Needing as it does the support of the automotive industry for its very survival, motor racing has embraced fuel efficiency, hybrids and now electric vehicles. But what about that other major concern of the industry today – the driverless car? If the FIA were to open Formula One to driverless cars next year, what are the chances – disregarding the available development time, hypothetically speaking – that one of the top teams would field a car quicker over either a...
For the first time, truly, ever in Formula One, 2014 was all about efficiency – in the amount of fuel the 1.6 litre, turbocharged, direct injected engine consumes over a race, and efficiency of the vehicle aerodynamics. And yet, with the amount of fuel used being around 35% less than in 2013, the cars were just about as quick. Much of the saving, of course, was in the energy recovered under braking, energy that would have otherwise gone to waste in the form of heat out of the exhaust,...
When one thinks of aerodynamic testing, CFD, wind tunnel and track testing are the forms that most readily spring to mind. None of these are foolproof, however, and Formula One teams sometimes need to go to unusual lengths in order to validate data gathered using these methods. In one case, the Honda F1 team opted to use a water tank – more normally home to boat hulls – to test some characteristics of rear wing flows. The reason for this unusual choice was that data obtained...