F1 Rim designs under current rules

[marcush.]

Looking up the current wheel regs I came across something that I was not aware of:

The wheels are currently allowed to be dimensioned as follows:

12.4 Wheel dimensions :
12.4.1 Complete wheel width must lie between 305mm and 355mm when fitted to the front of the car and between 365mm and 380mm when fitted to the rear.
12.4.2 Complete wheel diameter must not exceed 660mm when fitted with dry-weather tyres or 670mm when fitted with wet weather tyres.
12.4.3 Complete wheel width and diameter will be measured horizontally at axle height, with the wheel held in a vertical position and when fitted with new tyres inflated to 1.4 bar.

this opens a considerable area for wheel design as the front wheel is currently just less than 355mm wide ...leaving an untapped area free to design the wheel to aero needs or may be a extended shoulder for the tyre?
of course thickness is mandatory 3mm and it cannot be a separate part but surely there must be a possibility to use the available area creating more effective cooling or even downforce.?. I´d love to see if we can come up with something useful with this degree of freedom.

[Jersey Tom]

Not sure you're going to be able to get away with much for an additional shoulder for the tire to engage... without having trouble mounting it.

[marcush.]

Not sure you're going to be able to get away with much for an additional shoulder for the tire to engage... without having trouble mounting it.

You could possibly add to one shoulder as you will mount from the other side anyways.. not a new concept though ..I remember something like that ...
but wouldn´t it be possible to add shape to the rims to create better flow around the tyre? of course you add vehicle crosssection and licked surface..

[747heavy]

Hi Marcus,

Is this something you had in mind with you idea??

[marcush.]

yepp,exactly my thoughts .Of course a rim that would protrube beyound the side face of the tyre would add crossection so you´d pay a price ,but flow around open wheels is wicked anyways..but why not make it do some work?

similar to the lancia rallye rims with enourmous venting -hubcaps- or something like this,but more extreme..

[marcush.]

the idea could be to have the inner rim horn build as impeller wheel ..beware you need to clear the brake and hub!..and extend the " brakedrum" around this impeller this would make for an extremely good pump...which could be used to suck strategically in the wake of the front wing perhaps? it´s far fetched of course.

[riff_raff]

marcush,

I believe that wheel would be ruled a "movable aerodynamic device", which is illegal.

The current rules stipulate:

"3.15 ....any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom)"

It is also illegal to use different wheels on opposite sides of the car.

Regards,
riff_raff

[marcush.]

of course....ferraris hub cap this year is nothing else...isn´t it?
the brakedrum and airducts to the brakes with their vanes are surely not part of the unsprung part of the car as well...the whole wheel area seems to me a bit of a grey area ..even the wheelcovers have not been ruled out but are not used by a gentlemans agreement.

[ringo]

the idea could be to have the inner rim horn build as impeller wheel ..beware you need to clear the brake and hub!..and extend the " brakedrum" around this impeller this would make for an extremely good pump...which could be used to suck strategically in the wake of the front wing perhaps? it´s far fetched of course.

I think this idea has been around from the late 80's and early 90's. I can't quite remember, since i read it somewhere, but the idea was to pump air from underneath the floor to create suction.
It was deemed illegal back then too, i don't think it was implemented by any team.

[godlameroso]

I blame this website, but looking at the detail of most car's wheels, you see a whole plethora of aerodynamic devices mounted to the wheel hubs. There are countless winglets all over the rear wheels. Even some of the suspension has some aerodynamic effect.

[tarzoon]

Just one question that came to my head while reading this: Can cooling vents and holes be considered aerodynamic devices? It fits the purpose of wheel design, for what matters