Upon further review, I stand corrected. Carbon fiber can in fact be made into a good thermal conductor by introducing additives and changing the fiber orientation. So it is possible to have a significant transfer of heat from the wheel rim, across the cake tin cover, and into the air which is exhausted from the brake tin. Turbulent air flows inside the cake tin layers would also increase the ability to transfer the heat from surface of the carbon tin into the airflow and out of the duct exits, while introducing additional drag.Watto wrote: ↑05 May 2025, 20:12He mentioined in part 1 of the video where he didn't really go into details of his ideas Red Bull using thermal cameras on the drums of teams using pit stops. The McLarens were cooler than every other team. I'm aware of them using the thermal cameras this weekend but though it was monitoring the tyres themselves not the cake tin.AR3-GP wrote: ↑05 May 2025, 19:52Maybe, maybe not, but it is an interesting an idea. This kind of “switching” system (or other implementations of it) would explain why the MCL-39 doesn’t have the compromises of the RB19 and the SF-24 which were bad qualifying cars because they didn’t heat the tires up quickly enough for 1 lap pace. The drivers had always complained over the radio about the tires being cold and there were media reports about it. This is the major difference I see to how the Mclaren operates.
I’m confused though because carbon fiber is not a good conductor of heat.
If that is true than its suggesting something is going on there. And seems he is talking from an area of expertise in phase changing materials.
As I’ve repeated, I’m convinced this is a connection to why Mclaren has no straight line speed with the DRS. They are regularly 6-7 km/h down on the others. This is a lot of energy at top speed. Some of it may be due to downforce, but not all of it. They had a much smaller rear wing than Red Bull. Their tire cooling measures consume flow energy and this is not affected by opening the DRS flap. I think that’s why they have been pursuing mini-drs, flexible wings, and so on to reduce drag. It was a stated priority of Stella in the pre-season.