F1 aero rakes: Explaining “scaffolding” on cars at Bahrain testing

F1 cars feature a strange-looking “scaffolding” at preseason testing in Bahrain.

They are known as “aero rakes” and are covered in sensors to measure the air flow off a car’s body.

Teams then compare this data from the track to data from the simulator or wind tunnel - from there, they can estimate if the rest of their simulator data is reliable.

Rob Smedley, ex-Ferrari and Williams engineer, explained: “When we then analyse that, we’re usually looking for things like separation, as in where the flow's separating and we’re not getting decent flow structures across the surfaces of the car.

“We can see if there’s a point where the front wing ‘falls over’, as we term it, where we’re not generating the downforce on the front anymore.

“Equally, there are sometimes more fundamental things that we pick up from the aero rakes that we can’t solve at the track, and that then goes back to the aerodynamics team and they can deliberate on how to solve these fundamental problems and to put these flow structures in a more optimised position.”

Drivers must not hit full speed with aero rakes fitted because they could fall off.

Every F1 team will run a variation of the aero rakes in Bahrain preseason testing which runs for three days from February 21-23.