At first glance, wheels may appear to be a fairly simple component, but in Formula One they are in fact highly optimised aerodynamic devices. The airflow through a wheel can have a considerable impact on the overall aerodynamic performance of a car, and is the subject of intense development by teams. Although the FIA has tried to regulate out such developments, teams are constantly finding ways to circumvent the rules to gain improved performance. So what systems have been devised to eke...
Software plays a major role these days in defining the Formula One racecar, providing engineers with the primary tools for designing and manufacturing the vehicles. Thanks to its highly competitive culture and substantial budgets, Formula One has always been at the leading edge of software technology, embracing the latest software tools in pursuit of every performance advantage. These range from weight reduction and improved aerodynamic efficiency to decreased development and manufacturing...
For all the focus on developing a Formula One car to improve performance, relatively little is done to improve the driver’s physical conditions when seated in the car. Most of the allowances for the driver are as a result of safety requirements, but comfort and heat stress are equally important factors. Safety in the cockpit, aside from the fundamental function of the monocoque as a survival cell, is largely about driver restraints and fire protection. Each driver is held in place by...
Providing power and signal cabling to every extremity of the car is the job of the wiring loom. But as the need for ever-tighter packaging in a Formula One car contradicts the spiralling complexity of the electronics, so the wiring loom has an ever-tougher brief to meet. Connecting up the FIA-spec ECU and power box to all the electronic subsystems, sensors and actuators around the car, means the loom literally extends to every corner of the car. Although most of the major electronic boxes...
Few who have ever witnessed a vehicle fire, let alone one in a Grand Prix machine, will ever forget the foreboding, the simple sheer terror of it all, and with it the intense heat, once alight and without proper fire-fighting equipment, as bystanders we can do very little. As a youth I still remember watching on television Lorenzo Bandini’s fiery demise at the 1967 Monaco race and Roger Williamson’s in Holland some five years later. Such images are still indelibly printed in my...