Front wheel fairings make definitive entry
Since Ferrari introduced their front wheel fairing last year at Silverstone, several other teams have been diligently investigating the system and trying to fit it onto their own cars. At the Turkish GP, 6 teams were running front wheel fairings. From top left to bottom right, Red Bull, Ferrari, Honda, Renault and McLaren. Surprisingly, BMW is not running any covers, not at the front or rear wheels, despite showing them off at the car's launch. While many have tested both BMW's solution (closed when looking from the side of the wheel, none of them are running it. Honda for example were running closed fairings at last Barcelona test but decided to run Ferrari-like covers at Turkey for the first time. Renault and Red Bull started using theirs at the Spanish GP while McLaren have their own design as of the season opening Australian GP.
Comments
BMW's solution is really unique since no one can try it but them. this covering will decrease air flow on the tires of the unit which is for cooling of the area tho the duct size is still the same. these BMW innovations are really cool. i have just read a BMW DIY tips and the articles are helpful although a little hard to follow.
Perhaps BMW found that the front wheel fairings did not have a significant impact on driving. Not all car parts would improve the speed of the vehicle. Some are just cosmetic changes.
I agree that perhaps BMW sees no significant effects would come out from fixing the front wheels fairing, thus they did not implement it during the races but only for the launch. The fairings only reduce or control airflow around the front wheels but do not necessarily reduce any race time which is an important factor. Not all add-ons need to be copied by competitors, only those really necessary ones.
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I think the purpose of the covering is mainly to trim the air that passes around the tires. On the inside, the airflow is supposedly more organized as the brake cooling inlet cross-section area is now proportional or same as the outlet. This should provide more cooling without increasing the size of the duct.
I guess thats how it works.