Aprilia Racing is not satisfied with bringing important aerodynamic innovations to the track: the Noale team is also refining its ability to collect data during work on the track and it should therefore not be surprising that this was seen for the first time in Sepang. a “rake” of sensors mounted behind Miguel Oliveira, driver of the satellite team, the American Trackhouse Racing.
It is yet another proof of how important it is becoming, even in MotoGP, to find the correlation of data between the work carried out in the wind tunnel or on simulation programs and the track.
The impact of aerodynamics on performance is becoming increasingly important, so the ability to equip oneself with verification tools that allow one to evaluate whether the development carried out in the wind tunnel returns the same load points also on the track can allow for greater rapid evolution of the vehicles in the parts that are not bound by the rules such as the hulls.
Miguel Oliveira, with the Aprilia of the Trackhouse team equipped with the sensor rake
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Behind Oliveira we saw a trellis full of small Pitot tubes appear, almost overhanging the tail, sensors that determine the macroscopic speed with respect to the air to verify what the wake is generated when the pilot is in the hull in search of maximum speed. straight line speed.
Soon we expect to also see flow vis, the fluorescent paint composed of oily matrix pigments, mostly paraffin, which is sprayed with a spray jet on specific points of the bodywork. This is a practice widely used in F1: because while the paint will tend to dry, the oily part will evaporate, expanding along the elements you want to control, literally drawing the flow pattern that is created on the surface.
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