F1technical.net

Easier to source the flow from the base of the drivers seat and feed the driver plenty of beans.

stoikee wrote:

Pandamasque wrote:You read it first at F1T: Let's make a hole in the driver's head! In the corners it will just cool his brains, while on the straights he will align the hole his head with the hole in the headrest and blow some air towards the rear wing!

OK, I guess Ukranian's don't understand english very well so I'll elaborate.

Oh, I believe some of them do. Some of them even heard a thing or two about grammar (possessive case, plurals and boring things like that, you know ).

But let's get back to your idea. I initially thought it would be quite uncomfortable to drive 'leaning forward' so much that if would be enough not only to uncover a hole in the headrest, but also allow a good airflow into it. Even if that sort of movement in the cockpit is possible, which I doubt, it must be hard to overtake on the straight when all you can see is your feet on the pedals. FIA would surely take immediate steps to ban it on the grounds of safety. So I thought a hole in the head would be better solution.

On the other hand autogyro's idea seems interesting as well. It might increase CO2 emissions (frankly not the publicity F1 needs atm) but might actually work. Further still I suspect Mercedes GP have probably promoted the return of the oldfart exactly for that! It might be that wasn't just a padded seat we saw at Sepang.

Other news on the snorkel subject:
http://runoffarea.co.uk/2010/04/newey-i ... criticism/

The fundamental problem of mirrors is that they are there. No matter how complex or elaborate the attempts at solutions, the mirrors themselves represent a flat piece facing backward to the direction of travel. The present solution is to just add a fairing in front of these high drag flat surfaces.

This concept, which I do appreciate for it's inventiveness, adds more drag because of the thick support pillars. What is being substituted is the low drag fairing for a duct in front of the mirror. This forces the location of the inlet duct, and does not allow for much flexibility in location. I also have to ask the question whether this new concept has more or less drag than the type of scoop we see in the nose of the McLaren.

Is the area on the back of the driver's helmet homologated as well? Is it possible to have a hole there that can be covered by resting the helmet on the hole and open it by the driver leaning forward?

One factor I consider very important is that under all circumstances the driver cannot activate the system to dump drag and downforce (without a conscous and deliberate effort). It would be a disaster if, for instance at some high speed corners, the driver's head wandered, and suddenly the car had a lot less downforce than expected, and needed. For instance, at 130R the engine hiccuped for a fraction of a second. The car would suddenly decelerate for this period of time, and of course, expose the hole, dump the downforce, and the car goes off at 130R.

Wasn't there a regulation that states the the mirrors cannot be bigger than a certain size?

Another question is the actual size and shape of the mirror glass itself restricted?

I found only this:

14.3 Rear view mirrors :

14.3.1 All cars must have at least two mirrors mounted so that the driver has visibility to the rear and both sides of the car.

14.3.2 The reflective surface of each mirror must be at least 150mm wide, this being maintained over a height of at least 50mm. Additionally, each corner may have a radius no greater than 10mm.

14.3.3 No part of the reflective surface may be less than 250mm from the car centre line or more than 750mm from the rear of the cockpit entry template.

14.3.4 The FIA technical delegate must be satisfied by a practical demonstration that the driver, when seated normally, can clearly define following vehicles.
For this purpose, the driver shall be required to identify any letter or number, 150mm high and 100mm wide, placed anywhere on boards behind the car, the positions of which are detailed below :

Height : From 400mm to 1000mm from the ground.
Width : 4000mm either side of the centre line of the car.
Position : 10m behind the rear axle line of the car.

Not exactly F1 oriented, but I'm glad to see it in action...

Driver cooling, looks like.

And what about make something like this. Make a little biggers side pods and make like in WEC (but smaller).