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F1
Technology |
 F1
Technology |
| Schematics of an F1 Car. |
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| The Air Jack When Formula 1 teams' engineers or mechanics want to work on one of the cars, how do they lift the front to a workable height? With a jack, of course. But, until recently, the only way of hoisting one up to the desired height (as opposed to propping it up a few centimetres to change wheels in a pity stop) was to corral a group of mechanics to do it by hand. That's where this device comes in. The air jack was designed and built in-house by Formula 1 teams' test team. With the car's nose removed a special frame - nicknamed the 'zimmer' - bolts onto the front suspension mountings. Then you wheel in the jack, attach it to the 100psi air line and turn the switch on the back. With a muted hiss the aluminium column rises, hooking the zimmer, and lifting the car to waist height. Lock a solid stand into the zimmer and it's ready to work on. There are another three air jacks in varying states of completion in a corner of the workshop, all lovingly fabricated in aluminium and stainless steel. |
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| Crash Tests Over the last years Formula 1 has become a much safer sport thanks to the strict FIA safety regulations including crash tests. The F1 teams have conducted their own research into development of safety structures, and fortunately, many of the findings filter their way down to road car manufacturers. There are five statutory impact tests: these are tests on the front, side, rear, steering column and gearbox of a new Formula 1 car. The Frontal Impact test on the nosecone of the Formula 1 car chassis was one of the first tests to be carried out. The Formula 1 regulations on loads during impact are very strict and state that the average deceleration of the trolley carrying the chassis towards the wall during the test should not be more than 40g and the peak deceleration in the chest of the dummy should not exceed 60g for more than three milliseconds. Also for the first 15 centimetres of deformation, the nosecone must not exceed an average deceleration of more than 5g. The test took place at the Formula 1 teams' Research Laboratory. The F1 car was bolted to a sled, and the "passenger", a dummy designed to mimic human physical characteristics such as size, shape, mass (75kg), stiffness and energy dissipation. The chassis' tank was filled with water to represent the fuel-load. The nosecone was freshly painted in turquoise to ensure it stands out for the high-speed cameras recording the test at 2000 frames per second. Accelerated by a dropping weight the sled traveled at a speed of 14 metres per second. The entire impact sequences took less than a quarter of a second. When the damage was assessed it was obvious that the nosecone was square-ended and imploded but that lots of crumple zone had been left. The feet of the dummy were not touched at all. |
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Diffusor The function of the rear diffusor on Formula 1 cars appear to be fairly
simple at first glance, but it nevertheless has a crucial effect on
the car's entire aerodynamic efficiency. Apart from that, strict regulations
apply to its dimensions. One of the most important tasks of the aerodynamics
engineers is to optimise the air flow underneath the car. The faster
the air flows, the lower is the pressure under the car. This creates
a suction effect that pulls the car towards the road - an effect called
downforce. This downforce is attributable to a significant extent to
the diffusor which ensures, as the name would imply, that the air from
underneath the car is diverted as quickly and effectively as possible. |
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| Electronic Control Unit The electronic control unit (ECU) might only be the size of a book, but it acts as the brain of a Formula 1 grand prix car. On the car there are a lot of sensors and processors producing data during tests, practices and races. The electronic system has to take all this information in and then process it in order to control different parts of the car. It controls the engine, the gearbox, the throttle-by-wire, the clutch and the differential. As far as the engine is concerned it drives the primary actuators, i.e. the ignition coils which make the sparks, the injectors which supply the fuel and the pneumatic valve actuation. On the chassis it controls the actuators for the throttle, gearbox and clutch. The ECU also logs information and sends it to the garage over the high-speed telemtry link. The system has to cope with two million words of data every second - then process and display it in a form that enables the race engineers to digest the information. This process must be quick enough to provide the quality of information that allows proper decisions to be made. On a high revving Formula One engine, the process of calculating how much fuel to put in and when to ignite the spark is performed 1500 times per second. Making an electronics unit that can deal with all this is not a simple task. If you take an ECU, there are roughly 3000 components including several extremely powerful microprocessors and logging memory which can store over 30 million values that come from 50 sensors all over the car. The black box has to be small, because there is not much spare space in the car's tub. And they have to be 100 percent reliable as well. |
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| Gearbox At the Monte Carlo circuit, Formula One drivers have to change gears more often than in the Hungaroring circuit. The gearbox constitutes one of the three key areas in the make-up of a grand prix car, besides the chassis and the engine. Gearbox technology has changed dramatically in the last decade thanks to the advent of sophisticated electronics. One-two-three-four-five-six-seven - Formula 1 drivers can change gears quicker than you can count the ratios. The Formula 1 teams take the design, build, development and tenance of the gearboxes very seriously. In the teams' gearbox shop, visitors are greeted by a neat line-up of workbenches, each home too a magnesium alloy gearbox casing into which the vital internals will be added. The rigorous attention to detail employed by the gearbox technicians means that, at a moment's notice, they know the exact mileage of any of the thousands of internal parts used for testing and racing, whether it be bevel gears, pinion shafts or change gears. The nine technicians working in the gearbox team record every 100 metres of use. They use machines that subject the gears to magnetic crack testing, they can even check the accuracy of the meshing between cogs. In the gearbox shop, they produce 1,500 sets every year. There is a constant cycle of activity, helping to ensure that, for every split-second gear change made by the drivers while at wheel, superior performance and reliability are tained. There are many different factors which have to be perfectly adjusted to each other so that a Formula 1 car can go fast on the racetrack. The gearbox is one of them. Unlike conventional cars, which generally are equipped with a four-speed or five-speed gearbox, Formula 1 cars have sequential gearboxes that are situated lengthways and have six or seven forward gears. Moreover, they are legally required to have a reverse gear. The gears can be changed manually by the driver or alternatively by the board computer. During the start, gears are always changed automatically thanks to the launch control. Nonetheless, Formula 1 cars do not have an automatic transmission but a change speed gear -gears can be changed either by the driver or by the board computer. Gears are shifted by a hydraulic system activated via an electronic signal. Engineers find it extremely important that changing to higher gears(during an accelerating phase) does not take too much time(propulsion is to be interrupted only as briefly as possible).During the changing to lower gears, time is only of secondary importance. It is important to know that the clutch (which has the size of a saucer) is always applied by the computer, the latter is also responsible for measuring out the necessary double-declutch when changing to lower gears. The grading of the gearbox is also dependent on the character of the layout of every respective circuit. For example, at Monte Carlo, where the top speed is about 300 km/h, the highest gear must not be as long as at Monza where roughly 360 km/h can be reached. Due to the insights gathered last year or during test drives and due to the results of the simulation work done at the factories, teams nowadays travel to world championship races with optimally graded gearboxes. It has now become extremely rare that individual gears turn out to be too short or too long during the first practice. Until the 1980’s this used to be a frequent problem. During the current season, such a case has only occurred once. |
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| The Paint Shop The livery of a Formula One car is the first thing that most people notice, and the last thing they forget. That's why it's so important for Formula 1 teams to get it right. To turn a hulk of carbonfibre into a work of art is no easy task and a job that requires true talent. The teams have a full-time airbrush artist who produces the fogging effect on the cars and is responsible for all of the airbrushing in the company. A full-size fibreglass model is used as a template for the artwork to be carried out on every car during the season. Every logo has been painstakingly applied to ensure it complies with the Partners' contractual agreements. The overall design of the car is worked out alongside Graphics department to make sure it portrays the correct team image. Each part of the model is interchangeable with the carbonfibre parts used in the race cars so that the paint lines can be matched up accordingly. Before any carbonfibre parts are worked on, they are blasted in the dry sanding department to prepare them for the first coat of primer. Once this has been applied, the areas which need base coats and airbrushing are marked out using templates - this includes the day-glo red ticks and any of the areas where the paint has a blended or fogging effect - and the part is attached to the model ready to be painted. After the airbrushing is completed, the part is finished off with two coats of clear lacquer. The Partner logo stickers are then applied. Each logo is cut out of a cast-vinyl material with a computer plotting machine. The Paint Shop team are constantly aware of the weight deficit caused by using stickers or by using too much paint, and how the stickers can affect the aerodynamics if there are any sharp edges left over. Applying the stickers is such a time-consuming task that jobs are always shared in the Paint Shop. Everyone of the six full-time painters is capable of doing every job. So, the painter who sprays a certain part is also responsible for applying the stickers to that part. |
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| Safety Harness
Many years of scientific research and testing have gone into developing
the F1 Teams' safety harness to make it as effective as possible, and
yet compliant with strict FIA safety regulations. There is a lot more
to this simple-looking harness than first meets the eye. Unlike normal
road cars, Formula One cars must be fitted with a six-point safety harness
which comprises the following: two wide shoulder straps that retain
the upper portion of the body, two lap straps that pass across the front
of the wearer's pelvic region, and two crotch straps. All elements meet
together in six reassuring clicks inside the rotary quick-release buckle.
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| Tyre Change
The Formula 1 teams' mechanics are able to change the tyres during
a pit stop (without refuelling) in some six seconds; this lightning-speed
service, which often has consequences for the outcome of the race, requires
painstaking preparations.These preparations begin with team engineers
scrupulously checking the tyres which tyre partner Bridgestone has mounted
on the rims being made available by the team. Since only a limited number
of tyres is available to a driver per event - 12 dry-weather tyres for
the Friday, 28 tyres for qualifying and the race and 28 wet-weather
tyres - and since these tyres are allocated to individual drivers, no
mistakes must be made in tyre allocation as otherwise the driver concerned
could be disqualified. |
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| Warm Up The warm-up is a fixed item on the agenda of every Formula One race. The last thirty-minute practice session before a Grand Prix race is called warm-up because it originally served the purpose of warming up the engines before the race. Like a track-and-field athlete who warms up his or her muscles before a competition by means of stretching and other exercises, the ten-cylinder is well prepared before it rolls out to generate top performance. The task of warming-up is performed by a small, special heater on wheels. It's something like a giant teapot that is connected to a small central heating unit. The tank of the "oil-and-water pre-heater" has a capacity of 10 litres of water - precisely the quantity that is required to warm-up the Formula 1 cars' ten-cylinder. The water is filled into the system, vented and heated to the optimum operating temperature of 85°C. The heating unit is connected to the engine before the water is being pumped under pressure (to prevent air bubbles from sneaking their way into the circuit) into the engine's cooling system where it circulates for about an hour while being continued to be heated. In the process, the engine oil is also warmed up. The time required for warming-up depends on the venue of the race. In the heat of Malaysia, the engine reaches operating temperature in less than 30 minutes. In Austria, where temperatures can be rather cool even in summer, it has taken up to one hour in poor weather. |
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| An F1 Car capabilities Generally, a Formula 1 car is capable of performances of: 0-60mph / 0 - 96kph 2.3 seconds. 0-100mph / 0 - 160kph 3.6 seconds. 0-100-0mph / 0 -160 - 0kph 6.6 seconds and can decelerate from 185mph to a standstill in 3.5 seconds. The Formula 1 teams compete with a car that typically handles 2,500
gearchanges during a race. This figure varies from circuit to circuit.
The teams consumed 60,000 litres of unleaded fuel for track work during
the 2001 season. The teams' generated 36.8 gigabytes of data during
all race meetings and 63.9 gigabytes of data at all tests in the 2001
season. This equates to about 30 full CDs' worth of data. A Formula
1 team completed approximately 22,500 kilometres when racing in 2001,
including Practice, Qualifying, and Races.
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| Bi-Directional Telemetry system
Bi-Directional Telemetry has seen a new beginning since its re-birth this season in Formula 1. So, what are the details and schematics behind bi-directional telemetry system, in essence, telemetry relates to the automatic measurement and transmission of data by wire, radio, or other means from a remote source. In Formula One this data includes vital information about engine performance, aerodynamic efficiency, oil pressure, tyre grip and brake wear, as well as numerous measurements taken from the car, about the driver's progression on the track. This data is collected by the Formula 1 cars' on-board computer from almost 200 separate sensors on the car, and then transmitted, using microwave technology, to the engineers in the pit lane. The data is then compiled and processed simultaneously on the engineers' notebooks and the rack of servers in the pit garage. This process requires the most advanced processors and specially created software, the computers translate the data into a numerical and graphical form that the team can interpret. If you've seen engineers in the pit lane examining screens with a list of numbers on them, or what looks like numerous seismic readouts layered over each other, then you've seen telemetry data. Once assembled, the readouts supply the engineers with an accurate, real-time picture of how the drivers and cars are performing. By using this system the Formula 1 cars' can be tracked around the
circuit and team will have multiple pages covering everything from the
driver to the hydraulics, the steering angle into the corner, drivers'
lifting off the throttle and almost every aspects of the cars' performance. Bi-directional telemetry provides a two-way transfer of information: so it not only provides the same statistical information as one-way telemetry, it also lets the engineers make modifications to the car. The return communication to the car's computer can include instructions to alter up to 40 separate components or systems, such as fuel mixture, gear-change timing and oil pressure - although it can't change core elements of the car, like steering, brakes or throttle. By utilizing different control systems, engineers make modifications to the parameters to keep the systems in an optimum running shape and incorporate changes if a problem arises. From a driver's perspective, the innovation will offer a number of improvements. Most importantly, the ability to optimise the car's parameters will mean that the drivers have a more efficient car in which to perform. In addition, the fact that the engineers can make any adjustments results in less distraction for the driver in the cockpit. The driver will simply be warned of any changes via a display on his steering wheel, and he will be required to press a button in acknowledgement. For drivers, bi-directional can prove a major help when it comes to minor or in some cases, major adjustments to the Formula 1 car on track. An example of the bi-directional telemetry in full-effect, at the recent Monaco GP, McLaren team pit engineers solved David Coulthard apparent mechanical problems with the use of bi-directional telemetry. With the processing strength of some 30-40 computers, team engineers study every minute detail of the car and make the decision to protect the MP4-17 engine's reliability for the remainder of the hard and long battle. Previously, Formula 1 cars were pre-set, but with the technological
advancement you can modify elements like the traction control, the differential
and balance of the car. It's going to make it very interesting, as the
teams start to explore a new frontier and new things never seen before
in Formula One. |
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