Really excellent pictures!
Have you taken these pictures yourself?
A note with McLaren: they seem to be the only team to have their radiators (except for Ferrari which have a splitted radiator, just like Sauber) leaning forward instead of sideways. Furthermore I think, especially compared to the RB1 that their exit exhaust seems rather small. I thought it would be beneficial for the engine to widen that up a little bit(?)
Last edited by Steven on 10 Apr 2005, 18:06, edited 1 time in total.
hmmm idd now that you mention it... well it has been used before. Don't know really what car it was but I've seen it, must be around 15 years ago. The idea then (and probably now with RBR too) is simply to make a good air guidance system that allows smooth airflow onto the radiator.
However I think with this thing the inner side of the sidepod will get extremely hot. I would not be wondered if they have the carbon covered with something very heat resistive.
A result of this setup would also be that you have limited with of the air intake but you could basically make that inlet as high as possible. Personally I see this as a much better way of cooling than the split radiator system.
EDIT: It's not clear on the picuture though but it could also be RBR is running a vertical split radiator system...
Also good to mention, RB1 has a heat shield that splits most of the incoming air from the radiators, and directs it to the engine, away from the exhaust. I'm guessing they figured out this is more efficient than letting the extremely hot air around the exhaust headers mix with the engine compartment. Makes me think that the air that just passed through the radiators is still not that hot and actually makes a difference for the engine block. Correct me if I am wrong, but I dont think I have seen the shark gills on the RB1's sidepods either. Most likely due to the separation of the heat shield.
