minute. Running an engine at such high rpms produces an enormous amount of heat and puts a great deal of stress on the moving parts.
The fuel that powers such an engine is not the typical unleaded gasoline you pump at the neighborhood Exxon, but it's similar. All in all, Formula One teams use about 50 different fuel blends, tuned for different tracks or conditions, in a typical season. Each blend must be submitted to the FIA, the
Сsport's governing body, for approval of its composition and physical properties. Formula One cars, which get about four miles to the gallon, wouldn't win any awards for fuel economy. During a single season, one team will use approximately 200,000 liters (52,834 gallons) of fuel for testing and иracing.
FORMULA ONE TRANSMISSIONS AND AERODYNAMICS
TRANSMISSION
It's бАthe job of the transmission to transfer all of the engine's power to the rear wheels of the Formula One car. The transmission bolts directly to the back of the engine and includes all of the parts you would expect to find in a road car - gearbox, differential and driveshaft. The gearbox must have a minimum of four forward gears and a maximum of seven gears. Six-speed gearboxes were popular for several years, but most Formula One cars now run seven-speed units. A reverse gear must also be fitted. The gearbox is connected to a differential, a set of gears allowing the rear wheels to revolve at different speeds during cornering.ДAnd the differential is connected to the driveshaft, which transfers power to the wheels.
Shifting gears in a Formula One car is not the same as shifting gears in a road car with a manual transmission. Instead of using a traditional "H" gate selector, drivers select gears using paddles located just behind the steering wheel. Downshifting is done on one side of theИsteering wheel, upshifting on the other. Although fully automatic transmission systems, including systems with sophisticated launch control, are possible on Formula One cars, they are now illegal. This helps reduce the overall cost of the power train and enables drivers to use gear-shifting skills to gain advantage in a race.
Aerodynamics. A Formula One race car is defined as much by its aerodynamics as it is by its powerful engine. That's because any vehicle traveling at high speed must be able to do two things well: reduce air resistance and increase downforce. Formula One cars are low and wide to decrease air resistance. Wings, a diffuser, end plates and barge boards increase downforce.
Wings, which first appeared in the 1960s, operate on the same principles as airplane wings, only in reverse. Airplane wings create lift, but the wings on a Formula One car produce downforce, which holds the car onto
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the track, especially during cornering. The angle of both front and rear wings can be fine-tuned and adjusted to get the ideal balance between air resistance and downforce.
Lotus engineers discovered in the 1970s that a Formula One car itself could be turned into a giant wing. Using a unique undercarriage design, they were able to extract air from beneath the car, creating an area of low pressure
Сthat sucked the entire vehicle downward. These so-called "ground-effect" forces were soon outlawed and strict regulations put in place to govern undercarriage design. The bottom of today's cars must be flat from the nose cone to the rear axle line. Beyond that line, engineers have free reign. Most иincorporate a diffuser, an upward-sweeping device located just beneath the engine and gearbox that creates a suction effect as it funnels air up and passes it to the rear of the car.
The result of all this aerodynamics engineering is a combined downforce of about 2,500бАkilograms (5,512 pounds). That's more than four times the weight of the car itself.
FORMULA ONE SUSPENSION AND OTHER SYSTEMS
SUSPENSION
The suspension of a Formula One car has all of the same components as the suspension of a road car. Those components include springs, dampers, arms and anti-sway bars. To keep things simple here, we'll say that almost all Formula One cars feature doubleДwishbone suspensions. Before any race, a team will tweak suspension settings to ensure that the car can brake and corner safely, yet still deliver responsiveness of handling.
Brakes. You would recognize all of the parts of the disc brakes found on Formula One cars. The big difference, of course, is that the brakes used in Formula One must stop a vehicle traveling atИspeeds greater than 200 mph. This causes the brakes to glow red-hot when they are used. To help reduce wear and tear and increase braking performance, carbon fiber discs and pads are now used. These brake systems are extremely effective at temperatures up to 750° C (1,382° F), even though they are lightweight. Holes around the edge of the brake disc allow heat to escape rapidly. The cars also have air intakes fitted to the outside of the wheel hub to cool down the brakes. The air intakes are changed for the different braking requirements of each track.
Tires. The tires of a Formula One race car may be the most important part on the entire vehicle. This seems like an overstatement until you realize that the tires are the only things touching the track surface. That means all of the other major systems - engine, suspension and braking - do their work by way of the tires. If the tires don't perform well, the car won't perform well, regardless of the technical superiority demonstrated in other systems.
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Like every part of a Formula One car, tires are highly regulated. Slick tires - those with no tread pattern and a high contact area - were introduced in the 1960s and used until 1998. Then the FIA change the rules to reduce cornering speeds and make the sport more competitive. On today's Formula
One cars, the front tires must be between 12 and 15 inches wide and the rear tires between 14 and 15 inches wide. Four continuous, longitudinal grooves Сmust run around the circumference. The grooves must be at least 2.5
millimeters (0.098 inches) deep and 50 mm (1.97 inches) apart. In rainy conditions, cars can have "intermediate" and "wet" tires, which have full tread patterns designed to channel water away from the road surface.
иTraction control can extend the life of tires by limiting wheel spin, especially under loads imposed by cornering. Traction control systems use electronic
Formula One tires are made from very soft rubber compounds which, as they heat up, adhere to the road and provide enormous gripping power. In fact, racing tires perform best at high temperatures, so they have to be warmed up before they are race-ready. The tradeoff is decreased durability. A
the start ofбАthe 2008 season.
Formula One tire is designed to last for, at most, about 125 miles.
sensors to compare the speed of the wheel to the speed of the road the wheel
is driving over. If the wheel is traveling faster than the road surface - an
indication that the wheels are dangerously close to spinning - then the engine
is automatically throttled back. Traction control has been allowed and banned
at various times throughout modern Formula One history. It has been allowed
since the beginning of the 2002 season, but it will be outlawed altogether at Д
Steering wheel. The steering wheel of a Formula One car bears little
resemblance to the steering wheel of a road car. As the car's command center, it houses a dizzying array of buttons, toggles and switches. During the race, the driver can control almost every aspect of the car's performance - gear changes, fuel mixture, brake balance and moreИ-- with just the touch of a finger. And, amazingly, all of this control comes on a steering wheel that is about half the diameter of a normal car's steering wheel.
The rules state that the driver must be able to get out of his car within five seconds, removing nothing except the steering wheel. To allow for this, the steering wheel is joined to the steering column via a snap-on connector.
Formula One racing is a team effort - more than 100 people on each team work to make the season success.
FORMULA ONE RACING TEAM
During a grand prix, it's easy to think that Formula One racing begins and ends with the driver. After all, the purpose of having such strict regulations about the car is to eliminate all variables except for the skill and
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expertise of the driver. But a Formula One driver is just one member of a huge team that employs hundreds of people. Let's break down a typical Formula One team to understand who does what.
Team Boss. The nature of the boss depends on the nature of the team. Some teams are owned by the car manufacturers, who turn over management of the team to one of their top employees. For example, the team boss of
СFerrari is Jean Todt, the CEO of the company.
Other teams are privately owned, and the owners usually founded the team and risked their own finances to get a car ready to compete. With so much at stake, team owners are almost always the team boss. Two wellknown owner-bosses are Ron Dennis of McLaren and Frank Williams of Williams F1. A famous owner-boss of the past was Enzo Ferrari, who founded his team in the 1940s and stayed on as boss even after Fiat bought
иthe commercial and technical aspects of the business. The commercial director attracts sponsors and seals the deals. One of his main jobs is to
Ferrari in 1968.
fast car isбАsuch a high priority in Formula One. The chief aerodynamicist, chief designer and chief of research and development report to the technical director.
Commercial Director. A Formula One team must effectively manage
determine levels of sponsorship and placement of logos on the car. Main sponsors can pay handsomely - on the order of $50 million - for the privilege of having their brands displayed on a Formula One car.
Technical Director. The technical director heads up the crew of
engineers, designers and R&D scientists who construct the cars. In many
respects, the technical director is more important than the driver because a Д
Chief Aerodynamicist. The chief aerodynamicist oversees a whole
squad of aerodynamicists who dedicate themselves to making sure the car design reduces air resistance, yet creates the rightИamount of downforce.
Chief Designer. The chief designer determines the basic layout of the
car, as well as the materials that will be used to build it. Each team typically employs two chief designers - one for the current season and one for the next season.
Chief of R&D. The chief of R&D heads up automotive-innovation projects, exploring new materials and technologies that can keep his team ahead of the competition.
Drivers. Each Formula One team has two drivers. You might think this creates an atmosphere of support and camaraderie, but that's not necessarily the case. A Formula One driver is out to beat his rivals, including the other driver on his team. In some cases, a team may ask a driver to let his teammate overtake him or even win the race. This practice is technically against the regulations, but it's difficult to enforce.
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So, other than the ability to put up with the politics of a racing team, what makes a Formula One driver unique? Most drivers share many qualities, including strength, endurance, mental alertness, quick reflexes and a desire to be the best race car driver in the world.
One of the most important people of Formula One does not belong to a
team. He is the president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile С
(FIA), motor racing's governing body, which oversees every aspect of F1 racing. The current president is Max Mosley.
FORMULA ONE SEASON
иformer celebrates individual performance, and the latter celebrates team performance - and, ultimately, the performance of the vehicle.
A Formula One season consists of a series of races, or grands prix, held
on circuits across the world. The results of each race are combined to
determine two annual championships: the Formula One World Drivers' Championship and the Formula One Constructors' Championship. The
AnyбАtrack, be it street or purpose-built, requires its own unique strategy. Monaco, because it is Дa "tight" street race, forces drivers to slow down considerably. In fact, Monaco is one of the slowest races of the
The first auto races were on public roads, not permanent circuits. Public
pressure forced race cars off public roads and onto tracks designed just for the sport. Today, the only Formula One race that remains on the street is Monaco. All other races are held on purpose-built tracks designed to handle the needs of high-speed racing.
Formula One season. It's also very narrow and bumpy, and it is not unusual for cars to make contact with the barriers. Extra wings are also used on the
cars that race at Monaco to make sure enough downforce is created. Because overtaking is almost impossible, securing a goodИgrid position is absolutely
essential to securing a victory at Monaco (we'll get into grid positioning later).
A points system decides the champions for a given season. A driver earns points based on how he places in each race. The driver with the most points at the end of the season is crowned champion.
Teams earn points using the same system, except they get to total the results of both drivers. So, if the two drivers of a certain team finish first and third in a given race, the team earns 16 points.
The number of races per season can vary because tracks are added or retired all of the time. For example, in 2007, the FIA decided that Germany would no longer host two grand prix and that Japan's Fuji Speedway would be the site of a Formula One race for the first time in 30 years. Generally,
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