Tuning up the tunnel
On Thursday, August 9th, Midland F1 took to the track at Elvington Circuit in Yorkshire for a one-day aerodynamic test. With test driver Adrian Sutil behind the wheel, the team covered 328 productive kilometres, blasting up and down the airfield’s long runways.
Unlike most previous tests, however, which were undertaken to evaluate new components on the car, this outing could be seen as more of a tune-up for the team’s soon-to-be-upgraded wind tunnel.
“The aims of a test like this are not really focused on any particular developments,” explains MF1’s Chief Race and Test Engineer, Dominic Harlow. “It’s really testing the calibration of our wind-tunnel and an experimental extension of what we look at already in model scale wind-tunnel testing.”
“We want to check our numbers, basically, and then move slightly outside what is tested in the tunnel to see if the results correspond with our extrapolations from scale testing. It gives us an opportunity to look at some of the parts we have recently brought to the car – for example, the rear brake disc shrouds – and see if they are generating the additional load we saw in the tunnel.”
The unique demands of an aero test require a different type of layout from the more traditional circuits the team uses. Elvington’s main advantage over Silverstone is its ultra-long straight sections, which enable the team to focus on optimising the car’s stability at speed.
“Of course, we collect huge quantities of data in a day,“ says Harlow. “The car spends some 45 minutes running at a constant 240 km/h, and we are measuring the loads on the car some 100 times a second. With our expansion of the tunnel programme here at the factory, and the increase in model scale that is coming soon, it all offers another point of reference for our understanding of the real car’s aerodynamic performance as it runs on the track.”
As an added bonus, this specialised form of testing also allows MF1 to continue developing its aerodynamic performance while still adhering to the sport’s three-week testing ban in August.
“Regarding the 2006 F1 Testing Agreement, Clause D specifically makes provision for 12 days of straight line aero testing outside the restrictions of the more widely understood Clause A, which generally restricts circuit testing and specifically prohibits it between the Hungary race at the start of August and the Monza test at the end.”
