F1 Insider -- Ferrari's 'Cold Bag' Trick Has Been Deemed Illegal By The FIA!

Over the past few races, the Ferrari cars have been spotted sporting a yellow bag on top of the airbox/onboard camera, making fans, other teams and the FIA skeptical over this tactic.

This brightly coloured bag is filled with dry ice, as a cooling aid - but what for exactly? There are several explanations for it. Here’s why..

Ferrari’s official statement says that the bag is used to cool the electronics within the onboard camera. But this has made the FIA rather wiery, seeing as there is no actual evidence to prove this.

Many believe that this ice bag is used to cool down the airbox, thus cooling down the air entering the engine, making it more dense, thus giving the car more power - more power means a speed advantage. However, this performance boost would only be temporary as the air would ‘warm up’ again. In my opinion, this would be way too obvious, even for the devious boys over in Maranello.

However, it was made clear in this year’s sporting regulations that no efforts can be put into influencing airbox temperatures, amid fears that team will try to ‘super-cool’ the air going into the engine, giving the cars more power.

Some also say that this cooling method may be related to the temperature of the MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit Hybrid - part of the ERS system). If the team are able to cool the hybrid system down at the beginning of a race, it would give the system a better operating window at the beginning of a race, possibly winning or losing the race.

The final theory is that the team are using it to hide what is easily in plain sight of the other teams. No, not the onboard camera, the cockpit. Recent footage from the German and Hungarian Grands Prix have revealed that the ice bag does indeed cover up the camera lens.

This could suggest that the team are trying to hide certain set ups and switch positions on the steering wheel for the start of the race. Ferrari have benefited from strong starts in some recent races, ground that riival teams like Mercedes have investigated to catch up.

It has been suggested that this has been done to cover up the new steering wheels that Ferrari have introduced for their drivers. A new element has been added to the wheel - ironically enough, the bag was introduced roughly the same time as the new wheel was introduced.

The new ‘secret’ button is hidden under the black silicon on the front of the wheel. This drawing by Giorgio Piola shows that the button is easily accessible for drivers at the start of a race.

It is unknown what this button does. What we do know is, that Seb and Kimi use this button at the start of a race. Maybe it is a button to help find the perfect biting point of the clutch, enabling the perfect restart. Or maybe even the mythical electrical deployment system?

Could this be the mystery? Or will we never know?

What’s your opinion on this move by Ferrari? Handy tactic, or an attempt to gain more power?

That’s all for reading, drive safe,
675LT_ftw