ScarbsF1: I can confirm the exhaust exits are at the front of the sidepods, with an elbow pointing them back please log in to view this image
I can't see the point of that at all. I hope it's something they can sort out if it goes tits up, I fancied seeing them joining the title battle this season.
so if they have an engine failure it will come from the side? surely once the car has stopped and fire comes out it could be dangerous to the driver?
I'm guessing that must have been considered, but its a good point. It seems to point just backwards of horizontal, so when moving it shouldn't be a problem, and when the driver gets out, the suit should protect him from the worst of the heat, and he can always exit forwards I guess (assuming he hasn't ploughed nose first into a tyre wall!). Another point would be that, in the event of an engine blowout, the side exhausts surely mean that all the debris (oil, fuel, sheared metal and carbon fibre) will spread over a wider area of track - endangering more cars behind them?
If it could swivel, rather like the nozzles on a Harrier jump jet, the car could then 'overtake' the one in front quite literally.
That'd be awesome, although once airbourne, the car wouldn't have a way to accelerate horizontally, which would be a minor issue. That and the exhausts needing to generate over 3200N of thrust each to overcome the weight of the car.
Sorry. I'm currently revising for a thermodynamics module - the maths just came naturally (is that a good thing?). Unless, you could time it so it happens when the cars are approaching, for example, the final chicane at Montreal. That way rather than braking for the corner to cope with the curbs, why not simply fly straight over them, using the cars momentum from the straight? I sense a call from Adrian Newey imminently AbsolutelyGlorious.
Actually, wouldn't vertical exit exhausts have an advantage in reducing the effective weight of the car? If they blasted out straight into the track under the car, you'd get a small force pushing the car upwards, reducing the pull of gravity? Would that not make a car more agile? Alternatively, and seeing how most teams do it, I'm guessing that blowing the exhausts through the diffuser has more aerodynamic benefits - its just not as fun!
Yep, sorry I didn't make myself clear, I only meant to do it on the straights, another boost like the ARW. Could this not be done by having two sets of exhausts, 1 set into the diffuser, 1 set through the floor, and the driver can change the position with a switch on the wheel (yes - another one!)
ha ha, Bruno Senna can't keep his eyes of it,Petrov couldn't give a damn about the car, and Kubica is more interested in the sheet!
instead of swiveling the exhausts round surely the exhaust are just the other side of the engine going down to the front of the side pods. would be interesting to see inside how they have done it
