Mclaren Mercedes MP4-25

[Pup]

It does look like the start of a Red Bull nose. But it's got to just be a vent of some sort.

[ISLAMATRON]

its the air inlet for the 12th deck of the diffuser

[De Jokke]

HUH?

Its an air vent inlet!
Likely for the electronic hardware behind the steering wheel
Othe cars have a NACA duct in similar position for electronics cooling,

I see the duct you're talking about..whether it's for just cooling or not I don't know. What I am primarily refering to is the raised ridge that runs along the right side of the duct when looking at the pic...not from the driver's perspective.

I don't think they're testing the red bull nose solution. BTW, they have had all the winter to do so, so if that's true, then mcl is plain stupid. It's for cooling I guess, maybe mcl has heating probs and they have to open the chassis...

[jason.parker.86]

Didnt ferrari have a hole in the nose cone last year or maybe even 2008? was not raised but counter sunk?

[Pup]

...maybe mcl has heating probs and they have to open the chassis...

These parts are all too well made to be spur of the moment fixes. I suspect they are experimenting with different cooling configurations to verify their effect.

[Sambo]

Didnt ferrari have a hole in the nose cone last year or maybe even 2008? was not raised but counter sunk?

Are you referring to this on the f2008?

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/6831 ... 20nose.jpg

[meves]

It's just a cooling vent for the electronics, without the shadow you can see it loooks flat to the right of the new vent.

[luca]

Couldn't it slightly disturb the aero?

[astracrazy]

Didnt ferrari have a hole in the nose cone last year or maybe even 2008? was not raised but counter sunk?

Are you referring to this on the f2008?

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/6831 ... 20nose.jpg

That's band now, i think the air used to come from behind the front wing and out from the whole viable?

[astracrazy]

Couldn't it slightly disturb the aero?

i don't think it would, its not directing air anywhere, any air towards it would just go into it.

just an opinion, no idea though

[rifrafs2kees]

Whatever that inlet is, there's no way it'll remain. It's there for some test...may be for cooling some temporary electronic device or something.

[myurr]

Wonder if it's a way of simply increasing the air pressure in the cockpit, reducing turbulence in that area. The slight increase in turbulence due to having the vent would be offset by the reduction across the entire cockpit... Maybe...

[astracrazy]

maybe you right i don't know. Macca are def thinking about things on this car

i thought to cool the cockpit the have small slits at the nose, right at the end?

what electronic devices would be in the cockpit?

i can't see it being for cooling, seems a funny place to put it when there could be other places - but what do i know

[Agerasia]

That looks like it's there to measure the air at that section. They may be seeing how much of the air the v channel allows to spill and how much it is contained within that channel.

[dedge]

Just saw this picture :

Is this the inlet for one of the decks of the diffuser?