Splines on the silver axle engage with those on the wheel, to connect the pair together
Specially machined splines on the front wheel centre hole mate to the axle
A typical hub uses these pointed drive pegs to connect the wheel to the axle
http://f1.f-e-n.net/images/f1/20100227/tests/cd1027fe09.jpg
try a simplified front wing and deeper sidpod fins, not visible in this pic, but they have new exhaust outlets too
NOTE: Update on McLarens SnorkelRear wing here http://wp.me/sNdA9-235
As McLaren continue to use testing rigs to map their cars aerodynamics, the importance of the snorkel on the top of the chassis is becoming apparent. On Friday The car lapped with an array of sensors attached to the rear wing. However, there was an additional sensor mounted inside the snorkel. Raising the question why would you want to test rear wing and driver cooling simultaneously?
This Snorkel, is an apparently innocuous looking part, which was at first believed to be solely an inlet to cool the cockpit. Several teams add similar inlets in this area to supplement the inlet in the tip of the nose. The cockpit houses the power steering rack, hydraulic lines and electronics boxes, so cooling is often required. However the initially simple inlet has been superceded by at least two more shapely snorkel-like derivatives each with an apparently unnecessarily complex double wall construction creating smooth narrow inlet and a streamlined outer surface. This snorkel has been present ont he car through out all the cold and wet testing sessions, suggestion its purpose goes beyond a simple primary purpose of cooling.
One rumour around the internet suggests the inlet is linked by a duct to the shark finblown rear wing. At first appearing to be simply a wild rumour, that the snorkel is blocked by the drivers knee to alter the rear wing airflow. However the presence of the airflow sensor along with the rear wing test rig, suggests there might be a link after all. The rumours suggest the drivers left braking leg, which sits unused on long straights could be used to alter the flow from the snorkel to the rear wing duct, where a valve alters flow through the blown slot to stall the rear wing. This would reduce downforce and also drag, which would allow a higher top speed. Then the driver moves his leg to start to brake for the next turn the valve switches airflow back to normal, the wings airflow reattaches and provides the downforce needed for the turns. This sounds both feasible and far-fetched at the same time.
It would be hard to link the rear wing and snorkel with any certainty, but any input from the driver that would alter the cars aerodynamics as the rumours suggest would certainly be an area of greyness in the rules and liable to protest come Bahrain.
Force India: The undernose hump may reduce lift and also house ballast
Not new developments, merely ones not spotted on the car at its launch.
Under the nose the car sports a hump, similar to that employed in 2009 by Renault and Williams (in early testing at least). This is used to offset the lift created by the neutral central section of the front wing (as mandated by the rules). Additionally Force India appear to have an access hatch in this hump, which suggests that there might be Ballast placed inside it, not as effective as ballast mounted in the wing by usefully a few centimeters lower than inside the main nosecone.
Force India: splines to mount the wheel to the hub speeds pitstops
Then the front wheel and hub assembly is innovative. usually the front wheel is prevented from rotating on the hub by four or so drive pins. In fitting the wheel during pitstops, the holes in one need to correspond with the drive pins in the other. Thus four drive pins means the wheel will fit the hub in four orientations each 90-degrees apart. Thus the more drive pins the less the mechanic has to rotate the wheel to fit it to the hub. This year Force india have specially made wheels with a splined detail, to match that on the hub. I can around 20 splines on the wheel suggesting the wheel will fit in one of 18 positions. making the aim of the sub three second pitstop that little bit easier.
McLaren again started the test with a aero test rig attached to the car. This time the array of pressure taps were affixed to the rear of the car, taking readings from the flow off the trailing edge of the rear wing. Flow Viz paint was also applied to the rear wing endplate to assess the surface around the vents on the upper front section of the endplate
In later tests Button ran the car without the snow plough device fitted under the nose.
Sauber announced the hiring of long time JordanForce India Technical Director, James Key. With Keys Experience in resource limited teams and Rampfs desire to decrease his involvement with the team, this makes a lot of sense for the Swiss outfit.
On the track, a revised rear wing with flicked up edges was the main development. The revised wing tips should reduce the downforce and hence drag the wing creates. For greater straightline speed at the cost of grip in the turns. Additionally the team ran with the slotted rear wing, this was kept well hidden the team putting a board over the top and rear of the wign as it arrived in the pits. Lastly the periscope cooling outlets seen in Jerez were replaced by a louvered panel durign some runs.
Ferrari kicked off the test with the new faired wheel seen on the last day of Jerez testing. This included a new rear wheel shape with a distinctive stepped shape. While the front wheel retained the two concentric ‘fairings’. These have been developed to stop overtly aerodynamically shaped wheels or fitting the static wheel fairings used last year. This has effectively banned any form of ‘bodywork’ from sitting outside of the wheel.
Ferrari have taken the stepped shape for the BBS rear wheel in order to meet the minimum shape allowed for the wheel in the new rules. Thus creating the smallest opening for aerodynamic benefit. (articles 12.4.5 http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/4ADA53A7369DCE8EC12576C700535E67/$FILE/1-2010%20TECHNICAL%20REGULATIONS%2010-02-2010.pdf) .
While the new front wheel add-ons appear to be part of the wheel and not carbon fibre add ons. This is to circumvent the rules banning bodywork from being outboard of the wheel ( -no part of the car, other than those specifically defined in Articles 12.8.1 and 12.8.2, may obscure any part of the wheel when viewed from the outside of the car towards the car centre line along the axis of the wheel) and still meet the wording of homogenous material demanded for the wheel itself. So these must be made of the same material as the wheel.
In other runs Ferrari also tried a shark fin similar to that used by Force India, i.e. A thin one with a relatively small side surface area and being linked to the rear wing flap.
Alonso tried a new Schuberth helmet, with a mainly black paint scheme and some new vents, that had opening sin the forehead area and swept around the visor.
Williams: this inlet blanking panel (arrowed) reduces the cooling airflow to the radiators
One last development spotted from Jerez was this inlet stuffer on the Williams. Normally teams add tape or blanking plates over the radiator itself to tune cooling to the ambient conditions. This more sophisticated solution suggests the Cosworth does not need the full cooling provided by the initial FW32 spec. So this stuffer not only reduces the cooling airflow to the radiator but also imroves the airflow around the sidepods, reducing drag.
Wires on the visor provide a fog free view via a heated film inside the visor
SebastianVettel wearing an Arai helmet was seen in the wet Jerez tests with this heated Visor. Not new to F1, as Schuberth Helmet wearers raced a similar solution a few years ago. The wires leading into the visor, pass a current to a heated film inside the visor to prevent fogging in the cold and wet conditions.
Quote from my 2008 Monaco GP technical review on Autosport.com
“One feature not seen in a race before was a novel anti-fog visor used by the Schuberth-helmeted drivers (including the Ferrari drivers and Nico Rosberg). We have seen drivers struggling to stop the inside of the visor from misting during previous wet races, as the hot breath from the drivers’ exertion condenses on the cold visor.
Some drivers prop open the visor a little to let air pass inside, or use a double-glazing like inner visor. Schuberth’s solution was to place an electric element inside the visor, to heat the visor slightly.
Much like the demisting element in car windscreen, this prevents the breath forming a mist inside the visor. At the moment the visor is an add-on to the standard RF1 helmet, so the electric cable feeding the element runs exposed down the side of the driver’s element to connect via a plug into the car’s electrical loom.”
http://www.autosport.com/journal/article.php/id/1592
Schuberth heated visor Monaco 2008
Sauber: The slotted 2009 rear wing made a reappearance, the inlet in the mainplane expands inside the wing to a full width slot
Sauber introduced a number of developments Late in the Jerez test.
These include the blown rear wing based on the 2009 design, new turning vanes some cockpit fins and cooling outlets.
The rear wing uses the moulded inlet on the front of the mainplane to feed a full width slot exiting behind the wing, just below the slot created between the main plane and flap. This is similar to the wing used at Monaco in 2009.
Sauber: the blown slot is below the normal slot in the rear wing
Meanwhile the cockpit gained a pair of serated fins placed where the mirrors would normally be placed. These sit inside a wedge shape space ahead of the sidepods that allow bodywork. they send a vortex over the fronts of the sidepods, although it cannot be ascertained if this goes into the sidepod inlet or over the top of the sidepod.
Sauber: Small fins are fitted where the mirrors would normally be placed
Then just by the side of the cockpit on the sidepods are two new cooling outlets. unlike other teams Sauber choose to fully expose the vents, so they sit proud of the sidepods top. Other teams have these joined to the cockpit side. Cooling outlets in this area are allowed as they sit just inboard of the controlled sidepods surface. additional cooling is provided by long thin louvered panel (not visible in these pics) moulded the floor in the narrow coke bottle area. Again this sits below the controlled area for the sidepods surface.
Under the raised chassis at the frotn fo the car are a pair of new turning vanes, not especially clear in the photo, they curve down and outwards, just behind the wishbones.
Sauber: New cooling outlets and turnign vanes appeared on the car