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TheLeading-Edge leading motorsport Motorsport technology Technology publication Since 1990 since 1990 Formula 1 2017 • Digital edition • www.racecar-engineering.com Formula 1 2017 www.windform.com [email protected] www.crp-group.com www.crp-usa.net ADV-WF-F1-210x297-feb2017.indd 1 20/02/2017 10:15:11 CONTENTS/COMMENT Racing improves the breed one, it seems, are the days when is a danger that the skill will be lost if the cars engineering excellence delivered continue down this current path. CONTENTS an outstanding result. Decisions Maybe I don’t need to worry. F1’s in good 4 THE DANGER FACTOR Gtoday seem to be based on hands, and I hope that the technical regulations Peter Wright assesses the analysis of fairness and equality. Racing is no longer simply are opened up suffi ciently under the new risk in modern Formula 1 racing about winning; today’s decisions are based on management to allow technical innovation. Ross encouraging more competitors, and therefore Brawn’s most recent title was thanks to a clever 6 F1 TEST UPDATE more money. The new Formula 1 regulations for double diff user, and throughout the history of F1, The Barcelona tests showed the cars 2017 appear to bear this out. In an interview with engineers have been free to experiment. to be as quick as expected, but also Racecar Engineering (October 2016, V26N10), Max One thing that is clearly lacking in F1 at very sensitive to set-up changes Mosley admitted that the reason for hybridisation the moment is the need for the drivers to look 10 CFD ANALYSIS of F1 was to give the manufacturers more after the car during a race. The tyres are harder, F1 has piled on more downforce, corporate responsibility for their racing. It has and Pirelli expects there to be fewer pit stops. but does this mean less overtaking? nothing to do with improving the competition. Arguably this puts more emphasis on overtaking 18 MERCEDES POWER UNIT Today’s new regulations similarly have on the track, but we have seen that these facts The rumour is that the Merc PU nothing to do with improving the racing; the don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand. A return to now runs with over 50 per cent wider, more aggressive stance was designed to steel brakes would be better, or a reduction in effi ciency. Peter Wright investigates increase the audience wow factor, while also brake cooling would help to increase the braking requiring more of the driver. However, it seems distances, the latter also encouraging a little bit 24 NEW ENGINE RULES to be that the Formula 1 cars, and incidentally of mechanical sympathy. At least there is the Do the 2017 Formula 1 power unit the WEC cars, are more about safe and effi cient issue at some circuits of needing to conserve fuel, regulations really allow for technical delivery of power than cornering. although this has already been compensated for innovation and closer competition? The drivers are actually less relevant now in the new regulations with a larger fuel tank. 30 F1 FUELS than they were in the past, when there was no I hope that the new season goes well in We take a look at the hi-tech blends downforce and a need to be able to execute more F1, that the issues highlighted in this edition, that power modern Formula 1 cars racecraft. That is not to say that the current crop brought together from our coverage in previous 37 TECH DISCUSSION of drivers don’t have that racecraft, but there magazines, don’t hold completely true, and that Is Formula 1’s aero approach the competition will be as fi erce as ever. This is based on fl awed thinking? the start of a new era, with new ownership, a new helmsman, and a wealth of opportunities. 40 PETER WRIGHT Racecar’s technical consultant ANDREW COTTON considers the best way to fi x F1’s Editor, Racecar Engineering problem of a lack of overtaking Cars have bulked up for the 2017 Formula 1 season, but will that improve the racing, or just lead to drivers needing to do the same? FORMULA 1 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 3 WRITE LINE – PETER WRIGHT Calculating risk Is Formula 1 forgetting the fundamentals when it comes to risk management? otorsport is dangerous – it says so on the pressures, and the nature of the competition. At any licence requires it. To try and unify risk in all forms ticket. It always has been and always will time they combine to form a set of rules that define of motorsport would result in closed-wheel, closed- Mbe, just as descending stairs is dangerous. and limit the risks. Those who participate in the cockpit cars on circuits, and would eliminate karting, It’s an activity which is right up there as a cause of sport, as opposed to watching it, know what these rallying, and single-seaters. Nobody wants that. accidental death with pedestrian road accidents, risks are and accept them. They volunteer to expose drugs and alcohol. Or, to put it another way, themselves to these risks and can always walk away Acceptable risks motorsport is remarkably safe; if you are going to if they believe they are unacceptable. What is an acceptable risk has changed with time. have a high-speed crash in a car, make sure it is in a Experience and technology have been applied If we take the highest class of racing, initially road- racing car. But this was not always the case. by the motorsport industry to steadily reduce the racing, then grands prix, and now F1, in the early The early races, city-to-city contests, had only risks, but occasionally social pressures intervene days the driver and his unfortunate mechanic sat on been going a few years before nine fatalities during and demand a further reduction in risk. Examples top of the car with little protection. In an accident the Paris-Madrid caused the French government include: 1907 Paris-Madrid; 1955 Le Mans, and 1994 they were usually thrown clear and hoped the car to halt the race in Bordeaux and ban all open road Senna and Ratzenberger at Imola. didn’t land on top of them. Even after the occupants racing. Governments do not want to have to control were lowered and surrounded by bodywork in any sport, let alone motorsport, and will only step in Risk factors the interests of performance, being thrown clear if sporting fairness or safety is compromised; instead Influencing this steady evolution of risk is the nature was the preferred option. Anything that inhibited they look for sanctioning bodies capable of doing of the competition. Leaving bikes aside, the four the driver escaping from a car that was on fire was the job properly. In international motorsport, that main categories of wheeled motorsport are: Karts; rejected. In the late ’60s, aided and abetted by organisation is the FIA, with its affiliated member open-wheel, open-cockpit, single-seaters; closed- Jackie Stewart, F1 drivers started to not accept the clubs acting as the national sanctioning bodies. wheel, closed-cockpit circuit cars, and closed-wheel, unnecessary risks involved. Over the next decade, closed-cockpit rally and cross-country cars. standards were established to completely change Explosive issue They do not have identical safety risks, so why the philosophy of protecting a driver in an accident. High on the agenda of anybody responsible for is that tolerated? Neither do they have the same This resulted in the cockpit becoming a survival any form of motorsport is safety. The sport is still risk as racing motorbikes, downhill skiing, base space, particularly by the installation of a roll over inherently dangerous, because of the level of energy jumping, cross-country horse eventing, scuba hoop. Also, the driver was restrained in this survival embodied in a high-speed car, the use of flammable diving, or flying home-built aircraft. space using a full harness, he wore fire protection fuels, high voltages in electrical energy stores, and They are all different, they all involve different clothing, and fuel tanks were fitted with bladders. the number of people involved in the running of risks, and participants understand and accept the Alongside these fundamental changes to the sport. The nature of the contest requires this risks, or at least they should do so, as their racing driver protection, changes to the race circuits, the concentrated energy to be conducted by a human at the limit of control – the kinetic energy of an The kinetic energy of an LMP1 racecar at LMP1 car at maximum speed is equivalent to over 1kg of TNT; while the full fuel tank is over 0.5 tonnes maximum speed is equivalent to 1kg of TNT of TNT. And accidents will happen. The job of the sanctioning body is to keep any sudden release of this energy away from humans. Track workers and spectators must be protected by the circuit layout and design, but officials, teams, marshals, and drivers are inevitably likely to be exposed. This is where the management of risk becomes necessary. Motorsport cannot be 100 per cent safe; there are always risks and they need to be understood and managed. The instruments by which these risks are managed are the Sporting and Technical Regulations. The way the drivers, officials, marshals, teams and all engineers involved conduct themselves are laid down here. Also set out are how they will be policed and the sanctions for non-compliance. These regulations have been developed over more than 100 years, with variations for all the different forms of motorsport from bikes, to trucks, to dragsters, to rally cars, and to F1.