Ferrari F138

[Mr.G]

Well, I disagree. Look at this photo, there are obviously some wires going to this part.

http://i.imgur.com/1erzX0e.jpg

[wesley123]

I think the so called IR camera that's on the corner of the side pod next to the vertical fins is merely a bolt head to hold the vertical fins onto the side pod. I keep seeing that question come up. I think sometimes our imagination gets the best of us, but it's also what creates innovation.

This.

I asume you are talking about the black part, that indeed is the connection for the podvanes

[F1.Ru]

I really don't know. The part of this thing that bugs me - an aspect I willfully ignored last night when I proffered my harebrained theory - is that any fuel is going to ignite on contact with any part of the exhaust, because it gets so damn hot - red hot, in fact. That's obviously going to make even very temporary "storage" of fuel a real problem.

One thing the Helmholtz chamber can do, however, is tune the Kadenecy effect of the exhaust at specific engine RPM ranges. So, maybe the whole thing is as simple as retarding ignition, as allowed by 5.6.6, at an RPM range that the engine would tend to hit just prior to a downshift. In that way, the exhaust system would scavenge that little bit of unspent fuel, which would ignite and energize exhaust gasses during the downshift. That's when you'd want the added downforce anyway.

bhallg2k your idea is really interesting, but most probably the new positioning of the Helmholtz chamber may simply due to redesigning purposes of the rear end. Remember how much area they have open up this year compared to the last season . Another important factor that you already mentioned is the ambient temperature of the exhaust pipes but remember that the Helmholtz chamber was also the subject of almost same temp. though it does not directly exit the exhaust gas but store them so their temp should be almost identical isn't it. So storing a little amount of fuel their is quite impossible , but storing larger amount of gas compared to last year may help them to blow more in off-throttle mode. But hope that your idea is what they are actually doing. And another things IIRC the Helmholtz chamber is one of Ferrari's invention in F1, what is now copied by RBR, so cheers for the FROZA FERRARI.

[Low_drag]

Those could be wires to a pressure transducer or thermocouple maybe, but not an IR camera. Maybe it's a sensor for air velocity? I use to design infrared cameras for our military here in the states, I'm telling you there is no way that is an IR camera.

[Mr.G]

Why the cable can't be for thermal camera? You just need power and signal and shielding. And look at this one, this could easily fit there.

http://www.infraredsys.com/PDF/4500AS_DS.pdf
http://www.infraredsys.com/cameras/L3/3600AS_DS.pdf

[Low_drag]

That's funny, those were from L3, which was our main competitor for military products. Those things are huge compared to the feature on the side pode turning vanes. Trust me, those are not IR camera's. I think it would be a valuble data tool, but why not just have someone in the pits use a thermography camera to capture tire temp data down the pit straight. It would be alot less complicated and less costly to implement. If that is an IR camera, then they have more sophisticated equipment than what's on our thermal weapons systems here in the states. I was designing them up until last year.

[Robbobnob]

After thinking about the regulations that Bhalk posted, Ferrari must be making use of the loopholes in the regulation to blow off throttle on the downshift, which ties in nicely with the Video.

I also agree that the temperature in the exhaust manifold would cause any fuel to ignite, but that would create an expansion of the fluid in the pipes which would compress the fluid in the Heimholtz resonator. Again the Heimholtz resonator would also tune the Kadency effect to help extract more air fuel mixture out of the adjacent cylinders.
At 18000 rpm, thats roughly 15 cycles of the engine crank, which would equate to 3.75 ignition cycles per cylinder over the 50ms. Consider the damping effect of the Heimholtz resonator of the exhaust flow and the number of downshifts there would be a net result of increased exhaust flow on corner entry - particularly useful for the slower speed 2nd and 1st gear corners.

Again this would be very insignificant compared to the flows achieved under the previous regulations, but compared to a competitors car who isnt exploiting this effect to the same degree is a performance advantage.

[Crabbia]

That's funny, those were from L3, which was our main competitor for military products. Those things are huge compared to the feature on the side pode turning vanes. Trust me, those are not IR camera's. I think it would be a valuble data tool, but why not just have someone in the pits use a thermography camera to capture tire temp data down the pit straight. It would be alot less complicated and less costly to implement. If that is an IR camera, then they have more sophisticated equipment than what's on our thermal weapons systems here in the states. I was designing them up until last year.

Well on the link Mr G suggested there is a picture of one of this company's cameras next to what looks like a penny. (I'm not being sarcastic, i literally havent seen a US penny in a while) the diameter of the "lens" doesn't look much bigger than the penny. that looks pretty much on the order of size of what we are looking at. also don't forget, these aren't IR Cameras attached to sights like the military.
Their "focal point" is, in this case, the tyres, is under a meter away. you would not need a huge camera for this application.

Also your suggestion of using an IR camera has its merits but you cannot compare the quality of information from an ir camera on the side of the track down the pit straight to a whole lap of the track taken from a fixed vantage point relative to the tire. as you agreed.

And as to the suggestion that it is a bolt holding the sidepod vane to the car, i disagree as they had almost the exact same sidepod end and vane as last year without this feature.

So they found a way to bolt up the car that was much cleaner last year but now they have taken a step back and put a bolt right in the face of oncoming air. Doesnt make sense.

[Maxion]

If it's a camera it would be interesting to know if they are streaming the video back, or just recording it for future analysis.

Most likely they are just recording.

[Crabbia]

Well, I disagree. Look at this photo, there are obviously some wires going to this part.

http://i.imgur.com/1erzX0e.jpg

That wire looks very much like coaxial cable and an associated connector. If it was a strain gauge, pressure transducer or thermo couple you wouldn't need that kind of signal shielding.

thermo couple doesn't make sense either, there isn't any temperature variation in that area (well none of particular interest or magnitude) and it would not need to be visible, if they wanted to they could hide it under the skin, or at the very least put it out of the airflow.

Putting one single pressure transducer just behind the tyre would not give you much useful information on the pressure differentials either.

Face it if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, flies like a duck, its an IR Camera.

[stefan_]

Malaysia 2013 - Wednesday (20.03.2013)

[Maxion]

Speaking of cables, there it is again! Thanks stefan_!

[StrikeForceF1]

Speaking of cables, there it is again! Thanks stefan_!

What cables are speaking of Maxion?

[Mr.G]

We are speaking about this cables and the possibility it's connected to an IR camera for monitoring the front tires.

[Maxion]

Here are a few more images of the camera that I found, these are from the last Barcelona test and Melbourne GP. It does look like a visual sensor.





https://dl.dropbox.com/u/77620/ferrari_3.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/77620/ferrari_4.jpg