperature 14/24 Degrees. Overcast with Rain at times and the occasional burst of Sunshine in the Afternoon. The Formula 1 testing at the Catalunya Circuit came to a wet end. The final day was affected by bad weather, with rain upsetting proceedings for large parts of the session. Kimi Raikkonen was the third and final Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver to take part in this test session and he was only able to complete a few laps, most of them in the wet. Only in the final hour was it possible to fit dry weather tyres. The day in figures is as follows: 33 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.23.619. The Scuderia's preparations for the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be held at this circuit on the forthcoming 27th April, continues therefore at Maranello with the analysis of all the data gathered at this test and with the shakedown of the two cars that Felipe and Kimi will use, taking place at the Fiorano Track on Wednesday 23rd April. 1.- Webber-1:21.953-37 laps 2.- Kovalainen-1:23.589-34 laps 3.- Raikkonen-1:23.619-34 laps 4.- Kubica-1:24.715-32 laps engine 14:31 5.- Button-1:24.873-41 laps 6.- Nakajima-1:24.927-62 laps engine 17:48 7.- Piquet-1:26.100-61 laps 8.- Trulli-1:32.150-18 laps F2008 3D nose cone hole video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHOHy5sT20 Renault new front wing: Image Unavailable, Please Login
So is the concept to suck air that just flew over the wing out from underneath the car thereby creating greater pressure over the top of the car??? (I am work so I couldn't watch the video with the sound on so if it was answered I apologize). Mark
From the video, it also looks like the pitot tube will also receive more concentrated air information. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but cool nonetheless.
There isn't any sound with the video, so you didn't miss anything. I don't know the specifics of how it will actually create more downforce for the the car, it could just be to cool the drivers feet as some others have suspected.
Yes, they found that high pressure was created under the bottom of the back of the nose. In fact if you look you will see little winglets under there trying to direct the air previously. the new nose is supposed to help dissipate the pressure more effectively. (<---obvious?)
After watching the video, I was wondering what would happen when the car goes thru a puddle of water. Looks like the driver will get a nice blast of water at his head. Pretty cool, a water slide in F1
Looks like they have intermediates on the left side, drys on the right. Why? I have no clue, they try weird things in testing sometimes.
they are probably just on their to roll the car around. Used sets most likely. You often see intermediates on the cars when they aren't being used at speed. Demonstrations and other special events for instance. And as for the new nose. The high pressure region will effectively push up on the nose, reducing downforce. Eliminating it has the added benefit of increasing flow to the rear wing, adding rear downforce as well. I wouldn't worry about a puddle. Would have to be deep enough to run over top of the front wing, several inches at least. Their would be bigger problems like hydroplaning and such before that happened.
