TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
ENGINES
Formula 1 engines today put their road car cousins to shame in terms of fuel efficiency—while still squeezing around 1,000 horsepower from 1.6-liter V-6s. Manufacturers prefer the term “power unit,” since the total horsepower output is a cooperative effort between the turbocharged internal combustion engine and a cutting-edge hybrid system.
When a turbocharger expels heat, that energy can be recovered, stored, and deployed at will, either to provide an instant power kick or to eliminate turbo lag, one of the main disadvantages of turbocharging. A turbo works by using exhaust gases to drive a pump, compressing the air that goes into the engine. While the turbo spins up, there is a natural delay between pressing the accelerator and getting the power boost. An F1 car’s hybrid system uses recovered heat energy to keep the turbo spinning, so the boost is always ready.
To keep technology focused on efficiency, F1 rules enforce a strict limit on the amount of fuel carried by cars (105 kilograms) and how fast it can flow (100 kilograms/hour). Since 2010, no refueling has been allowed during races.
F1 engines have changed a great deal since the world championship began in 1950, when 1.5-liter supercharged or 4.5-liter naturally aspirated engines of any cylinder count were permitted. For most of that time, engines were ear-splittingly loud; today, though, race cars’ physically smaller engines are restricted to 15,000 rpm and breathe through turbochargers, with the side effect of muffling the exhaust sound.
To reduce costs, engine development is restricted. Beginning with the 2017 season, teams are limited to four complete power units per driver per season. Once a driver burns through the quota of components, he or she begins to incur increasingly severe grid penalties. This gives the manufacturers a major incentive to focus on reliability as well as power and economy.
TECHNOLOGY
CHASSIS
If the engine is the heart of a Formula 1 car, the chassis is its spine. Every element connects to the chassis and relies on its strength.
In the early days of the World Championship, chassis were typically built as a steel frame. This could take the form of a flat perimeter design that looked like a ladder, or the frame could appear as a more sophisticated, three-dimensional network of tubing known as a space frame. The engine, gearbox, suspension, and outer body panels were then mounted on the frame, usually with the engine in front of the driver.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, three key changes transformed the sport. First, the Cooper team started winning races—and then championships—with cars whose engines were mounted behind the driver, giving a better handling balance.
Then another team, Lotus, introduced a car whose outer skin was designed as an integral, load-bearing part of the chassis rather than just being dead weight. This evolved into using the engine as part of the car’s structure, a change that Ford underwrote in its development of a new V-8 in 1966.
Manufacturers built chassis from steel and aluminum until 1981, when McLaren shocked the F1 world with the MP4, which featured a carbon-fiber chassis. Carbon fiber quickly became the chassis material of choice, and remains so to this day.
A modern F1 car is built around a central carbon-fiber structure called a “tub,” which includes the cockpit. These tubs have to pass a series of static load and crash tests, including a simulated rollover. The cockpit wall, for example, must withstand an impact equivalent to 250 tons.
To keep the competition as fair as possible throughout a Grand Prix weekend, the cars must weigh at least 728 kilograms, including the driver but not the fuel. Each car’s weight is checked at random during the weekend and again immediately after the race.
TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRONICS
The days of the engine and gearbox being physically connected to the throttle pedal and gearshift are long gone. A typical Formula 1 car racing today contains almost a kilometer of wiring, and sophisticated electronic systems govern and monitor all aspects of its performance.
Even the brakes have an element of electronic control, if only at the rear, to mitigate the effects of the energy recovery system (ERS). The problem occurs when the ERS adds to the braking force on the rear wheels as they harvest energy, potentially giving the driver a nasty surprise if peak charge is reached and the brakes shut off in a braking zone. The electronics help by interpreting the amount of braking force the driver wants, based on how hard the pedal has been depressed, and then adjusting the hydraulic pressure to the rear brake calipers if the ERS effect changes.
Apart from this, electronic systems designed to help the driver—such as anti-lock brakes or traction control—are forbidden. This ban is effectively policed by the presence of a standard electronic “hub” common to all cars; currently, the hub used for F1 racing is the TAG-320, supplied by McLaren Applied Technologies.
Electronics also play a crucial role in boosting performance and avoiding or diagnosing breakdowns. Every movement of a Formula 1 car is monitored by a network of sensors and transmitted back to the team—usually in real time. The data they capture—up to half a megabyte per second—can help both car and driver perform better, as well as giving early warning of technical failures.
Since there are just under 100 sensors within the car, by the end of each track session the team has a vast quantity of information to sift through. They can use it to work out whether the changes they’ve made have had an effect and how much the performance of individual elements such as the tires change over time. They can also analyze the driver’s inputs into the controls to decide if they’re leaving time on the table.
That, as you can imagine, sometimes makes for a tricky conversation.
TECHNOLOGY
AERODYNAMICS
It’s the tangle of conflicting needs that makes aerodynamics such an important and controversial area in the world of Formula 1. At its heart is the tradeoff between straight-line speed and cornering performance: designers spend hundreds of hours researching parts that help their cars go around corners quicker, but they can also slow the cars down when travelling in a straight line.
Any object moving through air or fluid encounters resistance, known as drag. In the early days of Formula 1, designers focused on making the cars slim and narrow, and on keeping elements such as suspension components out of the airflow. The key to speed, they believed, was to present the minimum possible surface area to the air through which the car was passing.
This changed in the 1960s, as radical thinkers realized that, by following the principles of flight in reverse—adding wings to generate downward thrust rather than lift—they could go beyond the natural grip levels of the tires and make their vehicles go faster around corners. The wings added drag, which cost top speed, but overall lap times were quicker.
After this, the race was on to get the best of both worlds: maximum speed in a straight line and around corners.
Modern F1 cars have large wings front and rear, but they also feature many smaller elements intended to create vortices that can speed up the air as it passes over the car. Since the wheels and tires are a major air blockage, parts of the front wing are designed to steer air away from the wheels.
Aerodynamic research is conducted both in the wind tunnel, with physical models, and virtually, via computational fluid dynamics (CFD). As teams began to spend ever greater sums in the “aero arms race” of the early 2000s, the sport’s governing body responded by clamping down. Wind tunnel hours and computing power are now subject to strict limits.
TECHNOLOGY
STEERING WHEEL
Except for the accelerator and brakes, everything Formula 1 drivers need for control is now available at their fingertips. Over the sixty-plus years of the World Championship, steering wheels have evolved from simple wood-rimmed tillers to painstakingly designed and custom-built pieces of carbon-fiber art. Paddle switches behind the wheel control the clutch and gearshift, so the driver never has to take his or her hands off the wheel.
The sheer number of switches, dials, and buttons (between thirty and forty, depending on driver preference) is a window on the incredibly complex inner life of a modern F1 car. On-the-fly changes to performance are required from corner to corner, and today’s F1 cars are designed to handle them.
Dials in the center of the wheel can fine-tune the differential settings and engine-torque delivery as needed, adjusting the car’s behavior in particular corners or with changing track conditions. The driver can also alter the ignition mapping and fuel-air mix, depending on whether he or she needs more power or fuel economy. Other rotary switches enable the driver to move the balance of braking force from front or rear, or to change the priorities of the power unit’s energy recovery and storage systems.
To cut down on clutter, most teams map the systems that need to be adjusted less often (such as the rev limiter) to one multi-function rotary dial, usually placed in the center of the wheel.
Buttons control instant-hit functions such as the drinking bottle, the radio, the pit lane speed limiter, and the drag-reduction system activator. There’s also a separate button (usually marked “ACK”) for when the driver is too busy to talk but needs to acknowledge a message from the pit wall. He also has a button (usually marked “BOX”) for telling the team that he’s coming in to the pits.
In 2014, a 480 x 272-pixel color LCD screen was introduced along with the new hybrid power unit formula, though some teams have retained the old monochrome screen.
TECHNOLOGY
FUEL AND LUBES
The scene of racing drivers thanking their sponsors and suppliers after a successful race is a familiar sight. It may seem like an exercise in box-checking, but, in the case of the fuel and lubes suppliers, those thanks are well deserved.
The rules for fuel use became one of the first open conflicts in Formula 1, as competitors loaded up with power-boosting additives. In the postwar years, fuel was often inconsistent in quality and difficult to obtain (the first World Championship race was held in Britain in May 1950, when fuel was still rationed there). What went in the tank was more likely to be a toxic cocktail of aviation fuel, benzene, and alcohol than petrol.
As with many other areas of the competition, the governing body gradually tightened up the rules. Aviation gas was banned in the 1950s, and for a while only pump fuel was allowed.
Current F1 fuel is close to what you can buy at a gas station, although leading teams and engine manufacturers work with their fuel and lubes suppliers to create a family of blends to suit different circuits and climates. Each of these has to be submitted to the governing body for tests, where the fluids’ chemical “fingerprints” are taken. Regular checks are also conducted at races to ensure competitors aren’t using special fuel.
As well as boosting engine power and reducing losses through friction, fuel and lubes can also help with aerodynamic performance. Less friction means less heat, allowing cars to run with smaller radiator air intakes—another way to reduce drag.
Some suppliers bring mobile testing laboratories with them to races. These allow for on-the-spot health checks to test oil samples for the presence of metal and other contaminants, all indicators of excess wear or imminent failure.
Under current regulations, Formula 1 cars can use no more than 105 kilograms of fuel during a race.
GLOSSARY
BRAKE BALANCE: The proportion of braking effort is split between the front and back wheels, something that can be adjusted from the cockpit if the driver finds the front or rear wheels are locking up under braking.
CARBON FIBER: A composite material based around strands of carbon woven together to form a fabric, carbon fiber can be cut, layered, glued, and “baked” under pressure to form a light, solid, strong component. Most contemporary F1 cars are made from carbon fiber, including the suspension wishbones, with occasional metal bonded in for added strength.
CFD: Computational fluid dynamics provide a virtual wind tunnel. The design of prototype components can be tested with software that simulates the flow of fluid over them.
DIFFUSER: An aerodynamic component mounted under a vehicle’s floor between the rear wheels, the diffuser is designed to accelerate the air flowing through it.
DOWNFORCE: Also known as negative lift, this is downward pressure on a car and its tires, created by the action of its wings.
DRS: Introduced in 2011, the drag reduction system is a driver-controlled device that opens a flap on the rear wing to boost top speed and create overtaking opportunities. It may only be used in specific areas of a circuit during a race, provided the pursuing car is within a second of the one in front as they pass through a detection zone.
ECU: The engine control unit manages all electronic functions of the car. Since 2008, this has been a standardized component that prevents competitors from using illegal systems, such as traction control.
ERS: The blanket term for various energy recovery systems found on a modern hybrid F1 engine, an ERS helps scavenge energy that would otherwise be dissipated as heat from the brakes and turbocharger.
FLOW CONDITIONER: This aerodynamic device doesn’t necessarily create downforce; instead, it directs the air around a vehicle or sets up a vortex to accelerate airflow.
FUEL FLOW: To prevent short bursts of performance (for instance, boosting power to overtake), the flow of fuel is capped at 100 kilograms per hour and monitored throughout a race. Fuel-flow controls are like a dimmer switch in a domestic lighting system: the brighter you allow the bulb to glow, the more energy it uses.
HANDLING BALANCE: While some drivers may prefer a car that tends toward understeer or oversteer, most prefer their car to behave in a neutral and progressive way as it reaches the limit of grip.
IGNITION MAPPING: Inside the engine, the amount of fuel delivered to the cylinder and the timing of the spark that detonates it can be altered, usually to change the balance of power versus economy. The software governing this balance is called the ignition map.
LADDER: An old-fashioned method of chassis construction used until the late 1950s, based on two parallel rails connected by crossbeams. In plan view, it resembles a ladder.
LAUNCH CONTROL: Currently illegal, this is a system that detects wheelspin when the car is accelerating from a standstill and cuts the power momentarily to counteract it, potentially giving the driver an advantage.
MONOCOQUE: A type of vehicle construction in which the outer skin is integral to the chassis and absorbs some of the loads acting on it.
OVERSTEER: This effect occurs when a car’s rear wheels lose adhesion first upon reaching the limit of its cornering grip, which forces the back of the car to slide outwards.
PLANK: This is literally a wooden plank that is attached to the bottom of a car. It is a low-tech but effective way to prevent teams from running their cars too low to the ground, which can be dangerous in wet conditions. The plank is checked for excess wear after a race.
SEMI-AUTOMATIC GEARBOX: A hybrid of automatic and manual gearshift, a semi-automatic gearbox is used to change ratio by means of a paddle-shift mounted behind the steering wheel. Contemporary F1 cars have eight forward gears.
SPACE FRAME: A type of chassis construction used until the 1960s, the space frame was based on aeronautical principles, using a network of thin tubes.
TRACTION CONTROL: Currently illegal, this system identifies wheelspin under acceleration from corners and briefly cuts the engine’s power.
TUB: The central section of a modern F1 chassis, the tub is the area in which the driver sits.
TURBOCHARGER: A type of pump driven by the exhaust gas, the turbocharger compresses air going into the engine to create a bigger bang.
UNDERSTEER: Understeering occurs when a vehicle’s front wheels lose grip first in a corner and the nose of the car begins to slide wide.
WIND TUNNEL: A wind tunnel is an airflow testing device in which the passage of air over a scale model of a car can be analyzed.