WHY DO F1 TEAMS USE PAINT IN TESTING SESSIONS?

Have you ever watched the F1 pre-season testing and wondered what that special paint on the front of the car is used for?

The pre-season testing is an opportunity for all the teams that make up the F1 grid a chance to properly test the car they have been working for months on. Each car in F1 is unique in some regard in the sense that not each car is made by one manufacturer and therefore identical with each team putting on their personalised sponsor stickers and livery and then the drivers hop in the driver seat and compete to see who is the best out of the lot at the end of a very expensive and incredibly busy year.

The reality is that each team has to follow strict F1 guidelines and rules and essentially develop their own car from the ground up.

This takes a tremendous amount of money, engineering, testing and of course failures as well. But these cars are kept secret for most of the year until they are finally revealed to the public at the beginning of each year prior to the start of the season.

However, there is a period between the unveiling of the cars and the first race of the season, and this is where all the pre-season testing takes place.

This is where adjustments to suspension, minor design and of course aerodynamics take place.

Most of the time, some broadcasting and coverage take place during the pre-season testing and you might have spotted a weird fluorescent wet paint that gets splashed on the front of the F1 cars as they do their tests, but what does it actually do and what is it used for?

Well, it's not exactly painted at all, it's actually a fine powder mixed together with an oily substance, usually paraffin, that does not dry up very quickly. The mixed substance is called flow-vis and is used to help engineers better understand how the aerodynamics are performing in very specific parts of the car.

Once the testing is done, it's just a matter of hosing the car don and its back to its pristine condition once more.

Take a look at the video below by the YouTube channel: WTF1 on What Is The Weird Pain F1 Teams Use In Testing?...

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