Explained: Strange “scaffolding” on F1 cars at Bahrain testing

Explained: Strange “scaffolding” on F1 cars at Bahrain testing

 

 

 

They are known as “aero rakes” and are covered in sensors to measure the air flow off a car’s body.Teams then compare this data from the track to data from the simulator or wind tunnel – from there, they can estimate if the rest of their simulator data is reliable.F1 2023 Bahrain pre-season testing – Day 2 Lap Times

Intrigue over mysterious Mercedes blue wires and Ferrari nose ‘dimple’Rob Smedley, ex-Ferrari and Williams engineer, explained: “When we then analyse that, we’re usually looking for things like separation, as in where the flow’s separating and we’re not getting decent flow structures across the surfaces of the car.“We can see if there’s a point where the front wing ‘falls over’, as we term it, where we’re not generating the downforce on the front anymore.“Equally, there are sometimes more fundamental things that we pick up from the aero rakes that we can’t solve at the track, and that then goes back to the aerodynamics team and they can deliberate on how to solve these fundamental problems and to put these flow structures in a more optimised position.”Related Sainz lowers F1 testing pace as Hamilton loses bodywork F1 2023 Bahrain pre-season testing – Day 2 Lap Times 

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