Ferrari Ingenuity

One of the perks of my job, besides the fact that it's intensely fun, challenging, and diverse, is that I get to play with CFD software every day. I'm always throwing random things at CFdesign to see how they tick, if you will. Sort of like a kid taking stuff apart and putting it back together. Except a lot cooler...

I'm a huge F1 fan and an active member of the F1Techincal forums over at http://www.f1technical.net/. Way back in August '07, a member by the name of Manchild came up with a nose cone idea here. The idea was to use a hole in the center of a Formula car nose cone to help use the nose cone itself to create additional downforce. Formula 1 cars, being so aerodynamically sensitive these days, can see massive benefits from even the slightest improvements. A differernce of 2/10ths of a second per lap could result in finishing 1st or 10th.

There was a lot of chatter about this idea over at F1Technical, and everyone had an opinion. It was one of the more exciting topics for months. Sure enough, in mid-April of '08, Ferrari introduced and eerily similar design into their nose cone., a full 7 months after Manchild had published his first drawings. A few images of the Ferrari nose cone:

I threw together a quick CAD model to see what this nose cone actually does. I think it looks pretty good considering I spent a maximum of 10 minutes creating it. Without seeing a really clear shot of the underside of the Ferrari nose cone, I can't really tell where the nose opening starts. I can see the leading edge of the rear most portion of the opening in the picture above, but not the front. I've taken a wild guess.

The numbers:

The new, holed nose cone produces approximately 7.3% less drag and 0.9% more downforce than the original, non-holed design. Not too shabby... In fact, it's huge. Real world results will undoubtablly vary, but my concept shows that the nose cone hole can have a big impact. Proper modelling of the rest of the car, wheels, barge boards, suspension components, etc. would be nice, but I think this simplified model tells a big story...

The standard nose cone results in a high pressure, stagnation zone directly underneath where the secondary wing element approaches the nose structure. The air piles up here and must divert either through the very thin gap between the wing and nose or turn to travel out and around the nose. No doubt this is a source of drag.

Top-side view of pressure on on the normal wing elements.

Bottom-side view of pressure on the normal wing elements.

Top-side view of pressure on the new nose cone wing surfaces.

Bottom-side view of pressure on the new nose cone wing surfaces.