Ferrari’s New Nose – Testing

As Felipe Massa tested the F2008 on Bridgestone’s slick tyres, the car was fitted with a slotted nose cone.

This ‘hole in the nose’ is aimed at making use of the high-pressure
air that builds up between the front wing and the underside of the
nose.

This would improve the car’s downforce by sending a better airflow to the rear wing.

What Ferrari have done is to create a channel inside the nose cone
that takes this high-pressure region and vents it over the top of the
chassis.

From overhead shots the hole’s outlet can be seen, with one large
exit split into two. This probably helps the exit flow merge with the
flow already passing over the car.

Ferrari were testing an array of pitot tubes in front of the
engine’s inlet snorkel. These sensors would have picked up the
differing air speed going into and over the airbox.

This set-up would give Ferrari a comparative reading for the new nose’s effect.

If the test goes well, Ferrari are expected to give the new nose its race debut in Spain in two weeks’ time.

Massa finished the day over 2.5 seconds ahead of his closest rival.

 That's quite an interesting development by Ferrari there! I wouldn't have expected the widely talked nose design to be at the 
top of the nose but it seems like an obvious addition to help reduce the car's drag. Let's hope it can help Kimi win more races this year!.

Today’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:18.339   77
 2.  Wurz          Honda                (B)  1:21.059   75
 3.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.566  113
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:21.679  105
 5.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:22.125   69
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:22.197   59
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:22.431   72
 8.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:22.590   92
 9.  Liuzzi        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.846   91