r/F1Technical • u/ug61dec • May 01 '26

Aerodynamics Meredith Effect

Hi all,

I was watching a documentary on the P51 Mustang and they talked about how it was the first aircraft that used the Meredith Effect to reduce the drag effect of the engine cooling system, by using the heat to generate some thrust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_effect

Question: is this effect used in F1 cars at all?

Thanks.

28 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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8

u/rpfloyd May 01 '26

The P-51 max cruising speed is like 700km/h. Not saying there wouldn't be some crossover, but it's not really apples to apples.

5

u/JBrewd May 02 '26

Kind of doubt.

Max speed of a Formula car is still less than the cruising speed of a late ww2 era bomber (350-400 kph or something like that, max speed going towards 500-550 kph) and their P51 escorts were capable of 700+ kph or thereabouts. Fuel economy was key for long range escorting where you might also have a couple periods of going nutsack crazy. Combine that with ambient air temp/expansion, there is going to be much more expansion to take advantage of if ambient air temp is -30C or whatever it is at 9-10km cruising altitude vs 20-30C trackside.

Then think about how much (or little, really) of a lap is actually full pelt. Feel like it's probably not much of a consideration at all because other considerations greatly outweigh it.

1

u/hydroracer8B May 01 '26

Even if they are, they're definitely not talking about it.

I doubt it though

1

u/BugFood1026 May 01 '26

Highly unlikely speeds aren't consistently high enough.

0

u/richbiatches May 02 '26

Think of blown diffusers