manchild wrote:This certainly looks like something that requires cooling, and it is not sensor, but something connected with local sensors.

What we have there is a HIU-3 Hub Interface Unit manufactured by McLaren Electronic Systems, there are 4 on each car on the grid. Temprature shouldnt exceed 115 celcus, and is measured by the unit, and if cooling is needed, it should be applied to make sure it remains in the units limits. They can measure up to 8 different things.
It is to be noted that many teams are using this interface now, as of last year there was only one team using this and their own interface and that was Toyota, due to the SECU, many teams are now using the MES interfaces and such now, simply because why spend stupid ammounts of money developing and maintaining their own devices whilst the MES stuff costs alot less than your own stuff. The only teams with interfaces that need to be integrated with the SECU are the teams with the Magnetti Marenelli ignition systems, whitch isnt a biggie now as it was in 2008 when the SECU was brought in.