Honda Elephant Ears

Hi,

anyone know what was the purpose of the elephant ears honda tested recently? Looking at them can't really see what they are for other than media attention.

If you haven't seen them http://www.formula1.com/news/6027.html or goggle honda elephant ears for lots of pics.

Andy

to make the car even more sh*t looking (if that is possible) than before

think honda have the wrong idea, elephants not exactly fast, should have stuck some cheetah ears or ostrich wings on it!

but they never forget.............................
........................how slow they are as they plod around the circuit

lol!

They were basically intended to promote front downforce by moving the air flow around the barge board area. Apparently they didn't work all that well, as they were only run once in practice.

It's quite possible that their wind tunnel or CFD told them to expect a gain, and it didn't pan out on the circuit. A gap in the correlation of test and track data is probably one of the reasons they are struggling so much right now.

thanks crispy. I couldn't quite figure out what they were intended to do. Not really a wing for creating downforce so thought they might be used to direct or smooth airflow for other aero elements on the car.

The last thing I read was that Honda's wind tunnel wasn't calibrated correctly. They can't therefore get the gains on track, that they are predicting in the tunnel. It would explain a lot given their recent performance

Originally Posted by Coops79

The last thing I read was that Honda's wind tunnel wasn't calibrated correctly. They can't therefore get the gains on track, that they are predicting in the tunnel. It would explain a lot given their recent performance

Blimey, seems like a pretty fundemental problem then.