AR3-GP wrote: β12 Apr 2022, 19:18
I also felt that it was hot metal, but the Mark Hughes article does change things. Mark usually gets his information from the horse's mouth and if it's being published on Formula1.com, it's likely been vetted. He's probably just asked the Mercedes engineers what it is and they've told him. It might actually be a sensor.
With that said, the placement is a bit strange. Given that the front of the t-tray showers sparks down the floor of the car as it scrapes the ground, it would ruin any optical measurements.
It is a sensor and its been used for years. Not the first time i am seeing it.
It may well be a camera with a lamp. That camera can be IR to detect track temperature, it can be recording the roughness of the track to help with their flow analysis, it can be recording ground speed and yaw of the car relative to the track. Who knows. But it's something i have seen in testing for years.
I do not think it is metal glowing. The air would cool it really fast. also if this is not a steel part, i dont think white metal would glow so much.