The arrival of Pirelli in Formula One circus has forced the team to deepen studies on the behavior of the tires in different race situations. Compared to what happened with Bridgestone, the compounds have again become a factor and as we saw with the Lotus, sometimes a controlled consumption of its tires can decide positively even whole weekend race. Mercedes during the European GP, with the goal of reducing its thermal consumption, He has introduced a new type of internal coating of the rims, something new that had never been used in the circus of Formula One. This news was soon copied by some teams (Red Bull on all) given that in many machines it can be noted that the inside of the rims appears knurled. After some studies has finally discovered the nature of that ribbing: we speak of Polysil, a silicon-based coating which allows the structure of the surface of the rim protection. Resistant up to 1100 degrees, the Polysil is a material that produces only the NANOPRO and it is a liquid glass coating formed with black pigment opacifier.
For the experts of sailing and the sea is a very material used as a coating in the hulls of boats. It 'used primarily to improve the thermal conductivity, with resistance to abrasion and incredible hardness (in various hardness tests the surfaces coated by Polysil withstand up to 6H). In addition to these significant advantages, this new coating is very light as it weighs 95% of a normal painting (a normal painting of a rim weighs from 65 to 85 grams, while with Polysil they can reach weights of just 5 grams). To further improve the characteristics, some teams this particular wet with water in order to simulate the characteristics of mercury. The team also found a considerable improvement in turmoil since the CFD has found an improvement of three points in the final results. We are facing the nth technological innovation and will be interesting to find out how the team will manage to develop this new type of coating, even outside of the rim itself.
[Source: Formula One Italia]
