mzso wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 2:05 pm
basti313 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 10:16 am
I totally agree, that would be a good solution if it would work. Elongating the wet part as long as you can race is just fine, maybe even preferable.
BUT...it is only a nice idea. I fear that the massive aero will just suck the air and with it the spray out of small covers. That is what they saw in the test, only an irrelevant part of the spray stays in the wheel arch. If anything they would need full covers like in Formula E...but who wants this?
I think it is just better to scrap the wet tire and be more flexible with race, FP and Q timing.
Well, I did say "fully covered"... And everyone who wants to see wet weather racing instead of parking in the pits should want it...
flexible timing won't help on a rainy weekend.
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 11:03 am
You can increase droplet size by having the spray impact a surface - it then collects and runs down the surface before dropping off the bottom edge. It's how spray guards work on road vehicles. You get more of a stream of water than a spray of small droplets.
The problem is how to do it on an open wheel racing car. A full guard that wraps around the rear tyre and extends almost to ground level with a rear-projecting bib at the bottom would be great - but how to attach it to the car and still allow tyre changes, etc.
Precisely. Someone linked a sportscar in heavy rain before, to illustrate the point. Probably in the infamous belgian gp thread.
I don't think the open-wheel nonsense accomplishes anything but a variety of safety issues like being launched in the air and water spray, and generating noxious drag and turbulence.
But if must stay with it could be mounted on the same as wheel. Only on non-rotating part (is that the "upright" in english?). They could have a mounting point on the other side if they really want to by going through the center of the tire, that's increasing the complexity a tad. They did something like that with the old tire covers, a decade or so ago.
Thinking along the same lines as these two parts of posts.
They did use static wheel centre covers a few years back, McL looked particularly neat design with brake vent exit incorporated, that they could use as front mount.
If they were to use above arrangement, fornt mounted centre of wheel, with wrap around to have fixing quick detach to front and rear of existing brake duct, then mount the assembly with the wheels already inside (wet tyres only) to give complete coverage.
Testing something like this, complete coverage with rear lower drip separation, would define just WHAT is possible with complete cover. This could show the potential to then consider the reality of doing anything such as this or indicating if there's still too much spray even without bulk of wheel's water contribution.
In other words, what's the maximum possible scenario with complete cover, define that first and then understand suitability.
Use of pure test mule initially to study, they could even run it between FP at live events like this. May even have decent appearance with black carbon covers looking like tyres too.