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Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith
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Going back to the history of this in prototype and sports car racing, you probably had a situation in which frankly driver comfort was somewhat secondary. So cooling was targeted at things like engine, transmission, brakes, electronics. All of those would have had specific targets that would have had to have been met to ensure expected reliability and performance. Humans on the other can can be more flexible. Up until the point they pass out and have to be pulled unconscious from the car!
So when you are fighting for tenths or hundredths in a top level series and your cockpit is enclosed (or nearly so), the engineers are going to focus on speed vs. comfort. I think the right thing to do was done and that was the rule makers defined expectations around maximum temp in the cockpits.
Indycar is in a unique position in which they can mandate all teams to use a single device to ensure airflow into the cockpit. The more you close it off, the more the air will be stagnant. So instead of saying "cockpit temps must not be above X", Indycar can just put in place a standard solution (assuming that solution gets the desired results).
In a series such as F1, they would likely need to define rules similar to what was done in sportcar/prototype racing. Even if not fully closed, they would have to find some type of specification that defines airflow through the cockpit. It could be easily done. Probably a minimum volume of ambient air (not heated ambient) that moves from the foot position and out through the open top. At speed this could be done without any extra energy. When stopped, maybe a fan? It's all speculation as its not yet a problem in F1. Or is it?
F1 cockpits are pretty open, but you can see that teams will try to adjust the flow to prevent or at least control any turbulent flow. The clear plastic vortex generators are easily visible on the leading edges of the current F1 cockpits. My point is that even now, I expect F1 cockpits are somewhat stagnant (not as stagnant as with an aero screen solution). It would be interesting to know the temperature differential in the air from the toes to the head of a F1 drivers.
Richard