You can imagine the racetrack as a large laboratory, which has its own unique ideas and design intentions in many body details, electronic control technology, tires and even drivers' own equipment. This time, I want to talk about the hump design that you often see on the racing jumpsuit. There are many theories about the abrupt convex design of the driver's back. I'll take you to find out this time.

The hump design is added to the back of one-piece leather clothing, which was originally an event kit launched in the top events of MotoGP and WSBK. Although the year of origin is unknown, it gradually matured during 1990~2000.

Initially, this design was mainly introduced for aerodynamics. Theoretically, when a driver hides in the fairing of a racing car in a straight line, air will flow through the front fairing and form a wake behind the driver's helmet. In the design of hump, according to the hydrodynamic formula FD = 1/2 ρ u 2 CD A, it can effectively help the resistance and reduce the resistance coefficient, thus stabilizing the car body and increasing the maximum speed.

After years of mature development, jumpsuits used in major competitions have hump design. However, due to the progress of science and technology, the airbag monitoring equipment will be inserted into the leather hump of MotoGP, mainly because MotoGP has forced every hand to wear racing leather with airbag design, so the sensor will be directly inserted into the hump, so that when the driver triggers the airbag device, he can know the current dynamics of the driver and the speed monitoring of airbag movement at the same time. At the same time, a water bag is placed in the hump, and an external suction pipe is connected to the inside of the helmet, which provides the driver with the water supplement demand in a high-intensity and high-temperature environment. The design of filling water bag is common in endurance race. For MotoGP, a race lasting about 40 minutes, some drivers will choose not to use the water bag function.

Some anecdotal forums or word of mouth say that hump design has an additional function: protecting the neck.

But it's not true.

In motorcycle safety protection parts, most of them are protected by actions such as friction and rolling when the rider slides, but the design of hump will not protect the neck when sliding or rolling. Here, I would like to quote an article in john D D. Hindes's paper "Trauma and Motorcycle Riders" published in the International Journal in 2007: "Hump leather clothing can not effectively protect the rider's trachea, neck, chest, waist and spine, and it is almost impossible to treat the injured with invasive treatment such as larynx under the hump condition. The correct step should be to take off the helmet and cut off the hump skin. Most of the back injuries of motorcyclists are cervical and spinal fractures, and measures such as back protection are usually taken to protect them. 》

Interestingly, some two-piece casual autumn clothes also have hump design, but the area is much smaller than that used in competitions. What are their main uses?