BMW sauber exhaust cover

[Steven]

I just spotted this on JV's car from Melbourne (during quali):


Notice that on the left quite a lot of the exhaust is visible and that some covering part isn't there. Would he just have lost it or was it getting too hot?

[scarbs]

they ran with that cover open in Malaysia too, So I guess they are struggling a bit with cooling. One thing I have noticed being up close to the BMW is the exhaust constantly burns the white paint on the louvers making them go brown. They have obviously worked hard to get the rear end nice and tight, may be too much, so expect small revisions in Imola.

[DaveKillens]

Looking at the headers before they arrive at the collector, they run uncredibly close to where the bodywork is supposed to be. And since there are shark gill louvers just before that area, it's already slightly aero dirty.
I think scarbs nailed it.

ps, love the little Canadian flag taped on the ground just behind the right front wheel. I can also see the German flag, for Heidfeld. And the Polish connection is provided by the third driver, Robert Kubica.

[kilcoo316]

Notice that on the left quite a lot of the exhaust is visible and that some covering part isn't there. Would he just have lost it or was it getting too hot?

It is possible they can choose to switch the water/oil cooler sides on a race by race basis I suppose, and can expose the side facing away from the refueller. So the 'far' side of the car (to the refuelling hose) will be doing the majority of cooling?


A little bit weird I accept, but makes (a little) sense (well, to me anyway )

[zac510]

It makes sense to me too kilcoo, but it doesn't escapt the fact that it seems to be an inefficent way to extract some extra cooling.

[kilcoo316]

True, but it allows them to run the absolute minimum of cooling - its not about extracting more cooling as much as minimising it.