The Technology Behind Formula One

axlrosen writes "An article in the NY Times about the technology behind Formula One. The wealthiest teams arm themselves with powerful advantages, almost entirely centering on computing controls in the cars and computer simulation in design. Car data is sent in multi-megabyte wireless bursts each time the team's cars flash past the pits, often in excess of 200 miles an hour. It is simultaneously sent over the Internet to a larger data center in Maranello, Italy, where more complex analysis is done. AMD is expected to supply a supercomputer roughly as fast as the world's 10th most powerful machine to the Swiss-based Sauber Petronas racing team... I love the crazy steering wheel - anyone know what all those buttons and knobs do?"

Comments

Re:The New Direction In Sports

[no reason to be here]

It's hitting all sports. Spend to win and use money and technology to remove so much doubt the mystery of the game is ultimately solved.

Doesn't always work in all sports. In baseball, for example, the Yankees, who spend the most of any team, have remained competetive, but are not guaranteed a Championship, as the last few years have shown. In fact, the World Series winners the past few years have all been mid-market teams (2003 Marlins, 2002 Angels, 2001 Diamondbacks). Conversely, the Mets, who spend the 2nd most in baseball, have been in the cellar for the last few seasons. Same for the Rangers, who also boast a fairly high rate of team spending.

Re:The New Direction In Sports

[kmankmankman2001]

Ferrari isn't winning because they have the most money. BMW-Williams, Toyota, Ford (Jaguar-Cosworth), etc. aren't exactly collecting foodstamps you know.

Ferrari is winning because they have assembled a fantastic team. From the engineering talent that designed the car to the logistic support to the pit crew and, of course, one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport - Michael Schumaker.

I'm also trying to remember who won the World Series last year. The Yankees, right, cause they have the biggest payroll? Ooops, no, it was the Florida Marlins with a payroll at the other end of the spectrum.

Analogies are great except when they don't hold up.

Playing by 'team rules' is the problem

[Animaether]

Just my opinion, for the most part (based on facts, sadly)...

He does play by team rules, that's partly the problem.

Who doesn't remember Barricello being in #1 position in front of M. Schumacher on #2 being ordered by the Ferrari team to let M. Schumacher win ?
Those kinds of tactics are exactly what are hurting Formula 1 as a whole, and not just the Ferrari/M. Schumacher image.

Mind you, any team M. Schumacher has been in has also always been cutting-edge to the point of risking safety. This ranges from cars being sprayed with fuel in the pit lane due to cutting corners to make tanking faster to crewmen getting hurt by driving into them.

Not taking away that M. Schumacher is a great driver, mind you, but so were Aeyrton Senna and Nigel Mansell - but those loved the sport. M. Schumacher, I'm afraid, tends to love mostly himself and will do anything to further his image.

Re:Playing by 'team rules' is the problem

[gowen]

Those kinds of tactics are exactly what are hurting Formula 1 as a whole, and not just the Ferrari/M. Schumacher image.

No, whats hurting F1 is, on the majority of courses, its almost impossible to overtake, which means that its almost never maneuvers that win races, but consistent speed and a good pit stop strategy.

Schumi's great, but even he uses the pit stops to actually overtake (on the rare occasions when he's not on pole).

Re:Playing by 'team rules' is the problem

[Blofeld]

I would agree with both points, and add another, regulations. Current regs are allowing for insane amounts of downforce, and little in the way of mechanical grip.

I was reading that at the USGP, cars hit around 200 mph at the end of the long front straight. To make the next turn, the cars need to brake to around 70 mph. They start braking at the 50 meter mark! With such rapid deceleration (possible due to the amount of downforce at high speed), there is a very slim margin of error, thus overtaking is indeed difficult.

It has been said by many that to increase passing, put emphasis back on mechanical grip so that drivers can do things like overtake around the outside of a turn, which is almost unheard of today.

Re:Super Speedway...

[JonTurner]

>>a total stop from 200mph in 1.6 seconds. Imagine the g-forces. ...not to mention the heat! 1000C+ is typical after braking at the end of a straight, with normal operating temperature between 400-800 degrees Celsius!

More info from http://www.f1technical.net/article2.html : "A mere 4 seconds is the amount of time it takes for a Formula One car to go from 300km/h to a complete halt. At 200 km/h, a Formula One contender requires just 2.9 seconds to stop completely, a process that will have been accomplished over 65 meters. At 100km/h, these values are just as mind-blowing: 1.4 seconds and 17 meters! Under these heavy braking periods, a driver is subjected to a horizontal deceleration of close to 5,2G."

and...

"These brakes are extremely expensive as they are made from hi-tech carbon materials (long chain carbon, as in carbon fibre) and they can take up to 5 months to produce a single brake disk. The first stage in making a disc is to heat white polyacrylo nitrile (PAN) fibres until they turn black. This makes them pre-oxidised, and are arranged in layers similar to felt. They are then cut into shape and carbonised to obtain very pure carbon fibres. Next, they undergo two densification heat cycles at around 1000 degrees Celsius. These stages last hundreds of hours, during which a hydrocarbon-rich gas in injected into the oven or furnace. This helps the layers of felt-like material to fuse together and form a solid material. The finished disc is then machined to size ready for installing onto the car."

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games." - Ernest Hemingway.

Re:The New Direction In Sports

[asoap]

This is the old argument of "how fast do you want to go?" "How much money do you have?".

The real question you should be asking is. How do you stop it? Nascar seems like the one organization that tries to make everything equal. But it totally fails. The same rule applies. Whoever has the most money has the best shot at winning. In Nascar all of the cars are the same. The exact same bodies, and most of the settings are the same. The only difference is the motors, but those are more similar than different. They use technology that went out of the style in the mid 70's mixed with modern technology. For what? It's still not even. The team with the most money will have the best driver. The team with the most money will hire the best mechanics to setup the car the best.

So if it's not even in the first place, then why try to make all the cars even also? That is how you get F1.

-asoap

Re:Background article

[Black Rabbit]

Keep in mind, though, Formula one is cutting edge in other ways.

Just look at the drivers listings.

CART is full of:

a) people on their way to F1
b) people retired from F1 (Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi)
c) people who couldn't make it in F1 (Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi)

If I remember correctly, the year that Andretti Jr. and then-F1 champ Nigel Mansell switched places, Andretti couldn't make it more than five laps in his first three races combined, and came home with his tail between his legs halfway through the season. Nigel Mansel cleaned everybody's clocks!

So it's more than just technology. Americans can't get past the drive-fast-turn-left NASCAR mentality!

Re:The New Direction In Sports

[another_mr_lizard]

Ferrari's massive overspend means that they can find the quickest solution to an engineering problem, not the cleverest. For instance, the dramatic increase in exotic metals that have been used over the last few years (which has been curtailed somewhat this season) - smaller teams cannot compete with Ferrari's spending power and had to engineer a solution round the problems that didnt involve purchasing 15lbs of to solve overheating gearboxes.

Apologies if you didnt get the link to how this affects passing and aero, but aero was the last big engineering improvement in F1, again due to the cost. Windtunnels were rare even 10 years ago but are now seen as mandatory. Great engineering but it has changed the type of racing we see more dramatically than any tyre or engine change I can remember.

Subjective or not its not your opinions that matter. The ones that do belong to Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA. Viewing figures have plummeted over the last 5 years, as have the sponsorship deals and TV revenue. The FIA have made it quite clear that they believe the changes will focus the teams development into other areas and hopefully benefit the sport as a whole.