Kimi's Mirror Camera

[XS222]

i'm wondering.... F1 aerodynamics are so sensitive, that even the slightest change in the front wing (millimeters :shocked: ) are enough to affect the handling and balance of the car.

my question is: since Kimi has a camera only on his left side mirror, does it affect the car at all??




thanks!

[Julie B]

Not related at all but to do with the TV pictures, Radio 5 Live were saying that it may be a while before F1 is on HD - this is because of a tiny reason...

Everything can be done in HD except the camera above the air intake - they're having problems trying to find a way to do this in HD !!!

[coysht]

i'm wondering.... F1 aerodynamics are so sensitive, that even the slightest change in the front wing (millimeters :shocked: ) are enough to affect the handling and balance of the car.

my question is: since Kimi has a camera only on his left side mirror, does it affect the car at all??




thanks!

The mirror camera is pretty much within the standard profile of the mirror, so will have very little effect aerodynamically. The downside is additional weight in the mirror. Not enough to impact the car's handling, but enough to make the mirror mounting that little bit harder. Some teams have enough trouble making mirrors that are secure and stable without adding some more mass.

The placement of the cameras will vary from team to team, depending on how much time and thought goes into it. Top teams will spend a reasonable amount of time trying to find aerodynamically 'invisibile' spots on the car to put the cameras, others will just slap them on and hope for the best.

Different parts of the car are more critical to the aerodynamics than others. Generally you can get away with things like cameras, unless you put them onto heavily 'loaded' components and surfaces. Front wing endplates are technically a designated location for cameras, but putting one there is a difficult, highly likely to come off and would almost certainly mess up the front wing's aero (unless it was a 2007 Honda, in which case it'd probably make it better - wouldn't be hard!).


But to properly answer the original question - yes its only one side, but it will have so little effect on the car that you'd never notice if you moved it elsewhere or had the same on the other side.

[Mark.S]

Are these cameras required on every car or are they there for the teams to use privately?

[Tony]

Not related at all but to do with the TV pictures, Radio 5 Live were saying that it may be a while before F1 is on HD - this is because of a tiny reason...

Everything can be done in HD except the camera above the air intake - they're having problems trying to find a way to do this in HD !!!

Hmmm, that's strange, we have a HD feed here in Canada?

[Julie B]

Hmmm, that's strange, we have a HD feed here in Canada?

Well that's our ITV info for you - it's what Martin Brundle was saying during quali !!

[coysht]

Are these cameras required on every car or are they there for the teams to use privately?

Regulations require all cars to have two fixed cameras during race weekend running. On some cars one of the cameras will be just a ballasted casing to replicated the real camera when putting two on is not deemed worthwhile.
One of these must be located on the roll-hoop (normally facing forwards) and the other can be placed in one of several designated positions.
The second cameras must be in different positions on any teams two cars.

From memory these positions are:
Front wing end plate - rarely if ever used
Side of nose - facing either forwards, back into the suspension or occasionally outboard
Cockpit - facing driver
Mirror - facing driver
Side of roll-hoop - facing forwards, mounted not much lower than the standard camera, and generally terrible aerodynamically.


In test sessions these cameras are either totally removed (the actual cameras are returned after the race weekend finishes), replaced with carbon moch-ups (to replicate the aerodynamics) or substituted for sensors - the roll-hoop camera is regularly replaced with a high mounted Pitot tube used to calculate airspeed (looks like a bent anttena of some kind).
Teams may also add thermal imaging cameras to the side of the chassis behind the nose or to the back of the floor to point at either the front or rear tyres to monitor temperature gradients across the tyre surface.

[coysht]

Not related at all but to do with the TV pictures, Radio 5 Live were saying that it may be a while before F1 is on HD - this is because of a tiny reason...

Everything can be done in HD except the camera above the air intake - they're having problems trying to find a way to do this in HD !!!

I can understand the footage from the camera not being HD, but surely they can upscale it to HD for broadcast - quality wouldn't be as good as true HD, but its not really on a par with standard TV as it is.

I had heard that the BBC has got the rights to F1 in HD as of next season, and may show it on their HD channels on satelite.

[Nik_I]

Hmmm, that's strange, we have a HD feed here in Canada?

well the feed that TSN gets isn't true HD. it's 16:9 widescreen, but that's about it. it's not really high definition. still an improvement tho

[BriannaBee]

well the feed that TSN gets isn't true HD. it's 16:9 widescreen, but that's about it. it's not really high definition. still an improvement tho

The feed is upscaled to HD but isn't true HD. Still, it is a big difference in picture quality watching TSN-HD vs. regular TSN (or Speed-HD vs. regular Speed) - also, a big difference in the space requirements for recording on the PVR. It's strange that even with an upsaled picture, the onboard shots are still noticeably poorer quality than the regular shots - not sure why the quality doesn't improve the same way.