There has been a raft of activity recently around the new FIA Formula E series, set to debut in 2014 and JA on F1 has recently interviewed Alejandro Agag, promoter of Formula E. Agag says the new zero emission motor sport championship is targeting a reverse calendar to F1, which will see the series start in September and end in June. Also recently the series announced that Bangkok, Thailand is a candidate for one of the two remaining slots on the 2014 calendar. The city is close to a Formula 1 night race and Formula E is dealing with the More…
The sudden announcement by Pirelli that they are to change the tyre specifications from the seventh round of the world championship onwards will inevitably raise many questions: who will it favour, what are the implications for the racing? With no testing available – a significant part of the reason why Pirelli has struggled to get the tyres right this year – they will have to use a construction solution that has been proven to work in the past, rather than try something new. JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan was chief operations engineer at Williams until the end of More…
The Spanish Grand Prix threw up a few interesting comparisons from last year to this, not least in the relative pace of the cars and the improvement in speed of the pit stops. At one end of the spectrum the Mercedes was 2.3 seconds faster in qualifying than in 2012, while the Williams was a second slower than Pastor Maldonado’s pole time from last year. But in the pits there has also been progress; Ferrari set the fastest stop on Sunday, a clear second faster than its best time last year (when it was again fastest) thanks to the many More…
JA on F1 technical adviser and former Williams chief engineer Mark Gillan thinks that Mercedes will be hurt by Pirelli’s decision to make a small tweak to the hard tyre compound. Last week the Italian tyre manufacturer said it will change the hard tyre, rather than the soft as expected, to be closer in specification to the 2012 tyre, which would make it more durable. It will likely have a larger working range, so will be more versatile, and Gillan adds that the move will help every other team on the grid except for Mercedes. “Pirelli specified at beginning of season More…
Fernando Alonso goes into his home Grand Prix at Barcelona next weekend looking to bounce back from the disastrous Bahrain Grand Prix in which he lost a chance of victory due to a failure on the Drag Reduction System rear wing. It means that after four rounds of 19, he now lies 30 points behind title rival Sebastian Vettel. The fallout from the DRS failure is interesting. According to a statement from Ferrari, “Analysis revealed that the problem was caused by the breakage of a mechanical component within the system. It’s the first problem of its kind on this system More…
F1 in Schools in the Middle East – Watch this Space! By Steve Nevey F1 technical business expert, formerly with Red Bull Racing As part of my Business Development role with the fabulous F1 in Schools educational initiative, I have the occasional pleasure to meet some of the inspirational students who participate in the program. F1 in Schools is currently active in more that 40 countries, making it a truly Global initiative that encourages children to develop an interest in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). http://www.f1inschools.com One of the regions where F1 in Schools is really beginning More…
After weeks of speculation, Pirelli has today announced that it is changing one of the F1 tyres in its range from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. The hard tyre will be changed to be closer in specification to the 2012 tyre, which would make it more durable. It will likely have a larger working range, so will be more versatile. It was the preferred race tyre in Bahrain at the weekend for most teams. This is a surprise change in some ways, as there was speculation that the soft tyre would be the one to face changes. It proved troublesome More…
After the first two Grands Prix the teams have had a couple of weeks to prepare for the next pair of races in China this weekend and then Bahrain the following week. In terms of development, new parts will be coming to many of the cars for these races, but one innovation which many will be working to perfect is the FRIC suspension system, which has helped Lotus and Mercedes for far. FRIC stands for “Front and Rear-Interconnected” system, which links the front and rear suspension using hydraulics with the aim of improving ride stability. This helps to give the More…
JA on F1 technical adviser and former Williams chief engineer Mark Gillan believes it will take McLaren quite some time to fix problems with their 2013 car. The Woking-based team ended last year with the fastest car, but decided to go for a significant change, rather than evolve the 2012 design. They have been well off the pace in the first two races of the season, with ride issues among their problems. The team has just four points, 62 less than championship leaders Red Bull, with Jenson Button and Sergio Perez scoring a ninth place each. However Button was on More…
Before the season started, JA on F1 Technical Adviser Mark Gillan observed in the first podcast of the season that the key to success in 2013 would be thermal tyre management. And the first Grand Prix in Melbourne proved it, with Red Bull able to dominate qualifying, but losing performance in the race, while Lotus went the other way. So what was happening? And will it happen again this weekend in Malaysia? The key with the Pirelli tyres is to get the fronts warmed up evenly with the rears for a single lap in qualifying. But with the same set More…
Innovation in F1 is not limited to new technology on the cars or in communications devices, it even extends to the clothing worn by mechanics in the pit lane. And this weekend in the heat of Malaysia it should come into its own. A new material developed from high-tech sportswear used by top tennis stars and other athletes is now helping to keep race mechanics cool and less tired when working in the pit lane in intense temperatures. Human Performance Engineering, a company set up by Nick Harris, the man who trained top drivers like Mark Webber, David Coulthard and More…
The promoters of the new Formula E series have released details of eight city centre races that will form the basis of the new zero emission motor sport championship next season. And we want to hear your thoughts on the initial designs for the new car. The host cities are London, Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Putrajaya (Malaysia), Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. The London event will be particularly exciting as it is believed to be based around the Olympic Park in Stratford. Two more venues are expected to join the calendar before it is finalised in September. The More…
Now that the testing is finally over and the teams are back at base preparing their cars for departure to Melbourne later this week, we can look more closely at what happened in Barcelona last week and what it tells us about the relative pace of the cars. We’ll do it in two separate posts: * Analysis of lap times and long runs, looking for further trends and indicators * A look at some of the Technical innovations which indicated what we might see in season With the help of JA on F1 Technical Adviser Mark Gillan, formerly the top More…
The four day test at Barcelona ended today with rain, but the three previous days gave the teams a chance to learn more about the performance of their new cars and especially about the way they work on the new Pirelli tyres. While it is still a bit early to say too much in terms of who is fastest in outright pace, as the definitive aerodynamic packages will only come onto the cars in the final test next week, we can nevertheless look at some details of long run performance, which shows us who is looking good. Below you can More…
Already it is clear from winter testing that the battle at the front in F1 this year is going to be very close. It’s an important season for all the top teams – Ferrari and McLaren in particular, but also Lotus and Mercedes, are keen to put a stop to Red Bull winning the title for a fourth consecutive season, while Red Bull themselves want to keep that momentum going. How have they managed it? Clearly having technical chief Adrian Newey onboard is a major asset and his group’s designs and innovations through this period have kept Red Bull’s noses More…
Of all the areas within F1 which arouse controversy and debate, perhaps none is as central as the penalties handed out – or not – by the FIA race stewards. The stewards are charged with assessing on track misdemeanours and punishing drivers accordingly; Grosjean, Maldonado, Hamilton, Petrov and others have all been on the receiving end of penalties in recent years. But today the FIA has released some details of how those decisions are reached. An extract from a fascinating article in the FIA’s new AUTO magazine, sheds light on what the Federation calls “cyber stewarding”. Fans expect the stewards More…
Formula 1 cars are prototypes and as such they are constantly changing and being evolved in the pursuit of performance. The first week of testing in Jerez has seen many teams racking up over a thousand kilometres on their new cars, first working on reliability then pushing new development parts onto the car looking for more speed. But what sort of thing are the engineers looking for and how can they see the difference between a new part that is working and one that is not? Here we offer a simple example to help readers get a better understanding. Downforce More…
As the F1 testing got underway in Jerez, three more teams launched their new cars, leaving only Williams to produce a 2013 model, which they will do at the second test on February 19th. All three teams under performed last year for different reasons and all need to raise their game this year. They have gone about it in different ways as we shall see. Here we take a look at each of their situations and former Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan looks at the changes to the cars and what they mean. Toro Rosso Toro Rosso revealed its More…
There are three tests before the start of the season, the first starts this morning in Jerez. So what are we going to see this week and will these first four days have any relevance to the 2013 season as a whole? This week’s initial four day test is where the basic launch cars circulate, doing the initial checks on cooling, brake systems and so on, as well as taking aerodynamic measurements that are essential with any new car and over the next few days working on understanding the new Pirelli tyres. However the chase for performance will follow at More…
Mercedes rolled out its new car today, the F1 W04. A lot of work has gone into this car, especially around the cockpit area and on thermal management. We are yet to see what they have in mind on the front and rear wings, but it looks like a lot of careful detailed work has been carried out by Aldo Costa and his team, so here is our analysis of what’s been done and what it will mean for Mercedes’ chances this year. Background Mercedes went down a high tech route last year with the double DRS and paid a More…
The Sauber team today unveiled its new car and two new drivers; Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez at a ceremony in Hinwil, Switzerland. Sauber had a great year in 2012 and this will be an interesting year for them, with two new drivers to bed in, but a sound technical platform on which to build. Like other teams in the “squeezed middle” they will have to be careful to manage their limited resources, developing the 2013 car for a short while, but leaving enough capacity to make sure they produce a competitive car for 2014, when the rules will change More…
Ferrari launched its car, the F138 in Maranello today. The team made it very clear that it intended to start the season strongly, unlike last year, where it played catch up to the McLaren and Red Bull cars in particular. In overview, the Ferrari F138, as presented at the launch, is similar in concept to last year’s model and does not show as many detailed changes as the McLaren, released yesterday. The stepped nose has gone, which is eye catching, but not hugely significant. The main work appears to have gone into the rear of the car and there is More…
McLaren launched its new 2013 challenger today, an evolution of the 2012 model, which was the fastest car for significant parts of the season, including the beginning and end. On the face of it, the new MP4/28 looks similar to the 2012 car, but there are several very significant changes and it takes what was good car and makes it, in all probability, even faster. They have made changes which give them a lot of scope for development as the year goes on. It is a strong gauntlet thrown down by the Woking team to its rivals Red Bull and More…
by Steve Nevey, F1 technical business expert, formerly with Red Bull Racing Formula 1 is all about who has the most money, yes? No! I once overheard somebody say to a Formula 1 boss, “So, you produce racing cars”. The reply was, “No. Actually, we produce knowledge and intellect. The car is just a brief manifestation of that intellect.” It’s true. If a team lost its cars in transit, or through some freak incident at its headquarters, it could rebuild them. If a team lost its data, then it’s in trouble. Monisha Kaltenborn, the Team Principal of Sauber F1, has More…
More spectacular racing, with F1 cars having more power than grip on corner exits and an opportunity to showcase technology and innovation, putting F1 back at the cutting edge – these are the likely hallmarks of Formula 1 as it will be under the new formula in 2014, according to experts who are building the new engines. A visit to AMG Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth today yielded some fascinating insights into how F1 is set to change and what fans will see next season. And we got the chance to see one of the new generation V6 More…
Yesterday the new FIA Formula E series announced its first team entry, following up on recent announcements on race venues in Rio and Rome. Lord Drayson’s team is the first of 10 which will contest the new series when it starts in 2014. Further venue and team announcements are due to follow in the coming months, including, it is understood, a race in London. Recently I met up with the promoter of Formula E, Alejandro Agag for an interview which makes for interesting reading for anyone interested in new ideas. Agag has been around F1 for several years, and his More…
On a technical level there were some interesting innovations on the cars this year as the F1 teams and engineers worked hard to get around regulation changes. The most significant change was the governing body, the FIA, wanting to restrict the practice of exhausts blowing into the diffuser area of the floor. During 2011 teams had adopted increasingly extreme solutions and this had resulted in huge gains in down force. Red Bull was dominant in 2011 because it optimized this practice. For 2012, engines were not allowed to be mapped in such a way that they continued to pump out More…
Two innovators were honoured at the Autosport Awards last night as recipients of the Pioneering and Innovation Awards, sponsored by Tata Communications. Professor Sid Watkins, who passed away earlier this year, was celebrated for his contribution to safety in F1 and motorsport generally via the FIA Medical Team. 1996 world champion Damon Hill was there to sum up Watkins and the Team’s contribution, “F1 has made incredible progress, and to see where it came from, and where it has now got to, is a testament to Sid’s incredible determination and work.” “He was the last person you would want to More…
The FIA’s new Formula E electric vehicle racing series moved a step closer to reality yesterday with a launch in Rome, which will become the second world city – and the first in Europe – to host a round after Rio de Janeiero. FIA president Jean Todt and Formula E’s CEO Alejandro Agag attended the event hosted by the Mayor of Rome. The inaugural series in 2014 will feature ten races, so there are eight more slots to be filled by host cities in the coming months. There will be ten teams entered, with 20 drivers and 40 cars between More…
One man who will be keeping everything crossed this afternoon is Remi Taffin, from Renault Sport, hoping that the new specification alternators do not fail and affect the outcome of the world championship. Vettel lost a victory in Valencia to an alternator failure and suffered another in Monza, along with Romain Grosjean. The failure on Mark Webber’s car in Austin sent alarm bells ringing for Sebastian Vettel’s title deciding season finale, but that was the last of the oldest specification V1 units; this weekend all Renault powered teams are using Version 3 of the unit, which features a new design More…
One of the major talking points from the US Grand Prix weekend was the decision by Ferrari on Sunday morning to deliberately break a seal on the gearbox of Felipe Massa’s car, so that he would get a five place grid penalty which would move team mate Fernando Alonso one place up the grid and onto the clean side of the grid for a better start. Practice starts during the weekend had shown that the dirty side of the grid was so lacking in grip that the car would lose up to a second in the 350 metre run to More…
F1 fans will be familiar with the way that aerodynamicists explore air flow lines over a car, working with wind tunnels but also at circuits with flo-viz paint, to see how the air passes over a car. But here is something which takes the exploration of aerodynamic lines to a new – almost artistic – level. It’s a ‘light painting’, done on the McLaren P1 and I have to say I’d love to see this treatment done on an F1 car. Here is what the artists who did the light painting, MarshmallowLaserFeast, and James Medcraft, had to say about it. More…
There will be disappointment at Ferrari this morning on two levels; first that they were unable to take any more advantage of Sebastian Vettel’s grid penalty in Abu Dhabi than a mere three points. And second that the raft of updates on the car at this race didn’t produce the jump in performance they were looking for. Vettel had a bad day on Saturday and then a very good day, with some lucky breaks on the Safety Car, on Sunday, when the points were handed out. But the problem for Ferrari is clear: Alonso qualified 7th, 0.952s behind the pole More…
A team of teenagers from Adelaide has won the 2012 F1 in Schools title, after three days of intense competition in Abu Dhabi. The team of five 16 and 17 year olds from Brighton Secondary School, calling themselves Cold Fusion, beat 21 other countries and 32 teams, with two teams from the UK finishing in second and third places. The Australians collected the Bernie Ecclestone Trophy from Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg in a ceremony prior to the start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend. This was the eighth time that F1 in Schools has held a World More…
If you watch free practice sessions on Fridays at Grands Prix, you could be forgiven for thinking that there are a lot of onboard cameras on the cars. And you’d be half right. But they are not all TV cameras, placed there by Formula One Management. The teams are allowed special dispensation to place their own cameras on the cars during practice to show how their latest updates are working. Most of the teams do it, but Red Bull have an infrared or thermographic camera, mounted on the right side of the engine cover, which can film the exhaust gas More…
On the same day that Red Bull’s daredevil Felix Baumgartner went faster than the speed of sound in a free-fall parachuting stunt, most of Sebastian Vettel’s rivals must have felt that they too were witnessing a man disappearing away from them at undiminished speed. Vettel’s performance in Korea, like the one in Japan a week ago, restored him to the top of the drivers’ championship in emphatic style and the first 1-2 finish of the season underlined that Red Bull is now back where it was in 2011, taking front row lock-outs in qualifying, with Vettel controlling the race from More…
“In its simplest form, the engine torque map is a theoretical model of the engine. It represents the torque output of the engine for a given engine throttle position and engine speed,” says Renault Sport F1 engine engineer David Lamb. Torque maps were a hot topic in July and August when the FIA made some changes to the way teams were using them mid-season. But they are the single most important map for the engineers to use for reference when trying to make sure that the engine is optimised for a given circuit, according to an interesting note put out More…
It’s not often that an innovation on an F1 car slips through without being noticed at a Grand Prix, but the talk of the Japanese Grand Prix was the double DRS device on the rear wing of the Red Bull, which had actually been on the car in Singapore. The idea is a simple variation on something tried by Lotus this year, to shed even more drag than a standard DRS wing. Lotus have a passive system and are yet to be able to qualify and race with theirs as they have problems getting the aero rebalanced once the device More…
Red Bull technical boss Adrian Newey has spoken of his frustration that the current rules in F1 stifle creativity, but recognises that without tight regulation F1 would become an arms race, “I think it is a shame that they (the rules) are so tight in a way, there’s no doubt that it stifles some of the creativity,” he said. “But that’s the world we live in…. It would be fantastic to not have them, but with the size and resources of the teams an arms war would result, which would mean a tremendous leap in performance for the cars. “Teams More…
Marussia team president Graeme Lowden fears that the implementation of the costly 2014 engine regulations will put the futures of numerous Formula 1 teams on the line. Despite the in-development 1.6 litre, turbocharged V6 engines, and accompanying energy efficient systems, being less than 18 months away from their scheduled introduction, the new engine formula continues to prove a divisive issue with concerns over the cost of the technology for customer teams in particular. In recent days Bernie Ecclestone, a long-time critic of the 2014 rules, renewed his calls for the engines to be canned, suggesting that FIA president Jean Todt More…
The constant push for Innovation in F1 always needs to be tempered with the requirement for the cars to be reliable. And it’s also vital in a fast evolving competition like F1 that any development steps the teams bring to the cars do actually provide the boost in performance they are intended to. In Singapore we saw both sides of this as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton suffered a gearbox failure and lost what looked like a certain race win, which would have allowed him to close the gap on championship leader Fernando Alonso. It was the fourth retirement on technical grounds More…
Innovation in F1 can take many forms and there is some very interesting work going on at the moment in alternative energies, with solar power companies attracted into F1. It’s not an obvious fit one might say, but they are drawn in by the opportunity to innovate and to align with a sport which is all about high tech. The prospect of drivers helmets and even the entire surface of an F1 car being made of solar panels is not far away. On a bigger scale, Sauber and Lotus F1 team are pushing ahead with developments in solar power at More…
by Stephen Hood, Creative Director, Codemasters F1 2012 game What makes Maldonado, Maldonado? Why is Alonso able to get more out of a car than his current team-mate? Who wouldn’t like to better understand how Button treats his control inputs with such finesse? Many of us have these discussions pre and post race when talking to friends, family and enthusiasts alike but here at Codemasters, developer of the official Formula One game, we take it to another level. We have to try and isolate characteristics, recognise how drivers think, how they treat their cars and what it is that differentiates More…
[Updated] Something very unusual happened during Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix – the telemetry failed in the Ferrari garage between laps 17 and 24, so the team had no information from the cars on temperatures, pressures or any of the vital information on tyre wear. As this was in the window for making the one and only tyre stop of the race, this was quite a critical issue. An electrical problem had knocked it out. Luckily they were still transmitting data back to the team’s factory in Maranello and so the engineers on the pit wall had to liaise with them More…
Sometimes the goal of an innovation in F1 is not the pursuit of better performance, but rather of safety. There have been plenty of examples of that and now the F1 teams and the FIA are fairly urgently and closely working together to come up with a solution to the problem of driver vulnerability in the cockpit. F1 has been lucky in recent years with several accidents which could have harmed or killed the driver due to his exposure in an open cockpit. We had another on Sunday. Fernando Alonso’s point of view as Romain Grosjean’s car smashed across the More…
This weekend at Spa we will be hearing a lot about DRS and Double DRS. That is because Spa offers one of the largest boosts in lap time from the Drag Reduction System of any F1 circuit at 1.2 seconds per lap. But beyond that, there is a gain to be had from “amplifying” the DRS effect by a secondary system such as the front wing system on the Mercedes or the rear wing system on the Lotus, which should be used in qualifying for the first time in Spa. Given the nature of the Spa circuit with its many More…
There was an interesting story in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday about an innovative new use in the medical world for the F1 electronic control unit, the “brain” of an F1 car. As a result of a chance conversation between a McLaren engineer and a paediatrician, Birmingham Children’s Hospital has been trialling the ECU in a children’s intensive care ward; the idea is that the F1-derived unit can measure all the key signs from the child, sense trends and detect developing problems earlier than the electronics previously used by the NHS. The unit normally measures oil pressures, brake temperatures and the More…
“F1 is all about innovation” – Ross Brawn, AMG Mercedes F1 team principal We are delighted to launch a new section of the JA on F1 site, aimed at bringing fans closer to the sport and dedicated to the very heartbeat of F1: Innovation. Research has shown that F1 fans see Innovation as one of the sport’s USPs and a key area of interest. Innovation puts puts the “Wow Factor” into F1. The cars are remarkable as is the pace of their development. F1 is real life on fast forward, it’s the speed of thought and innovation that really sets More…
Renault Sport’s Rob White has put out a document this evening which looks at the Red Bull engine mapping intrigue of the last week and explains Renault’s side of the story. Following intervention from the FIA technical staff in German and a subsequent clarification of the rules, Renault has been obliged to go back to pre-Germany torque maps on the Red Bull cars. Here White explains what the fuss is all about: What is a driver torque map? The driver torque map represents the torque requested by the driver as a function of engine speed and accelerator pedal position. What More…
Leading Innovation from Motorsport to Road Cars By Steve Wainwright, (General Manager EMEA, VP Sales and Marketing, Freescale Semiconductor) Upcoming changes in the F1 regulations have put the spotlight on the ECU, or Engine Control Unit of the vehicle, often considered the “brain” of the car. The figures are indeed pretty impressive: the McLaren Electronic Systems ECU is connected to 120 sensors, collects and manages over 500 parameters, controls the system and reports back to the pit garage 750 million pieces of data during every Grand Prix, all live and in real time. These ECUs are probably one of the More…
Red Bull believes that its competitiveness will not be harmed by the FIA’s clarification on engine mapping rules, which closes the grey are that the Milton Keynes team was using in Germany. Both the FIA technical staff and rival teams believed that Red Bull had an advantage both in traction and aerodynamics in Germany from an engine map which changed the amount of torque the engine produced at medium revs. Although FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer flagged up his findings as a contravention of the rules, the stewards let Red Bull race on Sunday, but following meetings this week a More…
F1 technicians are always in search of detailed innovations, which will give a competitive edge over their rivals, especially where the rules are not clearly worded. At Hockenheim this weekend at the German Grand Prix, we saw an episode where an innovation from Red Bull and its engine partner Renault was allowed through because it was not covered by the rules, so even though the FIA’s own technical delegate Jo Bauer, felt he had found something in the engine mapping which was not allowed, when he referred it to the race stewards on Sunday they felt they had no choice More…
The qualifying in Hockenheim showed for a second race in succession that Ferrari and Red Bull has an advantage in wet conditions when it comes to finding grip. One of the leading engineers from a rival team suggested to me in Silverstone that both teams have “found something” to generate front tyre temperature and this has undoubtedly played a part in the outcome of the last two qualifying sessions. There is a limited amount of possibilities of what could be happening as the rules don’t allow many options here but clearly heat is being generated in the front tyres from More…
The 2012 F1 in Schools World Finals are to be held in Abu Dhabi from 29th October to 31st October to coincide with the nation’s fourth Grand Prix. It is the eighth time that the prestigious event has taken place, and this year’s host could not be more fitting with the Yas Marina Circuit and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi as a very suitable back drop. The F1 in Schools challenge was set-up in 1999, aiming to make the teaching of engineering and technology more exciting for young people. They aim to stimulate the notion of team work and creativity in More…
[Updated] The McLaren team may have its problems with competitiveness on the track, having fallen behind Ferrari and Red Bull in the last month, but in the pits the team is now the fastest in F1. The situation is the opposite of the start of the season, where they had the fastest cars, but had plenty of problems in pit stops. At last weekend’s British Grand Prix the team set the two fastest stops of the day in 2.6secs and 2.9secs and all four stops averaged less than 3.0secs. This follows Valencia where they also set the fastest time in More…
Formula 1 will move into a more environmentally-friendly era when the next generation engine formula is introduced in two years’ time and amid on-going attempts by teams to improve their own sustainability and efficiency Lotus has unveiled its new solar-powered simulator building. The construction of the new state-of-the-art race facility adjacent to the main building at its Enstone base, which has been fully operational for the past few months and was revealed to the media this week, has been used as a platform to further reduce the team’s dependency on traditional energy sources, which has been ongoing since the Genii More…
This month’s JA on F1 Podcast features a fascinating discussion on Innovation in Formula 1. We’re really excited about this one and hope you are too. If you like to think about all the amazing ideas that go into this sport and about where the sport might be headed in the future then this show is for you. In a packed half hour, which you can download and listen to at your leisure, we’ve got all kinds of insights from some innovative engineers and some great thinkers. Lotus F1 technical director James Allison reveals what happens behind the scenes when More…
The controversy over the holes in the rear floor of the Red Bull, which appeared during the Bahrain Grand Prix in a car which has gone on to win two of the last three races, has been resolved. After much discussion and threatened protests in Monaco, the FIA met with all team technical representatives after the race and issued a clarification at the end of the week in the form of a technical directive – like the ones banning off throttle blowing of the diffusers, issued last summer. In essence, the FIA had originally accepted the concept from Red Bull More…
Every now and then an F1 team puts out a video that really gets you thinking. Sauber has issued a video which gives a really good insight into how all the technology and components are packaged into an F1 car. They’ve done something very innovative: cutting a car in half, so you see exactly how the engine, the fuel cell and even the driver fit in. Everything is about getting the weight low to the ground. The driver’s backside is only 10mm off the track surface, for example! Sergio Perez lends a hand to show how unnatural the position of More…
[Updated]Formula 1 avoided a controversy on Sunday night when a threatened protest against the floor of the Red Bull car of race winner Mark Webber and fourth place Sebastian Vettel did not materialise. A possible protest was discussed by management figures from McLaren and Ferrari on a couple of occasions, with Martin Whitmarsh meeting Stefano Domenicali in the Ferrari motorhome and the two teams technical directors also discussing the matter in the window of opportunity in which protests can be lodged post race. There was a lot of talk, but no action, with suggestions from some quarters that it was More…
A driver’s crash helmet design is something uniquely personal to him with some iconic designs like Graham and Damon Hill’s London Rowing Club colours, Senna’s striped helmet in Brazilian colours and Jackie Stewarts’ racing tartan. But increasingly F1 drivers’ helmets are being used for messaging and fundraising and here in Monaco we have a rash of them with Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen all having something to say. Alonso has a unique design featuring a classic F1 Ferrari, rolling dice and other Monaco themed details. The helmet is a one-off and will be auctioned after the race weekend More…
“Formula 1 is all about innovation,” (Ross Brawn, Team Principal Mercedes) There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in F1 at the moment, with the preparation of the new powertrains, which are set to come in under new rules for 2014. These feature small capacity 1.6 litre turbo engines with a high degree of hybrid energy regeneration, stored electrically. There are over 120 sensors on an F1 car and managing the data and control systems is the Electronic Control Unit, which is designed and manufactured for F1 by McLaren Electronic Systems. In Barcelona at the weekend MES and its More…
Ferrari will benefit from a more powerful fuel at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix after partner Shell developed a new blend of its V-Power mixture. Engine development may have been ‘frozen’ in Formula 1 for several years but fuel is one area where improvements can still be made by the technicians of the various fuel companies involved in the sport. Shell is confident it has managed to make a “significant step change” with the latest blend without compromising on the previous version’s consumption levels. “Despite the freeze on engine regulations in F1 and F1 fuel regulations being the most strictly More…
[Updated] After two Grands Prix of phoney war and back room discussions, Lotus F1 came out and lodged a formal protest against the Mercedes F Duct front wing system in Shanghai. A hearing involving both teams took place at 17-15pm local time on Thursday in the FIA stewards’ room at the circuit. The stewards rejected the protest and Lotus has made it clear it will not appeal the decision. The system sheds drag from the front wing when the driver activates the DRS rear wing, by means of a pair of pipes which channel the air forwards through the chassis More…
Last season on JA on F1 we brought you several features on F1 fuels and engines, as Ferrari’s partner Shell gave us behind-the-scenes insight into areas ranging from the mixing of fuels for an F1 race car and the management of the engine health process. While shedding light on many aspects of these two key areas of car performance, it became clear by reading through the comments section on the site that many questions remained. So, with this in mind, we collated the best of your questions and went back to Shell and Ferrari who together took the time to answer below on topics More…
“It’s the most significant moment for F1 since the advent of satellites,” says Eddie Baker, the man responsible for broadcasting F1 TV and data around the world. Today in London, F1′s commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone unveiled a deal which will transform the way live F1 races are broadcast and all forms of digital content are consumed. It’s the key which opens up a door onto a new era for F1. Satellite TV revolutionised the sport in the late 1970s, by making it possible for millions of fans to watch races live around the world. This was Ecclestone’s first revolution, providing More…
Pirelli has launched the 2012 range of F1 tyres promising that they will create more exciting racing and more variation in race strategies. Although still targeting a minimum of two stops per race, Pirelli says the tyres will be more consistent in the way they degrade and be slightly more durable than last season’s, which led to four pit stops at some races. One of the objectives for Pirelli this year is to achieve a crossover point, where the performance of the harder tyre is close enough to the soft that it’s extra durability makes it worth using, rather than More…
Last week we reported a story from technical journalist Giorgio Piola about a clever device Lotus Renault had developed to stabilise the suspension under braking. After initial signals from the FIA that the system would be considered legal, last night it became clear that there has been a change of heart in Paris with a message to teams saying that it will not be allowed during the 2012 season. It contravenes the rules regarding moveable aerodynamic devices. Williams’ senior operations engineer Mark Gillan confirmed the news on Peter Windsor’s “Flying Lap” webcast last night. “The FIA has just banned that More…
We’ve had a big response to the story earlier this week about the new ride height control system on the Lotus Renault using tiny cylinders on the end of the pushrods. There were many questions from readers about whether Lotus could patent the idea. A senior F1 engineer has kindly stepped in to clear up the question of patenting F1 technical ideas for readers. His explanation is below: “The lack of patents in F1 is quite simple. It’s because if a team takes out a patent on a design, that then locks in an advantage the other teams cannot access. More…
In 2010 it was the F Duct, last year the blown diffuser, is this year’s must-have technical gizmo a braking stabilising system, innovated by Lotus? Veteran technical journalist Giorgio Piola is writing that Lotus Renault GP has a system which brings back echoes of the “mass-damper”, one of the innovations when the team was known as Renault, that helped to win it the 2006/6 world championships. According to Piola, the system is mechanical, operated by the driver (like the F Duct) and means that when the driver hits the brakes, it manages the ride height as the front of the More…
Before Christmas break I had the chance to visit the Mercedes F1 engine factory near Northampton and I posted on their analysis of the 2011 season. You can read that post HERE But the final part of the visit was forward looking, with an eye to 2014 and we got a sneak peak at what lies ahead as the engine builders prepare to run prototypes of the new engine on the dyno for the first time in 2012. The new generation of F1 engines for 2014 are small capacity single turbo V6 engines. They will turn the page as far More…
The performance of the Toro Rosso cars at the weekend underlined how much progress the team has made in the second half of the season. But where is the boost coming from and is there a back story to it? Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi both qualified in the top ten in India and Alguersuari raced strongly to another points finish. In the last five races the team has scored 29 points, while rivals Sauber in the same period have scored six and Force India 19. Since Suzuka in particular the Toro Rosso has been making huge strides. In Singapore More…
In the last 24 hours it appears that a clarification has gone out from the FIA’s Charlie Whiting to all teams regarding exotic engine maps, to the effect that they aren’t allowed after the end of this 2011 season. Many engineers I’ve spoken to are rejoicing, because they feel that at last there is clarity on exhausts having an aerodynamic effect by continuing to blow over aerodynamic surfaces while the car is in corners. The feeling is they can all get on with designing a nice F1 car for next year, without worrying about how engine modes are going to More…
With the championship settled, teams are using the final races of the season as a test session looking at “carry over” items, which could be used in 2012. Ferrari’s Nicolas Tombaszis said last week that they would be trying out some new parts, including a new front wing. And so it proved in Korea. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa carried out back to back tests over the weekend, with Alonso taking the wing for the qualifying and race. It featured several Red Bull-esque touches, such as the endplates, the main plane slot and the large top flap, and was considered More…
The accident which killed British racing driver Dan Whedon yesterday in an Indycar race at Las Vegas has raised a number of safety questions, including the wisdom of running 34 open wheel cars on a tight 1.5 mile oval track such as Las Vegas with an average speed of 220mph. But it has also revived discussion about the possible use of canopies to make the drivers safer in the cockpit from flying wheels or debris, as happened with Felipe Massa and Henry Surtees. The FIA Institute has done some work in this area and produced some interesting content in the More…
Each driver has just eight engines to see him through the F1 season. All drivers took a new engine for both Spa and Monza, the two great power circuits, but Singapore not being a power circuit, most drivers used a high mileage engine to do this weekend’s qualifying and race. One of the Ferraris was running an engine that had already done one race weekend and the other had a two race old engine, according to Luigi Fraboni, who is head of Ferrari’s engine operations side and formerly the engine engineer for Schumacher and Raikkonen. At this late stage of More…
McLaren has today announced an interesting partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s leading phamaceuticals companies. The deal is all about McLaren applying know how and technology from years of perfecting the racing game to a corporate environment, such as GSK’s business. It’s something I’ve suggested for some time that F1 could usefully do for the outside world. The sport is all about innovating, adapting, overcoming, planning, reacting quickly, making strategic decisions and building a stable base. Pat Symonds once said that the attitude of the top engineers in F1 should be, “I don’t know how to do that, but More…
Ever since the FIA fired the starting gun on Formula E; a challenge to the motor sport industry to come up with the best model for a premier level electric vehicle international racing series starting in 2013, there have been all kinds of expressions of interest in the tender process. Today the French aerodynamics guru Jean Claude Migeot, who designed the distinctive high nose Tyrrell, driven by Jean Alesi in the early 1990s, has unveiled Formula REV, his vision for how it should be done. Migeot, who now runs the Fondtech wind tunnel business in Italy, used by Team Lotus, More…
This morning I had the chance to drive in the latest generation mobile simulator, which has been designed and built for Shell by ex Ferrari and Red Bull electronics chief Anton Stipinovitch. The simulator, based on a 2009 Ferrari chassis with 2011 electronics, is due to be launched publicly later today, but I had an early go this morning here at the circuit and it’s mind blowing. Stipinovitch’s company, All in Sports, is based in Modena and does a lot of work with Ferrari on their in house simulator. The new mobile version, which Shell plans to take to events More…
The battles over the greening of F1 continue, with Bernie Ecclestone again casting himself in the role of the roadblock. This time he has said that the concept of F1 cars running on electric only in the pit lane – one of the new regulations for 2014 approved by the World Motor Sport Council – is not right for the sport and he will personally see to it that it doesn’t happen. “Formula One is absolutely not the right place to have electric engines. It’s like having ballet dancers with sneakers. More comfortable, but it doesn’t work,” F1′s 80 year More…
It’s now August and although they lead both championships comfortably, Red Bull’s last race victory was in Valencia in June. They have maintained their 100% record in qualifying, but on race day they no longer have the fastest car. In Budapest we saw a reaction with Red Bull mechanics using up one of their four curfew free nights of the season on Friday to work into the small hours on the car to get it right for qualifying and the race. This involved changing the specification of the car from what they had intended to run, with modifications to the More…
With the publication this weekend of the FIA F1 Technical Regulations and talk of the cars running on electric only in the pit lane, one of the things which hasn’t been considered is “electric starts”. A careful reading of the regulations shows that teams are allowed to use electric off the startline from 2014. With the current regulations they must use the petrol engine only at the start and the KERS must only kick in when the car reaches 100km/h. As the 2014 rules are written currently, we could have the opposite situation, with cars using electric only off the More…
The Formula 1 teams have been on notice for a few weeks that the practice of “hot blowing” and “cold blowing” exhaust through the diffusers is to be banned and yesterday the FIA confirmed that this would take effect from Silverstone onwards. Meanwhile the whole concept of blown diffusers will be banned in 2012 as new rules will insist that the exhausts exit out of the back of the car, as in the past. The Technical Working Group, which consists of the FIA’s Charlie Whiting and engineers from all the teams, will meet this week to decide exactly how to More…
There’s a very interesting story on Reuters featuring quotes from Williams chairman Adam Parr about the 2013 engine plans. In light of recent comments from those who are against the move away from V8s towards a ‘greener’ engine, including Bernie Ecclestone and Luca di Montezemolo, Parr says that there is no going back on the direction of travel. He also makes a point I’ve not heard before that with the 2013 engines, when the car is in the pit lane, it will be running on pure electric only, a very interesting step and quite a message, if you think about More…
As a keen recreational cyclist, I love the story of McLaren working with British cycling champion Mark Cavendish and the Specialized cycle brand to produce a killer road bike on which he can compete this season in the great cycling classic events. It had a winning debut with Cavendish’s team mate Matthew Goss this weekend. Road bikes are all about being light and stiff at the same time. The S Works McLaren Venge, as it is called, is made using state of the art carbon fibre layering techniques and the frame weighs just 930 grammes! Cavendish who has been 15 More…
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Räikkönen
Felipe Massa
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber Nico Rosberg
Paul di Resta Jenson Button
Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton Felipe Massa Mark Webber
Romain Grosjean Paul di Resta Nico Rosberg Jenson Button Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Adrian Sutil Nico Hulkenberg Jean-Eric Vergne Esteban Gutierrez Valtteri Bottas
Pastor Maldonado Jules Bianchi Charles Pic
Giedo van der Garde Max Chilton
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