Renault Elephant Ears

[Wizzo]

If you try out something never seen before, and it works, it's called innovation. If you try out something never seen before, and it doesn't work, it's called an experiment. And this particular experiment, carried out by Honda's F1 team, was called "elephant ears."



During last week's test session at the Barcelona F1 circuit, Honda was trying out fixes for its car's notoriously bad handling under braking. One of the attempted fixes was these arced winglets on the nose. The wings were of no use: Honda set the slowest time of the day. Hence, we've probably seen the last of them. Nevertheless, even without the wings, Honda F1's Engineering Director, Jacky Eeckelaert, said "The braking is definitely better now and the lap times have improved and become more consistent, but there is still a long way to go to bring the team back into contention." For a team with Honda's history of winning, the arrival of their new car can't come soon enough.

[cosworth151]

They do kind of go with the paint scheme.

[davewilson]

If April 1st had not gone by, i would have thought it a wind up.What do those chaps in the wind tunnel drink?

[romephius]

Elephant Ears are quite appropriate for this car........after all it is a huge white elephant.........

Rom

[davewilson]

Posted an update on this subject in Grapevine.It looks as if the Powers that Be are looking to ban such devices.Uncle Max has got a team looking at it now.

Drivers have complained more vocally than ever in 2007 as teams affix ever more efficient downforce-inspiring additions to their cars' bodywork, following the introduction of harder tyres and tighter controls on engine development.

It looks as if these devices disturb the air for the following cars, making it harder for cars to overtake.Any thing that stops overtaking is a big NO -NO and i don't think we will see so much of these things sprouting from the cars in the future.

[cosworth151]

I wonder if they might block the drivers' vision, too. Kind of like those twin tower fins that BMW-Sauber tried on their front ends last year.