F1 Technology, does anyone really care?

Jim White · Joined: 21 Jul 2001 Posts: 994

I love it when the driver goes out and knocks a barge board or a winglet off. Then proceeds to pound out laps as fast or faster than before the incident. Very Happy

Adrian Baran · Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 2:04 pm Post subject:

Barry Hastings · Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:11 pm Post subject:

What i do think is interesting is the mapping of the engines with the blown diffuser and the airflow thru the engine when "off throttle" and then adding fuel to the exhaust stroke to keep the exhaust gas speed up to not stall the diffuser. When the FIA wanted to change the maps, the teams complained and started having reliability issues because some of the odd mapping for the blown diffuser did help with cooling, which let the teams run smaller radiators.

Way back when A.N. was at Mclaren, he did a blown diffuser on one of those cars, where the exhaust came out of a slot all along the exit of the diffuser, VERY different exhaust note. Even more effective than what they had 2 years ago, BUT the engine mapping at that time didnt flow enough exhaust gas off throttle to make it viable. reduce throttle mid corner and OOPS there goes the aero balance.

The progression of technology is very interesting with those cars. Every time the FIA slows them down, the teams do everything to claw that performance back. mandating Flat bottom cars led to the active cars, cant run variable intake trumpets look to software to make things work, in the precise control of the air fuel mixture.

Jason Bane · Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:03 pm Post subject:

Best part of F1 by far is the technology...........http://www.f1technical.net/.......<-------porn for me........

Chris Hurst · Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:17 pm Post subject:

It's funny to think of all of this knowing that the cars could probably be reaching 250+mph now, but won't because of insurance purposes. I heard in NASCAR once they crack 200mph it is considered an airplane from the standpoint of the insurance companies or something like that.

Racing is about competition, the technology is only a relevant to a point. Personally I think theres too much tech in the cars now and I would enjoy the sport more if they focused more on the driving than the technology. It is what it is though. Necessary evil.

Would love to see the cars doing 300mph down the straights though. Hell there are road cars now that will do 283mph in a standing mile.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/what-can-am-could-have-been

Chris Livengood · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 5:37 am Post subject:

While the exhaust blown diffuser is interesting, it is a rehash of 1980's technology. The maximization of their fuel curves to better blow the diffuser is just another useless adaptation to the rules.
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Barry Hastings · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:53 am Post subject:

But then couldn't you say that having 4 wheels spaced the way they are is a rehash of 1900s technology? The only truly innovative racing car lately has been the delta wing. even then you could draw a comparison to the Williams' 6 wheel car, in get the front wheels out of the air... as a goal at least.

Chaparral J2 let the Genie out of the bottle of low pressure under the car makes the cars corner faster. and the rules ever sense then has been to limit the innovation of the racers to find a way to get back to that.

weather or not its interesting or one cares or not, is a matter of opinion.

Chris Livengood · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:20 am Post subject:

No, the point is that the rules have come to a point where the engineers are creating non-transferable technologies. It's not too hard to argue that LeMans has remained pretty relevant from a engineering standpoint. The Audi, Peugeots, and now the Toyota are all at the cutting edge, but its easy to see that there is some movement of technology between the race cars and the road cars. F1 tire technology probably provides tire engineers with some useful information, so did carbon brake development. Blown diffusers with fuel maps modified to pump the diffuser while the car is barely moving has zero impact on the road car world.
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Barry Hastings · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:24 am Post subject:

I can agree with that. That is also why a lot of manufacturers have left Formula 1. The future turbo engines is a reason Honda is toying with getting back in...

Barry Hastings · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:27 am Post subject:

I really believe that if formula one KERS was not limited to the extent it is, there would be more interest. Removes the limits of storage capacity use and power output, there could be some really interesting gains in "hybrid" technology.

Chris Livengood · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:32 am Post subject:

Adrian Baran · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:39 am Post subject:

Might as well open up the rules where anything is fair game. That's where the creativity and inovation comes. Right now they're doing quite an amazing job with the restrictions they have so one can only imagine what would come from more freedom.
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joseph hollinger · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:59 am Post subject:

You could, but then all the manufactures would leave. No one wants to race two cycles or turbines or whatever else open rules would eventually require but that have no relation to road cars whatsoever.

I sort of like the idea of specing the motor and leaving the KERS open for development. You might produce some useful technology out of that.
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Tim Doll · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 10:59 am Post subject:

Brian Mead · Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:32 am Post subject:

+1 on throwing out the aero stuff. The amount of money spent on wind tunnels, the people to run the wind tunnels, the parts made from the wind tunnels, the track testing to prove the wind tunnel is correct is stupid. And as stated, it can't be used anywhere else. It goes back to the original point of it just being meaningless. Aero in karting to me didn't help at all. For years the top of the karting ladder was the enduros. Then the laydowns started putting on plastic, and things changed I think. Mounting the bodies, the nose angles for downforce, the bottoms, it added alot of time, effort, and money and need for aero knowledge that the average shleb (me) just didnt't have. Would have loved to run places like Ontario with a open Komet. Had to be fun. Put the money saved by on aero stuff for a decent almost affordable feeder series.