This is probably a stupid question...

[Stupidlikeafox]

...and will show my true colours as a bit of a numpty, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

What are those little 'spikes' for on the bonnet/nose of race cars (in particular single seaters such as F1 cars)?

This is the best 'picture' I could find to show you what I mean:



Is it something to do with helping with identifyting braking points, or helping with depth perception? I've no idea and wanted to know since I watched F1 as a kid. Googling my question unsurprisingly, produced 0 results.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Aerial

[anonymous-user]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Aerial

think its for telemetry, between car and pits

[tom0507]

The aerials are for telemetry/comms and sometimes the car also has a pitot tube.

[Stupidlikeafox]

Stupidlikeafox said:

...and will show my true colours as a bit of a numpty...

Like I said!

Cheers guys, cleared up a mystery for me anyway!

[Project 644]

Aeriel and Pitot tube (the one which is bent 90 degres at the top) which measures air speed.

[He Skunk]

If you mean the really tiny spikes (sharks teeth) of which you can see several closely spaced on F1 cars of a certain era, they are vortex generators .
Their purpose is to separate the airflow and therefore reduce aerodynamic drag in that area. You will find them on the engine cowlings and empennage of Boeing 737's too, where I am more familiar with their purpose.

[Rufus]

One of the 'sharks teeth' is used for measuring whether a driver legally fits in the car, a bar is passed from this 'tooth' to the top of the roll bar, and if the drivers helmet is above the bottom of the bar, he cannot drive the car.

[BigBen]

snowy slopes said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Aerial

think its for telemetry, between car and pits

Suspect it is for voice, the telemetry antennae I have dealt with are much smaller.

Ben