As F1 is back in action with pre-season testing in Bahrain, several fans are curious to know more about the technical aspects of the aerodynamics. One such aspect is the aero rakes that F1 teams often use during pre-season testing. Every year these aero rakes catch the eyes of audiences, hanging on several teams’ cars during testing sessions. So what are these aerodynamic rakes and what do they do for teams during testing?
According to Racing News 365, aero rakes are made of alloys like titanium and consist of pitot tubes that help in measuring the pressure of airflow on F1 cars. Usually, these aero rakes appear like a fence or a spider web of metal.
Teams hang these rakes just behind the front axle or the rear axle and the diffuser. The size of these rakes can vary from 50 mm to 600 mm. The use of aero rakes helps teams to understand whether their wind tunnel simulations are correct or not.
Despite modern-day F1 using state-of-the-art wind tunnels, and CFD (Computational fluid dynamics), aerodynamic rakes play a huge role in any F1 team’s development. While these rakes may look primitive relative to CFD and wind tunnels as development tools, their real-world application bridges the gap of errors that the other two may have.
How do F1 teams use aero rakes to understand and improve their cars?
Usually, teams opt to use aero rakes during the morning sessions in pre-season testing. As the track grip levels are low, they can opt to run slow to gather data with aero rakes on. Drivers ensure they don’t run at full speed and complete the number of laps the team wishes to do.
The data from each point of these rakes comes back to the team in real time. This generates a virtual map of how the airflow is going over each part of the car. Based on these observations, teams can look to change or alter some parts or setups, if they find any discrepancy.
Most importantly, it helps teams to understand if their concept is on the right trajectory or not. If they notice that their car concept is not showing the desired results, they will have to modify their development plans.
Teams can get insights during pre-season testing about the performance aspects of their cars by using aero rakes. If there is little correlation between their wind tunnel simulations and the aero rake data, it could lead the team back to the drawing board.
