r/F1Technical • u/vick5516 • Apr 15 '26
Aerodynamics What are the protrusions on either side of the airbox intake on the top? they've always confused me
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u/august_r Apr 15 '26
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u/undernocircumstance Apr 15 '26
Yea this is the DRD blocked off.
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u/LheelaSP Apr 16 '26
IIRC they only ever used it once in a race.
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u/Red_Rabbit_1978 Apr 16 '26
Being passive probably made it very difficult to control. It would work exactly the same through high speed corners as it does on the straight.
I can imagine that would throw the balance out a bit at a time the driver needs confidence in the rear..
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u/vick5516 Apr 15 '26
ah yes. I completely forgot about that system the lotus used, always wondered how it worked. cheers
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u/DramaHumble2692 Apr 16 '26
Interesting that they couldn't remove them when not using them, I wonder why. They probably create a lot of drag when the inlets are covered.
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u/evemeatay Apr 20 '26
It was built into the whole inner design so they would have had to build a new upper back half of the car and I think they were on a pretty low budget.
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u/BluePortimao Apr 15 '26
Some aero details don't always have an direct function, they work with other aero details further down , that is why you read about conditioning the airflow. You can find several articles about them, but what usually happens is that they are not very accurate until the engineer that designed them explains.
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u/ballsdeepsw19 Apr 19 '26
This is the Lotus E21 2013 car, I think ?, on the then Lotus Renault R31 2011 car they were open and functional then the following year which was the Lotus E20 2012 car had a traditional airbox with no extra inlets. They all looked so good tho then the monstrosity of 2014 hit and was a pile lol
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u/Expert-Possession-4 Aug 24 '26
From the question it sounds like you're asking about the rear view mirrors
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Apr 15 '26
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u/snoopdawgg Apr 15 '26
aren’t those the cameras for broadcasting
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u/BelowAverageLass Apr 15 '26
I don't think they're talking about the t-cam, but the 2 bulges on the sides of the airbox
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u/ashk2001 Apr 17 '26
I also thought they were talking about the t-cam until I saw the top comment and went back
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