Sauber C32 Ferrari

[Coefficient]

So they are running a rather low nose plus a bulge underneath it. Sauber must be really confident that the rear gets enough downforce.

They are only testing it. It may come off again for all we know at the moment.

Interesting to see the DRD ears appear on the airbox snorkel. With no other obvious apparatus are they testing a concealed DRD or just measuring the effect of running the ears first?

[turbof1]

I can't get rid of the impression that the ears are assymetrical.

[zonk]

Light playing tricks with eyes.

[GrizzleBoy]

[ecapox]

They most certainly are. The fact that they are also detatchable lends creedence to the fact that they are probably testing how much air these ears need to take in to make something work.

[Neno]

Little offtopic
I cannot help to impression every team who try this "ears on airbox" for DRD device will fail, and fail hard. DRD device is itself very complicated system, and something what is not intergrated from beggining in car will be very hard to make it work and gain performances without losing time on others cars areas. Lotus last year had good idea to make performances but because of above reason they failed. Teams who from beggining didnt intergrate such system will probably fail to gain performances in that area.
Red Bull did it from beggining in their way, Lotus certantly did (even if they didnt use it much) as for Mercedes i can say same thing.

[Coefficient]

Little offtopic
I cannot help to impression every team who try this "ears on airbox" for DRD device will fail, and fail hard. DRD device is itself very complicated system, and something what is not intergrated from beggining in car will be very hard to make it work and gain performances without losing time on others cars areas. Lotus last year had good idea to make performances but because of above reason they failed. Teams who from beggining didnt intergrate such system will probably fail to gain performances in that area.
Red Bull did it from beggining in their way, Lotus certantly did (even if they didnt use it much) as for Mercedes i can say same thing.

Nah, its an add on device for sure like the F Duct. Once the application of the tech is understood they can make it work for their car.

[turbof1]

Little offtopic
I cannot help to impression every team who try this "ears on airbox" for DRD device will fail, and fail hard. DRD device is itself very complicated system, and something what is not intergrated from beggining in car will be very hard to make it work and gain performances without losing time on others cars areas. Lotus last year had good idea to make performances but because of above reason they failed. Teams who from beggining didnt intergrate such system will probably fail to gain performances in that area.
Red Bull did it from beggining in their way, Lotus certantly did (even if they didnt use it much) as for Mercedes i can say same thing.

The problem certainly is not integration. Don't forget in 2010 teams were able to put the f-duct onto their cars, and that was when the chassis was homologated! The problem is you have to make it work in exactly the situation you want it to. That is finetuning the fluid switch. Teams obviously have showned they can fully integrate the system into their cars, but they cannot get it working properly.

[Forza]

F1 test 02 - Barcelona - day 1

[korzeniow]

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... ev/137.jpg

Why are airbox ears opened while there is no DRD? Are they using those ears for diffrent purpose, or they were measuring loss in performance and testing aero?

[zonk]

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... ev/137.jpg

Why are airbox ears opened while there is no DRD? Are they using those ears for diffrent purpose, or they were measuring loss in performance and testing aero?

The other interesting aspect behind the utilisation of such ducts around the airbox is for 'air spillage', over recent seasons this hasn't been a problem as the engine has been continually consuming air (Off Throttle Diffuser Blowing). However now the use of off throttle blowing has been curtailed when the driver lifts out of the throttle the required amount of air entering the airbox inlet isn't so large. This effectively creates a blockage and so the airflow stagnates (builds up) and then cascades over the sides of the engine cover. This type of airflow is disruptive and effects the bodywork aft of the airbox. As this occurs during the braking and turning in phase it's quite an undesirable effect as it reduces the effectiveness of the Rear Wing aswell as any residual effect on downforce the exhaust plume may have. The ducts added to the sides of the airbox inlet act as catchment devices for the airflow during these off throttle moments. This helps to keep airflow heading toward the rear wing uniform resulting in a downforce gain during braking/cornering.

[Forza]

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/gall ... ev/137.jpg

Why are airbox ears opened while there is no DRD? Are they using those ears for diffrent purpose, or they were measuring loss in performance and testing aero?

There seems to be another outlet on top of a rear crash structure (although view is blurred as it's a low res. picture). Most likely they were doing aero measurements and that's why they've fitted the intakes.

[FrukostScones]

[Thunder]

Sauber is running their DRD today.

[korzeniow]

Oh, so that's the reason of this unusual shape of main plate.

I think with this type of rear wing design they can stall a little bigger portion of rear wing than Lotus, assuming it works in the same way