Well that was my thought if i understand you correctly. If you look at the way it follows down the side it looks to me like they have taken some heat resistant material and wrapped it or coated it over the top and down the front sides of the crash structure. I initially thought they might have sprayed it on as you can see it flows over the vertical seams of the crash struture (Look at the part just after the L that reaches down the side).HairyOne wrote:
Apologies if I have got this wrong, but it looks like that element of the crash structure just behind the monkey seat is actually fabricated from a different coloured material than the rest; if you look at the seams, the joins, it follows down the side of the structure of that colour too.
It looks to me like it is some sort of resin that was painted on. The sides of the crash structure were masked up, this was painted on and then they removed the masking. Thats the feeling i get looking at the end of the crash structure in particular.
My thought is they took the same compound and lined the exhaust with it so that the heat is retained in the exhaust till it exits. This is done so the exhaust itself radiates less heat and can allow for closer packaging around the exhaust.
Of course my whole theory is based on the assumption that things of the same colour are the same material, which is, I grant you, as flimsy as a contract with Sauber (too soon?). But based on the fact that this reddish brown colour shows up on the car where you want to control heat and protect carbon composites from heat i felt it was a solid enough assumption to propose this.
Look again at the picture mkable posted:
The reddish brownish material shows up on the upper wishbone mounting points. A critical part, that is right below the exhaust with minimal clearance, getting really hot. To me this red brown material is an insulating material of some kind.