Racecar Engineering August 2022

Technical directives (TDs) are publications used for directing the action and recording of modifications, re-positioning, operational improvement or an alteration in the characteristics of the equipment to which it applies. TD changes are typically implemented outside of regular procedural review intervals within the industry in question and act as an update to them as a function of data collected during operation. Motorsport sanctioning bodies reserve the right to implement TDs when they deem it appropriate to do so on reasonable grounds, such as safety. However, because the foundations around which a governing body can implement a TD affect the scope for performance in the concerned areas, there are often winners and losers after its delivery, shortly followed by leveraging of the new policy under the circumstances in which a Technical Directive is…

Porsche has taken the wraps off its new LMDh challenger, which will carry the company’s fortunes in endurance racing on both sides of the Atlantic. The 963 marks the return of the German manufacturer to endurance racing for the first time since the end of the 919 Hybrid LMP1 programme in 2017. Then, Porsche pulled the plug on its project mid-way through its agreement with the FIA World Endurance Championship, but the company has been encouraged back to endurance racing by the new regulation set that allows it to build a hybrid Prototype for significantly less money than before. The original plan was to return Porsche to its glory days of the 956s and 962s of the 1980s, with cars run in customer hands in endurance racing around the world. To that…

Quite simply, the Toyotas had the pace to win… although BoP showed the Glickenhaus 007 and Alpine were closer on overall lap times compared to 2021, they were not in the hunt over a race stint Toyota scored its fifth successive win at the 90th edition of the Le Mans 24 hours, with Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Rio Hirakawa taking the victory ahead of their team mates, Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi. Glickenhaus, meanwhile, saw its two cars come home third and fourth, with Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux taking the final spot on the podium after a relatively trouble-free race. Unsurprisingly, Balance of Performance was a hot topic ahead of the race, with Alpine penalised after qualifying within four tenths of the Toyotas after Thursday’s Hyperpole…

In July 1984, a 12-year-old English lad was so enthralled as he watched Niki Lauda win the 1984 British Grand Prix in the McLaren-TAG MP4/2 that he vowed to not only work in Formula 1 as an engineer but, ultimately, to do so by joining McLaren. Via a somewhat circuitous route that saw him take up an apprenticeship with Lotus before graduating as a mechanical engineer, he realised his ambition in 2019. I want to encourage people who want to go into engineering That youngster was James Key, now technical director at McLaren, who led the design of the 2021 MCL35M (M for Mercedes), an evolution of the Renault-powered MCL35. In September last year, the MCL35M scored a one-two in Monza, a momentous day for Key and vindication for his chosen career path,…

RE: During your time in F1, you’ve worked with virtually every power unit supplier, and almost every configuration: V10, V8, with and without hybrid units, Ferrari, Renault, Ford, Cosworth, Mercedes… JK: You can add Toyota to that list. RE: What are the major differences in approach and modus operandi? JK: They were all very different. Not only do they have different architectures and so on, but their facilities, the approach, that sort of thing. There wasn’t a set formula. It was all done differently, depending on the supplier you’re working with. The way the data is formatted and presented is different, so are the details, the electrical installations and systems and voltages, their cooling systems… Everything is totally different. When it came to installing another power unit in the car after a change, there was very…

RE: You seem to have really enjoyed your time at Nottingham University, so much so that you’ve founded a scholarship for engineering students whose annual household income is under £35,000 (approx. $43,000) JK: Yes, I had a brilliant time at university. It was a really special time in my life, although maybe it should have been weighted a bit more toward the academic side, rather than the 50 / 50 studies and enjoying myself it was! I’ve since set up a scholarship there to help engineers from disadvantaged backgrounds to go through it, because it was a great place to be and I wanted to give something back. I want to encourage people who want to go into engineering so, as well as the scholarship there, I’ve also provided support for their Formula…