Toyota's carbon wheel ring

[NickT]

Discs on the outside of wheels or hub caps were quite common on oval racing IRL and CART cars, so I guess its more to do with speed than cooling

[Tp]

At Imola for instance you could see how Schumacher's brakes were suffering as a lot of dust came off

Exactly. You don't want air going inside and spoiling the aerodynamics of the car. This is why it is extracted away from the wheels

[RacingManiac]

Does any body know what the purpose is of the carbon reall rim on the Ferrari and on the Toyota

I think it justs helps to extract hot brake air to the outside on the wheel.

I personally would be quite surprised it this actually increased cooling performance. At Imola for instance you could see how Schumacher's brakes were suffering as a lot of dust came off. Alonso's on the other hand didn't wear so much apperently.

The real gain is probably just the reduced drag created by air passing aside of the wheel.

Wouldn't dust coming off more signifying its working more as it actually is extracting air out side of the wheel?

[Steven]

They're all losing dust, the point is that it was excessive at Ferrari. I remember some Canadian race with Williams, also firing away and spreading dust all over, and it got worse and worse every lap, until they couldn't brake anymore
Basically, you want your brake disc create friction with the blocks, and not wear down and go up in air

Alonso was faster in Imola without any dust visible.

[zac510]

Then they're probably running the discs too hot or too cold and causing premature wear.

I can't say I noticed the brake dust. Can you tell us what area it was extracting from - the outside of the wheel or from the inside of the wheel?

[Spencifer_Murphy]

We all know the rims are there for aero purposes, possibly having a small brake cooling advantage. But Ferrari and Toyota have managed to convince the FIA that brake cooling is their purpose so its now legal.

I still dont like it though, I'm waiting for these things to start getting bigger and bigger, untill we have wheels which are half enclosed!

[Tp]

Yeah it's a bit of a messy solution to the problem