Racecar Engineering May 2022

The 2022 minimum weight limit for F1 cars, including a set 80kg driver mass, has been raised by over five per cent to 795kg. A further increase of 3kg was ratified by the FIA World Motorsport Council in March, as teams struggled to get down even to this figure. Reasons for this include the new regulations incorporating mandatory parts such as bigger wheels, wheel covers and front wheel air deflectors, plus added safety items, although some weight savings have been made by the outlawing of inerters, hydraulic suspension systems and bargeboards. Nevertheless, by the time the cars line up on the grid with a tank of fuel onboard, they will be around 900kg, or close to one metric ton. This makes them the heaviest F1 machines ever, comparable only to the pre-WW2…

Just as we escape Covid and recover, unexpected business challenges arise that will dominate management for the foreseeable future, just one of which is conflict caused by Russia. Many pitfalls consequently await the unwary: inconsistent supplies; daily rising costs; payment difficulties; stock control; staff recruitment, to name a few. The basic laws of supply and demand will be tested to the full, and the resilience learned through motorsport will be required. In the early 1990s, as the USSR collapsed, the US military identified the challenges ahead at the time as Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, hence VUCA. Currently, as management in our industry has to overcome remarkably similar challenges, I recommend you read about VUCA. In a nutshell, Volatility describes the intensity of fluctuation over a period of time, while Uncertainty arises…

Despite at least four years of collective research by some of the best brains in Formula 1, using the most sophisticated tools at their disposal, the overriding reactions as the sport’s ‘new era’ cars got up to speed during pre-season shakedowns in Barcelona (full-blown test sessions followed a week later in Bahrain) were of sheer nervousness – about both teams’ own performances, and those of their peers. Much has been written about the methodologies and research that went into the 2022 regulations, designed to reduce ‘dirty’ air, thereby (theoretically, at least) upping the chances of running closely enough to overtake, but the acid test came in Bahrain, rather than Barcelona, where teams spent three days checking systems, rather than indulging in close proximity running. Pre-shakedown, there had been widespread fears that the…

The consensus throughout the Formula 1 paddock is that the 2022 technical regulations see the most significant changes to any rule set in the sport’s history. At time of writing, the 2022 season was about to get underway, with both pre-season tests complete and teams carrying out final engineering on the cars ahead of the first race in Bahrain. The journey into the new era of the sport has been a bumpy one so far, in every sense of the word, as teams faced a plethora of technical challenges throughout the testing weeks, primarily revolving around so-called porpoising – a bouncing phenomenon caused by the car’s inability to control its platform, stemming from extreme swings in downforce generated by the ground-effect aerodynamics. However, the chances for teams to explore how their…

The 2022 Formula 1 cars adorned with the long-awaited, and then Covid-19 postponed, technical regulation changes finally arrived at the Circuit de Barcelona-Cataluña for pre-season testing at the end of February. At the initial test came the first glimpses of the challenges the teams face in this new era of the sport, and for the teams, the first chance to explore the potential of their radically re-designed machines. With the regulations being a case of revolution rather than evolution, designers started from a clean sheet of paper, working with rules that have simplified the aerodynamics, emphasising the underside of the car, and accounting for larger diameter, low-profile tyres. The only carryover from the previous seasons is a team’s ability to produce a competitive car. This was no different for Scuderia AlphaTauri and…

Toyota may have had a dominant season in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, having won every round, but that did not mean that the team could stand still for 2022. Having completed the first season of the Hypercar era against opposition from Alpine and Glickenhaus, there were a few issues with the team’s GR010 that needed to be addressed for the forthcoming campaign. Upgrades to the aerodynamic kit were introduced over the winter in order to accommodate the rapidly changing regulations, designed to bring the cars into line through Balance of Performance. The team introduced a new tyre size, changing from 31in tyres all round to a narrower 29 at the front and 34 at the rear, similar to LMDh tyre sizes, to accommodate the change in weight distribution since the…