Racecar Engineering January 2018

The evolutionary dead end in F1 development and technology is rule-driven The banner of ‘red hot tip of technology’ is often waved about in any discussion about F1 and what it should be; it’s over-arching ethos. Well, it has been true in some departments, but not because of motorsport’s ingrained belief in it. Motor racing in this era is really a business, which incidentally ends up attracting new technology, but does not in itself generate any by its very nature, except in some very specialised areas. Aerospace does, but only because it is inextricably entwined with defence, for which spending is often not to be questioned and budgets for it tend to be of the blank-cheque variety, going directly against Lord Kelvin’s observation: ‘Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance…

Most people cannot fully appreciate the scale of the task of producing and supplying a competitive, and reliable, contemporary Formula 1 power unit The seemingly endless debate regarding reduction in F1 power unit costs feels to have been going on as long as Britain’s political strife concerning the EU. With about as much progress. Money, ambition and ego will always form the background agenda, and the real objective mainly depends on from what end of the spectrum any change is being viewed. However, taking the view that something along the lines of the latest proposed 2021 regulations (basically higher-revving 1.6-litre V6 single-turbo KERS hybrids without MG-H and with peripheral expenditure contained, see page 36) is finally settled upon, what chances really exist for a truly independent power unit supplier to offer a…

The 2018 Vantage is almost completely new – Aston Martin Racing says that there are just five carry-over parts from the old model This might seem strange for a car that is not due to make its race debut for more than seven months, but Aston Martin was right up against it when it launched its new Vantage, which will contest the FIA WEC ‘Super Season’ in 2018/19. The timing of the road car launch on which it is based, and the development of the GTE Vantage, meant that the team could not attend the Ladoux test in France in September, and was developing the racecar right up until it completed its homologation process at the Windshear facility in North Carolina in November – all the new cars and evo kits had…

This first shakedown really signals the end of the design phase and the start of the development phases Bloodhound SSC wowed LSR (Land Speed Record) fans and international media as the car completed its first public shakedown runs at Newquay Airport in the UK at the end of October. Everything went pretty much according to plan for the Bloodhound team, with a very minor brake fire the only drama of the day. But while that might not sound so dramatic, the emotions from within the team were palpable. It was one of those witnessing grown men cry moments as the car did its first public high-speed runway runs. The team has been together for about 10 years and many before that were involved in the previous Thrust SSC record. So few teams…

‘I don’t feel that entertainment and technology are against each other’ There was no fanfare, just a statement put out in September by the FIA that Gilles Simon would take on the responsibility of head of Technical at the organisation. The Frenchman is a longtime associate of FIA President Jean Todt, and has previously worked at the FIA as technical and powertrain director, until he moved to stillborn engine manufacturer PURE. He was then, until recently, working with Honda in Formula 1 as a consultant. It’s fair to say that Simon has stepped into the position at a very difficult time. Formula 1 is currently looking to finalise its 2021 engine regulations and there are disputes over how these might finally look (see page 36). The WEC has lost Porsche and Audi,…

The FIA says it has six manufacturers interested in its 2020 regulations One of the big tasks facing the FIA WEC is to attract new manufacturers to the series. Audi left in 2016 and Porsche announced its withdrawal a year later. This left Toyota as the last to show its hand. Porsche’s handling of its withdrawal clearly rankles with the FIA. ‘I think that the problem that we may face in many championships, and we face in the endurance championship, is that you discuss the regulation with a small group of manufacturers, and then they go off,’ says Gilles Simon. ‘Obviously, motor racing means being submitted to the possibilities that an OEM can withdraw from one date to another, some are committing to a long term, and that gives an image…