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More shark gills for Ferrari

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Ferrari have chosen to add a few shark gills to their sidepods in order to better cool the car down. Although Renault stepped away from the gills last year with the introduction of the V8 engines they still appear to be needed at hot tracks. It is mainly Ferrari now who implement this solution more extensively than Renault or any other team. Since the Ferrari engine isn't particularly known to keep its head cool, we may conclude that the Ferrari chassis does rely less on rear hot air exhaust - into the diffuser - than McLaren or Renault.

Comments

By G-Rock on 08-04-2007 at 19:16

:twisted: I love gills

By checkered on 09-04-2007 at 21:49

Didn\'t Nick Tombazis ... ah yes, found it (the Ferrari feature about the F2007 design philosophy): \"You will see we won\'t have any excessive openings in Malaysia.\" Well, the adjective \"excessive\" is open to subjective interpretations, so I won\'t try to challenge that notion. But someone who\'s really into gills (G-Rock), could keep count on how many openings they sport at different events. I wouldn\'t be surprised if, at times, there were fewer of those needed.

By DanyalDenyo on 10-04-2007 at 00:39

maybe this is the reason why both ferraris were weak against mp4-22

By mx_tifoso on 10-04-2007 at 01:49

I don\'t agree with that,
Why would more cooling gills make the F2007 weaker against the mp4-22 ? it wasnt excessive cooling, if Ferrari added those extra gills it most definately was because they were needed in those extremely hot conditions, the results for Ferrari were not because the F2007 was \"slower\" than the Macca, it was due to driver mistake and misjudgement, simple as that (and KR\'s damaged engine, but thats another issue in itself)

By DanyalDenyo on 10-04-2007 at 11:32

mclaren wasn\'t faster than australia, as the gap between alonso and heidfeld is almost the same in both races. i think the drag caused by these gills (which also reduces the air that goes to the rear wing) might have slowed down the F2007.

By Vasco on 10-04-2007 at 13:48

Good to see Ferrari experiencing reliability problems and on the contrary Mclaren having superb relibility 8) 8) 8) 8)

By mx_tifoso on 10-04-2007 at 19:31

Massa nor Raikkonen had trouble catching up to Hamilton, the problem was that Massa couldnt execute the overtaking correctly, problem solved, in addition, its kind of difficult for either ferrari\'s to post a fastest lap when both are trying desperately to overtake a car infront of them, in \"dirty\" air i might add as well

By jwielage on 11-04-2007 at 21:32

Your correct in that durring the first stint Both Ferraris were in hot pursuit of the Hamilton, and at least Massa would have kept pace with Alonso had he not been held up by Hamilton. Lets take KR out of the equation due to his known limitations for the GP (beside Hamilton admited that he put his driving on cruise control only to find out that Kimi was 5 seconds behind, at which point he slowed KR\'s gap closure). If the Ferraris were still at their Austrailian pace Massa should have been able to overtake Heidfeld, his off track excursion was rather soon into his first stint with pleanty of time to recover. Maybe the rule clarification regarding the floors actualy did hurt ferrari? That and these additional drag created by these cooling gills could have been enough to tip things slightly in Mclarren\'s favor.

By Ian P. on 12-04-2007 at 03:01

Did Masa make such a mess of this or did Hamilton do a masterful job of pushing Masa onto the dirty side of the track and then intentionally brake early to take the inside line. Not only that, he did it twice. Fabulous stuff.
Massa could have braked earlier and taken the inside line but that was his undoing.
As for strategy... why didn\'t Ferrari put both Masa and KR on Hard Tyres for the second stint. They were fast enough to stay with Hamilton and Heidfeld and then in the final stint they would have had something in reserve.
No wonder Ferrari is talking about poor strategy.
Not sure that the shark grills don\'t reduce the effectiveness of the diffuser. More air will flow through the radiators but the flow won\'t be the same through the diffuser section. This is where these cars get a large portion of the downforce.
Betcha we see better high speed performance from the red cars once we get back to cooler tracks. Fewer slits.

By mx_tifoso on 12-04-2007 at 04:55

I was watching some footage of the race weekend and I believe I saw Alonso go off in the same curve where Massa went off trying to overtake Hamilton. And if one can go off by himself, imagine what can happen when you are under intense pressure to pass someone, not only are you braking later than usual (Massa\'s case) but you have someone behind you, and on the side of you, it complicates everything a lot more.
But regarding the cooling slits, they probably do affect the Ferrari\'s high speed performance, but I believe its better to have a \"little\" less performance than an overheating engine, and that will be the case for approx. one more race, Bahrain. I\'m not sure what the exact temperatures are in Barcelona, but they\'re probably not as bad as the third and second race. By Spain we\'ll definately see less cooling details though.

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