Pat Pending wrote: ↑06 Apr 2017, 13:47
Anyone have any ideas on what the device sticking out of the airbox is? Looks like it might be a fan (square grill) with an LCD display & controls. What would they want to be cooling/heating at that point in the car assembly?
It's probably forcing air into the engine air intake, perhaps for diagnostics or initial start procedure after they reassemble the car.
I recall this video on Top Gear where Richard Hammond drives the Renault F1 car and he says the car is on life support before it goes racing and that's my presumption here. If the air isn't coming into the engine at desired velocity, just force it, although it looks like that fan can cool a decent sized computer server, didn't think it had the RPMs to keep an F1 engine breathing and that too with the desired pressure hence the digital display etc, nice!
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/arti ... s-filters/