Formula One - Technical Library

[Evenstar]

I thought this would be handy to know:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rev_limiter

Limiters prevent damage to an engine by interrupting the power that is distributed to the spark plugs, this prevents the engine from operating above a pre-determined RPM level known as the red-line

Most teams have been using Rev-Limit's for quite a few years now. Last year for instance the Cosworth could hit 20,000rpm+ unlimited but Cosworth limited it to 19,000rpm or so in the races with button that could be used to lift the limit for overtaking although its debatable if that actually ever really worked any more than slip-streaming.

Only difference now is that the limit's are all FIA mandated although the 19,000rpm limit (Which i believe it is) is pretty much the same as what the teams used last year anyway.

The orignal problem some fans have with it is that the great sound has gone...LOL that's rubbish. The sound of the cars at Silverstone last year pretty flipping wicked despite the rev-drop. It still blew me away, having been the year before, my mouth was still wide open lol You can't hear the difference from just 2-3 thousand RPM.

On-boards don't sound too bad except like on the straights. I don't like the sound of the engine whinging "Let me go faster *** No swearing *** you!" and its being held back. But the real F1 experience is on track IMO, and the sound is still like no other.

[Evenstar]

Some info about those cool looking boomerang wings on the 2007 Renault nosecone:
- http://www.formula1.com/insight/technic ... 6/385.html

It is not the first time the R27 has sported 'ears' (arrow) on its nosecone, but it seems likely, after the new additions appeared once again in Bahrain, they have become a permanent fixture. Designed to improve airflow management around the *** No swearing *** and reduce turbulence, these horn-like winglets are positioned halfway between the front axle and the *** No swearing *** and bend upwards, extending outwards by 25 centimetres. They are designed to split the airflow into two parts, with the lower flow directed to the sidepod inlets and the upper flow towards the rear wing.

[Evenstar]

Prior the 2007 Malaysian GP...

Technical analysis - the 'movable' floor debateThe theory behind it - and why it should be over this weekend

Since the 2007 season-opener in Australia, there has been much talk of ‘movable’ floors on Formula One cars - have teams developed a way to mount the floor in such a way that it will pass the standard deflection test in scrutineering, but then lift under greater loads at speed on the circuit, providing significant aerodynamic gains?

Ride heights are crucial in terms of improving the aero performance of a Formula One car. For this reason, several years ago teams developed flexible floors that would bend under load, thus allowing the car to run much closer to the ground. The FIA decided to police the situation by introducing a floor deflection test. This test uses the normal scrutineering platform. A hydraulic ram pushes the floor upwards from beneath the car and the amount of movement under a specified load is measured.

As with wings, if the part passes this deflection test it is deemed legal, even if the part may flex further under a greater load. This apparent anomoly is present because the FIA decided to provide a certain degree of freedom in the regulation to avoid damage to this section of the floor when the car rides over kerbs - especially as in recent years most of the ballast placed on the car is located in this area.

Article 3.17.4 of Formula One racing's current technical regulations states that no bodywork part, floor included, can deflect more than 5mm vertically when exposed to a 500 Newton upward load.

The potential benefits
If you introduce a way to allow the car’s floor to lift at high speed, it will lead the diffuser to stall. But what does this mean? Well, in technical terms it means that the airflow passing through the diffuser no longer closely follows the diffuser’s profile. Instead, at a certain point - determined by air pressure levels close to the diffuser wall - the airflow detaches and proceeds on its own horizontal trajectory. In practical terms, it means that this airflow is no longer generating additional downforce via the diffuser. This could be seen as a malfunction of the diffuser - which indeed it is - but it also an effect that can be generated intentionally. Among the potential benefits are an increase in straight-line speed thanks to the loss of drag, or an improvement in the car’s overall balance thanks to the reduced rear downforce.

Teams employ a variety of methods to mount their cars’ floors, usually using thin cables. These alone cannot be guaranteed to prevent the floor deflecting, so some teams - media attention has focussed on Ferrari and BMW Sauber - utilise sprung supporting devices, which allow limited - but legal - movement of the front of the floor, to prevent damage over kerbs etc. The question being asked in Melbourne was could a similar device be designed so as to allow much greater - and hence illegal - movement under the greater loads generated at high speeds?

Of course, the simple answer is, in theory, yes. By correctly engineering the ‘set-up’ of the spring - related specifically to its fixed rate and preload - it would be possible to control the flexibility of the bib (the section of the floor under the splitter) so as to pass the FIA deflection test but still allow greater movement under higher loads. In reality, however, there is no evidence of any team employing this theory and all cars passed scrutineering in Melbourne.

The FIA clarification
The speculation over movable floors is unlikely to continue much longer thanks to a small clarification to the rules introduced by the FIA ahead of this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix. From now on, the floor deflection test will be carried out with any such supporting devices removed.

Edit by Gilraen: again, check your long post for the end quote!

[Mikka]

Speciale numero uno Rai2 Technical Analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfm1Cr5wkfk

[_TaniaS_]

http://www.f1matrix.it/gp_2007_eng/index.html
All times, lap by lap, of every driver for every GP.

[iceman09]

thank you _TaniaS_
awesome site

[Klyster]

Yeah, cheers _TaniaS_

Bookmarked!

[dheeban]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72638
This is in relation to an earlier discussion about how, not only tyre compounds influence their life but also the type of construction.

The switch to slicks has not resulted in a change in tyre dimensions, which means the contact patch at the front has increased more than the rear - leading to increased oversteer.

This characteristic resulted in drivers struggling with heavy rear tyre wear over long runs during early winter testing last year.

But Bridgestone's motorsport chief engineer Jun Matsuzaki is confident that teams will get to grips with the issue before the start of the season.

\"It is still early days for the teams working on their understanding of the slick tyres and the aerodynamic regulations, so we would expect improvements in all areas of how teams use their tyres,\" Matsuzaki told autosport.com.

\"Jerez's circuit layout is one which is harsh on the rear tyres. Also, Jerez in December is colder than we will see during the season, so there was graining on the rear tyres and this led to greater degradation than we would see in warmer weather.

\"Tyre dimension is a factor, but tyre compound and construction play a big part too. The construction of the rear tyres was upgraded for the move to slicks to maintain the balance of fronts and rears.

\"The balance of the grip created by tyres is still a little on the oversteer side, but this is something which will be countered by car set-up as teams learn how best to use these tyres.\"

[iceman09]

thank you dheeban
important article

[dheeban]

Saving Bosseking's post in this thread

Didn't know where to put this but if someone is interested about the components in F1 car and how they work, this could be an interesting to read.

http://iroland.uw.hu/html/af1.htm

Unfortunately I can't find the orginal version which also had the pics of the components.

Edit. Thanks for iceman08 for the original version which is this: http://tv.isg.si/site/ftpaccess/BtGreg/ ... %201.1.PDF

A link to car set up details
http://www.racelinecentral.com/RacingSetupGuide.html

[dheeban]

A good site to compare the timings of various drivers from practice sessions and race for any race weekend.
http://channelf1.net/timing.php

Just checked Kimi and Massa. During the second stint, Massa, 8 laps lighter, made up only 1.9 s in 7 laps before SC and 0 s in 7 laps after SC. That is lot of difference. We can assume 0.1 s for a lap difference in fuel in the laptime.

[Nicole]

This is from a Finnish motorsport magazine Vauhdin Maailma, sorry if words are not translated correctly.

When the GP's are outside Europe it takes three Boeing 747 airplanes to get all teams equipment - 450 ton - to the paddock.

When the GP's are outside Europe all top teams bring about 100 employees with them. In European GP's the amount is about 135.

During testing the amount of employees is about 60. 15 take care of the engines and 5 take care of the catering.

One top team hosts during the GP's around 10 000 VIP-persons.

During the season the team's chefs and catering-staff serve about 35 000 meals and make at least 60 000 cups of coffee.

During one GP the team needs about 100 radio head sets.

The top teams have to pull wires for over a kilometer just to make a connection to the computer at the paddock.

F1-cars are built completely again in between the races. They are taken completely apart and they do about 200 different measurings and checkings on them.

Into one F1 car they link 200 sensors that enable to generate even 14 megabyte data on each lap. There comes as much data as in 18 Leo Tolstoi's War and peace books. All data is recorded on the car's hard disc and the files are unwrapped every time the car makes a pit stop.

BMW's simulator Albert 3 for aerodynamics contains 4224 processors and it has a 8448 GB RAM-memory. The maximum effect in the machine is 50,7 Tflops which means that it can make 50,7 billion calculations in one second.

It takes 250 000 manhours to build a F1-car.

It takes about 4500 design drawings for the design of all 11 000 parts one car needs.

Only 3 % of the car's parts can be used again next year.

Williams for example produces over 200 000 components per year. This doesn't include the engine's parts that come from Toyota.

During the season about 75 % of the parts are redesigned.

McLaren's windtunnel needed 400 tons of 8-10 mm steel - the same amount is needed for building a big ship.

The modern F1-windtunnel is about 150 m long and 10 m wide. The fan uses upto 3000 kilowatts.

It takes about 50 000 manhours to design the aerodynamics for a top level F1-car.

From the parts tested in the windtunnel only 20 % end up in the car.

Renault for example produces about 15 000 parts per year only for the windtunnel tests.

The F1-car's wings produce with a 200 km/h speed over one ton of downforce. With this amount a car could drive normally for example up in the roof.

The steering wheel is the electronic center of a modern F1-car; the driver can program into the wheel over 300 different settings, among others different setups for the car. The steering wheel weighs 700 grams and costs 35 000 euros.

McLaren for example makes during one season 27 steering wheels - it takes 36 manhours to put up one.

It takes 80 manhours to build a F1-engine.

A F1-engine contains 5000 parts - 1100 are totally different and 1500 are movable parts.

A F1-engine takes in 600 litres of air per second in full speed.

A F1-engine's pistons produce an acceleration power of 8600 G.

The piston only weighs a few grams but the power it produces is similar to a weigh of 3 tons.

BMW F1-engine's titanic rotating bar weighs only 295 grams, the same bar in steel weighs 545 grams.

There are 15 satellite sonds in a F1-engine - in private testing there can be up to 60. A great deal of the data is transferred to the engineers in real time.

It takes 20 different metal compounds when building a F1-engine.

The working temperature of a F1-engine is 110 degrees, the inner parts can heat up to 300 degrees.

F1-engine can take if needed even 950 degrees.

F1-car can stop in 1,9 seconds during a speed of 200 km/h and producing powers of 5 G's.

F1-car accelerates to 200 km/h and stops in under 7 seconds.

Without traction control the car accelerates 0-100 km/h in 2,75 seconds, with traction control in 2,5 seconds.

F1-car accelerates in 5 seconds to 0-200 km/h at 140 meters.

The fastest average speed/lap during GP weekends was made by Williams-BMW Antonio Pizzonia, who got 369,9 km/h in 2004 Monza GP.

In a separate testing in Mojave, California, Honda's test driver achieved 413,2 km/h in 2006.

The fastest average speed is in Juan-Pablo Montoya's name, 262,4 km/h in 2004 Monza.

F1-car's tyres can achieve a temperature of 100 degrees. It can go up to 130 degrees but after that their breaking point is near.

A driver can lose weight during a race up to 2 kg - the average temperature on the paddock is about 50 degrees.

Michael Schumacher is the most loyal driver in F1-history. During years 1996-2006 he drove 180 GP's for Ferrari. David Coulthard drove for McLaren 150 GP's during years 1996-2004. Third on the list is Jacques Laffite who drove 132 GP's for Ligier.

Chris Amon is again the least loyal driver in F1-history. During his career 1963-1976 he drove for 11 different teams, one of them was his own team Amon-Ford.

The longest career goes to Graham Hill who was WDC in 1962 and 1968 - 18 years (1958-1975). Ricardo Patrese raced for 17 years in 1977-1993. Season 2008 was Barrichello's 16th year in F1.

Andrea de Cesaris has most GP's without victories: 1980-1994 he drove in 208 GP's and was at best 2nd.

Michael Schumacher-Rubens Barrichello have been as team mates for the longest time in F1. 103 GP's whereas David Coulthard-Mika Häkkinen drove in 98 GP's.

Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer has most GP's without one single scored point. He took part in 49 GP's and in the statistics Brett Lunger comes in second with 34 GP's without any points.

Michael Schumacher have most seasons in a row where he has won the GP's. During years 1992-2006 he won during every season at least one GP. Number two is Alain Prost, who won at least one GP during seasons 1981-1990.

Rubens Barrichello drove 124 GP's before he won his first race. Jarno Trulli's victory in Monaco 2004 was his 119th GP and Jenson Button's victory in Hungary 2006 was his 113th GP.

Ayrton Senna has most poles from the same circuit. During years 1985-1994 he was on pole in Imola, San Marino, eight times. Senna died tragically in Imola 1994 while leading the race from pole. Edit: apparently Schumacher has as many from Suzuka.

Two drivers have the fastest lap during from their first GP in their name. Jacques Villeneuve in Australia 1996. The Canadian also started from pole; the same has been achieved by Mario Andretti and Carlos Reutemann and Nico Rosberg in Bahrain 2006.