Would a sidepod-less car be realistic?

[PlatinumZealot]

Seems that Mercedes is following this route, 2 years after my post?

Congrats. Welcome the fourth eye club.

[vorticism]

I think the T-tray inlet is illegal or could only be used to cool electronics. The second example with the floor leading edge is also illegal because the sidepod aperture must be within the regulation box which is behind the floor leading edge. Very interesting ideas though. With your t-tray inlet you could get a true sidepod less car if you reshape the chassis to submerge the radiators inside it.

https://www.racecar-engineering.com/wp- ... re-221.png

What I mean is, shape the floor like the McLaren, then snake the inlet nozzles through there by making the floor section thicker, or roughly point them in that direction if the floor can't be made thick enough,

viewtopic.php?p=1041474#p1041474

[AR3-GP]

Okay I see. Very interesting.

[Stu]

I think the T-tray inlet is illegal or could only be used to cool electronics. The second example with the floor leading edge is also illegal because the sidepod aperture must be within the regulation box which is behind the floor leading edge. Very interesting ideas though. With your t-tray inlet you could get a true sidepod less car if you reshape the chassis to submerge the radiators inside it.

https://www.racecar-engineering.com/wp- ... re-221.png

What I mean is, shape the floor like the McLaren, then snake the inlet nozzles through there by making the floor section thicker, or roughly point them in that direction if the floor can't be made thick enough,

https://i.imgur.com/kxvQUDL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IV9rapK.jpg

I think there is room within the regulatory boxes to have a floor like the McLaren that ‘feeds’ directly to the cooling inlets - for a true faux-pods design. Going to check the regs to see what it says about cooling only locations.

One thing about these new rules though*…
Centreline cooling does not seem to be the golden bullet!


*arbitrarystatementmadeafterasingleraceGetoutofjailfreecard

[PlatinumZealot]

Since the floor can intersect with the T-tray beneath the survival cell, it should be possible to turn the T-tray into the inlet, and route a duct through a hollowed out floor section. It would be the only way to fit a sizeable duct through that area, since no bodwork is permitted around the side survival cell ahead of the floor. Trade-off would be altering the shape of the floor to achieve this. That said, note the McLaren and the Alfa Romeo/Sauber this year have a step down in the floor in precisely that area this year, so it's not as though the tunnel entry needs to be maximum height in that area, necessarily.

https://i.imgur.com/qezJYWZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IV9rapK.jpg

Another option may be to simply move the sidepot inlet to the front of the floor (below), or near to it at least, if there is some rule governing that shape of the floor front edge that I'm missing. I dub them floorpods.

https://i.imgur.com/Omo2Hay.jpg

I'm afraid I have to upvote that idea.

[DRCorsa]

I think RedBull took my idea FROM HERE and refined it a little bit... 4 years later...

The current sidepods are dummies.
The radiators are placed inside the cannons and the inlet air goes upward to the radiators. That's why their inlet is below and facing upwards.
Later they will just bring the smaller sidepods that will only be used just as airflow conditioning devices. They can do whatever they want with those "sidepods".


My idea as a comparison:

[AR3-GP]

No, zero chance. There is no wake management of front tires or rear tire drag.

[chrisc90]

No, zero chance. There is no wake management of front tires or rear tire drag.

Massive question is…. How much rear tyre management can you get from the floor edge under this era of regulations? Could it all be done by the floor edge or do you rely a lot on the sidepod to do your work?

[chrstphrln]

https://i.imgur.com/IV9rapK.jpg

Apart from the difficulties with the wake management of front tires or rear tire drag: in practice, with such a deep and inaccessible cooling air inlet, how do you prevent the countless tire rubber residues and dirt on the track from clogging the inlet?

[Farnborough]

Has anyone taken a realistic look at just how much in volume of infrastructure in running these cars is actually sited within the sidepod ?

The premise of this thread gives a simple picture of a radiator (in triangle form) situated above the airbox/plenum etc.... just look at a current car with the covers off it..... then explain just where all that could be repositioned.

It's laughable the simplicity expressed in movement of "just put the radiator on top" and naivety to think there's competent answer without considering what the real task would be.