garygph wrote:bhallg2k wrote:That's about the gist of it. They have to be there, so you might as well try to get something from them.
absolutely, which is why I think them having to be there has possibly had an influence on the nose design to gain some benefit. Is it too far a stretch to suggest that the low pressure area below them may help to draw the vortices created by the front wing (to direct the air around on the inside of the tyre) more inwards?
I'm no aerodynamacist; I just play one here on F1T. Even so, I don't think any teams have based their nose designs upon potential aerodynamic gains from the camera pods. Their effects are simply too small. That said, teams would be foolish not to be cognizant of those effects anyway, because they
are part of the package.
So, you design a nose that best fits your overall aerodynamic strategy, and then you integrate the camera pods into that design as best you can. For some teams, that means camera pods might create a little downforce. For others, they might be used as flow conditioners. Indeed, some may just want them out of the way as much as possible. There's no single solution that's better than all others...yet.
Designs will eventually converge on an ideal layout, and camera pods will likely play a bigger role in that solution than just being draggy sources of grainy video. (They'll have HD!)
