FORMULA ONE CAR

The car is the most important thing in Formula One. As in 2012, we have 12
teams each fielding two cars, although there have been talks in the past about a
third car for each team and customer cars. As Formula One has grown older, the
cars have closely represented aircrafts more than normal road cars. Formula One
has taken secrets from the aircraft industry and aircrafts have also benefited
from cutting edge technology and innovations common in Formula One.
Engineers of different teams fight it out for that hundredth of a second which will
give their cars that little advantage so that they can move further up the field
and earn championship points.
Each part of the car is an example of on the edge engineering and innovations
which continue to happen. The cars have to follow the FIA technical regulations
but the engineers find loopholes in the rules and exploit them to the limit and
this creates a cat and mouse game where the FIA tries to put some limitations on
the clever and innovative ideas but the engineers dont lose hope and try to find
the lost performance from somewhere else.
A car basically consists of front and rear wings, a monocoque chassis and some
body parts such as the rear-view mirrors, the on board cameras, the antenna and
so on. On the other hand, the powertrain consists of an engine, a 7-speed + rear
gearbox, a transmission, drive shafts, differential and the final drive which
consists of the wheels and the suspension.
ENGINE
The engine is either made by the team if it is a manufacturer or taken from
another team/company if it is a customer. The engines have become less
powerful over the years. The V12s were experienced even till the late 80s but
now we have the naturally aspirated 2.4 L V8s producing 18000 rpm and capable
of reaching speeds in excess of 200mph on some tracks. In 2014, the engines
will undergo a significant change when the sport switches to 1.6 L turbocharged
V6 engines. Too much of developments have not been made regarding the
engines because of the engine freeze imposed by the FIA a few years earlier.
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TRANSMISSION
Todays F1 gearbox is a semi-automatic sequential 7-speed + reverse one. The
operation of gear and clutch by a driver is quite different to a normal road car. To
change gears, the driver operates the paddles situated behind the steering
wheel. The clutch is electro-hydraulically operated except in case of starting from
a standstill only in this case, the driver has to engage the clutch with the help
of a lever mounted at the back of the steering wheel. Fully automatic gearboxes
and aids such as launch control and traction control have been banned to make
the drivers skills important. A ban on significant number of electronic systems
came after the 1993 Formula One season when the Williams F1 team built the

FW15C, considered to be the most technologically advanced car ever built, which
had all sorts of electronic aids and the drivers role was hugely reduced as the
car behaved like an intelligent computer and knew exactly what to do when.
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SUSPENSION
The suspension plays an important part in combining the power of the engine,
the effects of the wings and grips of tyres and produces the performance of the
beast that a Formula 1 car is. It consists of a double wishbone structure near all
the four wheels. The suspensions in Formula One have been basically of two
kinds- the pull-rod and the push-rod type. The advantage of the pull rod type
over the push rod one is it lowers the cars centre of gravity and also helps in the
aerodynamics of the car but its stiff angle negates any weight gain, and in fact it
is heavier than its counterpart. In recent years, the teams have adopted push-rod
suspensions on both the front and the rear but Ferrari have adopted pull-rod type
on both the front and the rear of their radical F2012 this year, last seen on the
Minardi in 2001. Some important innovations were made on the suspension front
the most important being the active suspension system. This system used
hydraulics in place of springs to maintain the height of the car above the ground
constant however bumpy the surface may be. This immensely improved the
cornering, braking, acceleration of the car as well as improved the handling and
balance of the car immensely.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BRAKES
Braking is one of the most essential parts of an F1 car. The cars nowadays use
carbon disc brakes which can operate at temperatures as high as 1000 degrees
Celsius. Having the stability while braking, and good entry into corners is very
important for healthy lap times, especially qualifying. One of the most important
innovations in this area has been the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS),
which was first used in 2009. This system captures the energy lost during
braking and uses a mechanical flywheel to regenerate the energy and the driver
can use this extra energy whenever he wants to, during a lap. The KERS is only
recharged at the start of every lap and the driver has to decide when to use it
and when not to.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TYRES
Tyres are equally as important as any other aspect of the car. After having
grooved tyres for most of the last decade, slick tyres were reintroduced in 2009,
but the wet weather tyres continue to be grooved. During the previous years,
more than one tyre supplier supplied tires to the grid and it was an exciting
battle between tyre suppliers as the differences in performances spiced up the
races. But from 2007 onwards, Formula 1 has had a lone supplier Bridgestone
was the only one from 2007 to 2010 and Pirelli took over in 2011. Pirellis

heavily-degrading tyres compared to those supplied by Bridgestone improved

the spectacle of racing a lot during last year because tyre strategies proved
crucial in deciding the outcomes of races, at least early on in the season. Pirelli
are supplying six different compounds of tyres this year Hard (P Zero Silver),
Medium (P Zero White), Soft (P Zero Yellow), Super Soft (P Zero Red),
Intermediate (Cinturato Green), Wet (Cinturato Blue). It is essential to use both
dry compounds assigned for a race during a dry race but this rule is not followed
in case of wet races.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AERODYNAMICS
Aerodynamics has played an increasingly important role in Formula One over the
years but it has become the most important area for innovation in recent years.
The basic function of aerodynamics in Formula One is in the exact opposite way
to an aircraft by creating a negative lift or downforce and hence sucking it to
the ground. This improves the handling of the cars through corners and helps
improve laptimes. The main compromise that aerodynamicists have to deal with
is increasing downforce while reducing drag as very high downforce can produce
a lot of drag.
Ground Effect
Aerodynamics was made a dominant force in F1 initially by Colin Chapmans
Ground Effect cars. Chapmans Lotus cars undersides formed a duct which
accelerated the air underneath the car hence lowering the pressure below the
car and increasing the amount of downforce created. Also, Chapman used side
skirts, in the shape of inverted aerofoils, to seal the sidepods to the ground.
This prevented the air coming under the car from the sides and hence the
airflow beneath the car was not disturbed and this helped in maintaining the
achieved downforce. Ground effects have now been banned in F1 by
introducing skid blocks.
Diffuser
Now, the teams are using diffusers at the rear of the car to produce a similar
effect to that which Chapman was able to produce. Teams have gone even
further in this direction when they used the double diffuser which increased
the downforce by accelerating the air beneath the car, hence lowering the
pressure. It was pioneered by Brawn GP in 2009. Then came the exhaust
blown diffuser pioneered by Red Bull. The exhaust outlets were positioned
close to the floor of the car at the rear and the hot exhaust gases were blown
into the diffuser. As the diffuser sucked in air from beneath the car, the
exhaust gases got bent and created extra downforce. The gases also helped in
preventing any outside air from entering the diffuser. Both of these concepts
helped the teams who pioneered them, to run away from the chasing pack
initially before the others copied them.
Front Wing
The front wing is basically an inverted aircraft wing, hence it causes slower air
to run over the top and faster air to flow underneath thus creating negative
lift. In older days, the front wing use to be suspended from stilts which were

directly attached to the suspensions. This was deemed dangerous and now the
front wings are fitted to the chassis with the help of vertical pillars. The front
wing has been a subject of a large number of experiments especially
concerning the endplates and the steps on the front wing.
W-Duct
One of the recent innovations regarding the front wings has been the W
Duct. There is a hole at the tip of the nose through which air enters.
Depending on whether the car is on a straight, a left hand corner or a right
hand corner, the bar air inlet angle detects the direction of entry of air and
directs it to the proper ducts and output diffusers accordingly. On straights,
the ducts output accelerated air over the front wing and decrease the
downforce. While cornering, the corresponding ducts output the
accelerated air below the front wing thus increasing the downforce and
levelling that side of the wing in which the car is turning.
Rear Wing
Another crucial aerodynamic part of the car is the rear wing. It consists of two
parts which have a gap in between. In 2009, the look of the cars underwent a
major overhaul when the front wings were made larger and the rear wings
smaller and taller for aerodynamic benefit. Another significant change to the
rear wings function was done in 2011 by introducing the Drag Reduction
System (DRS).

Drag Reduction System

By pressing a button the drivers can open the upper plane of the rear wing
and this reduces drag and increases the straight line speed significantly.
This was introduced to aid overtaking by allowing the driver behind in a
battle to operate his DRS and gain more speed than his opponent. DRS
can be used anytime and anywhere during Practice and Qualifying
sessions but only in specified areas on the tracks during a race; but use of
DRS is prohibited during wet races because of safety concern.
F-Duct
The F-Duct was pioneered by McLaren. The drivers were required to block
a hole in the cockpit with their left knee which directed the airflow over the
rear wing and caused it to stall. This caused a decrease in drag and hence
an increase in straight line speed. Mercedes have gone even further with
this concept to combine F-Duct with DRS to achieve even higher straight
line speeds. What they have done is create slots in the endplates of the
rear wing for entry of air and then redirecting the air through the empty
lower plane and out of the central section of the wing and cause stalling of
the wing. This system is supposed to be even linked to the front wing to
cause a similar effect at the front.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CHASSIS

The chassis is completely made of carbon fibre composite. The chassis is

designed in such a way that the direction of the movement of the air is the best
possible so as to achieve the optimum aerodynamic effect. The maximum height
of the chassis in front of the drivers cockpit was 625 mm before this year but the
rules this year state that it has to fall to 550 mm within a span of 150 mm at a
distance of 1950 mm from of the cockpit. Most of the teams have adopted a
stepped nose design to make the chassis near the cockpit as high as possible to
aid in aerodynamics. Another use of the chassis to help aerodynamics was made
by Ferrari in 2008 they had a hole on the underside of the nose of the car and
the air was sent out through a gap on the top surface of the nose. The turning
vanes below the nose direct the air underneath the car properly. The
bargeboards at the sides of the chassis situated between the front wheels and
the sidepods help in directing relatively clean air into the sidepods. The sidepods
main function is to house the radiators and the exhaust outlets at the rear. Till
the end of 2009, its function was to also house the inlet for the fuel hose. The roll
hoop above the cockpit inlets air for cooling both the engine and the gearbox.
Above the roll hoop is mounted the on board camera. This provides a mounting
point for aerodynamic devices used by teams during testing to gather data. The
coke bottle region at the rear is configured for maximum aerodynamic benefit by
controlling the flow of air through the region.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Formula 1 car is the most technologically advanced car in the world, with
cutting edge technological research going on all the time to eke out that extra
fraction of a second so that the performance of the car improves on track.
Engineers are working day and night to obtain better correlation between data
received on track and in the wind tunnel and computers. Advanced materials are
also being used to manufacture the cars. All this and the very high safety
standards in Formula 1 are contributing in a big way towards other forms of
motorsports as well as the automotive industry.