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Formula 1 Basic
Formula 1 Steering Wheel
The driver has the ability to fine tune many elements of the race car from within the machine using the steering wheel. The wheel can be used to alter traction control settings, change gears, apply rev limiter, adjust fuel air mix, change brake pressure and call the radio. Data such as rpm, laptimes, speed and gear is displayed on an LCD screen. The wheel alone can cost about $40,000, and with carbon fibre construction, weighs in at 1.3 kilograms.
- Drink pump
- Dashboard menu: Increment
- Prepare/arm the launch control system. Also oil pump button when running
- Neutral gear request
- Tyre selection (dry, inter, wet)
- Alarm acknowledge
- Active diff control
- Active diff control
- Active diff control
- Active diff control
- Traction control
- Traction control
- Cut engine to turn it off
- Fuel mixtures. To save fuel or give more power.
- Pit lane speed limiter
- Active launch control system
- Dashboard menu: decrement
- Display brakebalance on dashboard
With the Bahrain Grand Prix in Manama as an example
Formula 1 will entered a new era at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2007, the teams were only be allowed to use eight-cylinder engines with a maximum cubic capacity of 2400cm3, which will produce about 200HP less than the ten-cylinder engines used last year. The goal is clear: increasing safety by reducing power.
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F1 ENGINE :
The new regulations will push the engines even further into the limelight in Formula 1. “A V8 spends much more time in the wide-open throttle range every lap than a V10,” explained Alex Hitzinger, Head of the Formula 1 project at WilliamsF1’s engine partner, Cosworth. “So the engine performance will become even more critical for the overall performance of the car.”
The loss of power is not causing the engineers any headaches. As in the past, it is estimated that every season they will probably regain 20 to 30 HP of the
roughly 200HP they have had to give up because of this reduction in engine capacity. However, it was much more difficult to reconcile the whole series of parameters that were specified for the new engines. For example, the minimum weight of 95kg combined with the other specification of the minimum height for the centre of gravity has meant that the V8 is much heavier than it actually needs to be. The engineers did the best they could and designed the engine much more rigidly, which has benefited the handling of the cars. Because they did not need to watch every single gram, they also made several static components like the cylinder block and the cylinder heads much more robust, and so increased the service life of the engines.
Because a V8 is much shorter than a V10 and by its nature also needs less cooling, it was possible to visably streamline the new car at the rear, which helped the aerodynamics.
New engine concepts are also in the pipeline for road car production. “The increase in fuel prices will be a major driving force in the next few years for the development of engine technology,” said Dr. Christoph Lauterwasser from the Allianz Centre for Tech-nology (AZT). On the one hand, that means low-consumption, efficient engines, which explains the continued trend towards diesel vehicles, whose engines are about 30% more efficient than comparable petrol engines.But, on the other hand, there is a grow-ing proportion of hybrid vehicles that combine a combustion engine with an electric engine and produce excellent fuel consumption and lower CO2 values. “The signify-cance of alternative fuels like natural gas and biofuels will increase all over the world,” said Lauterwasser. “If you also consider the tests on hydrogen vehicles and fuel cells, it’s easy to see that we are heading towards a new level of variety under the bonnet.”
In Formula 1, the engine capacity was reduced from 3.5 to 3 litres for safety reasons in 1995. However, that did not interrupt the power explosion, and to halt it further, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) then decided to impose more restrictions: for instance, in the 2004 season, each engine had to last a full grand prix weekend, and since 2005 it has only been permissible to use one engine for two racing weekends. Of course, all these rules are open to exceptions: with the permission of the FIA, the smaller teams will still be permitted to use ten-cylinder engines, but their engine speed must be limited to a maximum of 16,700rpm. The new engine concept will also affect the racing strategy of the teams, because at the end of the day a V8 at full power consumes about 15% less fuel than a V10. That will either shorten the distances that can be driven between pit stops or it will shorten the pit stops themselves, because the car does not need as much fuel as before. The strategists are already racking their brains. According to Hitzinger, “there will certainly be lots of changes in terms of the tactics.”
The new regulations have not changed the basic task of exploiting the rules as much as possible and so gaining a valuable advantage even before the season starts. “We set ourselves a target of a top engine speed of 20,000rpm,” said Alex Hitzinger, “and we’ve managed that.” The new engine for the Williams FW28 drove its first kilometres on the test stand on October 12, 2005, and the first test drives on the track were held just five weeks later. Despite the engineers’ love of detail, it was important to keep an eye on the bigger picture, such as delivering a compact, mechanical package to the aerodynamic engineers to leave them as much freedom as possible for their work.
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Mark Webber:
“On this track, the latest safety standards have been implemented beautifully. Especially in the run-off zones, which are designed so generously that a driver error doesn’t immediately lead to an accident. We will lose time, but we can carry on driving. Even if one of us makes a mistake in one of the fast sections, there is always enough space so you don’t immediately hit a wall. It was also a good idea to cover the areas to the left and right of the track with grass: that stops cars that are driving past from swirling sand and dust up on to the track.”
Two elements are crucial for the designers in the development of a new Formula 1 car: speed and safety. The engine, aerodynamics and tyres look after the speed, while the monocoque guarantees the safety of the driver in extreme situations. This carbon fibre safety cell is virtually indestructible and plays a key role in the safety of Formula 1.
The safety standards in top-class motor racing have improved at a breathtaking rate in recent years. The monocoque was invented by the legendary designer and Lotus team boss Colin Chapman , who inserted a riveted lightweight metal case instead of the classic tubular frame in his Lotus 25 in 1962. On the infinite safety scale, it has now reached a level that will be hard to surpass.
Similar to the monocoque in Formula 1, the robust cell in passenger cars represents the heart of passive safety. It too should be affected as little as possible in the case of serious accidents. “It is crucial that the doors can still be opened easily after an accident,” said Dr. Hartmuth Wolff from the Allianz Centre for Technology (AZT). “This stability is achieved with the selective use of high-strength steel in areas that require high rigidity: for example, in the pillars.” However, rigidity alone is not enough in the area of the passenger cell. “For ideal occupant safety, the deformation behaviour, the rigidity of the cell and the function of the restraint systems and the seats must be coordinated precisely with each other,” said Wolff.
In the Formula 1, the monocoque has become the most important component in the drivers’ overall safety package since McLaren first sent cars with a carbon fibre safety cell onto the starting grid in 1984.
The crash tests which have been stipulated by the FIA since 1985 guarantee the load capacity of the monocoque and the crash structure, and they have become more and more stringent over the years.
Since 1997, it has been obligatory for the rear structure as well as the side crash structures and the roll-over BAR to pass a crash test before every season. Here, again, the FIA is not satisfied with the standards already achieved and raised the level of the requirements a little higher before the 2006 season began by increasing the impact speed for the dynamic crash test of the rear area from 12 to 15 metres per second. That corresponds to an increase of 56 per cent in the impact energy on the rear crash structure, showing how much importance the FIA attaches to crash safety as reliable life insurance for the drivers.
The monocoques are made from carbon fibre, a composite material that is twice as strong as steel, but five times lighter. It consists of up to 12 layers of carbon fibre mats, in which each of the individual threads is five times thinner than a human hair. A honeycomb-shaped aluminium layer is inserted between these mats, which increases the rigidity of the monocoque even more. The whole shell is then heated under pressure in the autoclave, a giant oven. After two and a half hours, the shell is hardened, but still the baking procedure is repeated twice more.
As a result, the monocoques are strong enough to protect the drivers even in the most serious of accidents, like the one involving Giancarlo Fisichella at Silverstone in 1997. The evaluation of the black box showed that his Jordan slowed from 227km/h to zero in just 0.72 seconds, which corresponds mathematically to a fall from a height of 200 metres. Even so, the Italian only suffered a minor injury to his knee – thanks in part to the monocoque.
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