Racecar Engineering September 2019

Knowing what the weather will do is a big part of race preparation and strategy. Just dry is easy; temperature and track rubbering-up and knowing your compounds and degradation, all fairly predictable. Full wet, ditto, but with the added problem of aquaplaning, when the water film between rubber and surface can actually lift the rubber from contact reducing your grip level enormously. The antidote to this are sculpted tyres with grooves to channel the water away and maintain rubber contact. These full wet tyres are the most effective solution for heavy rain. The grooves can evacuate 85 litres of water per second per tyre at 300km/h. On an average track that is around 25,000 litres of water per lap, or to put it another way, half the volume of an 2,500,000-litre…

Hurrah! At last, after a very long time, the penny has dropped and today as I sat down to write this column came the happy news that F1 is finally adopting controlled ground-effect aerodynamics in its major rules revamp for 2021. Why this should have taken so long is beyond me, considering that flat-bottoms were brought in as a panic measure decades ago. However, time to look forward and for chassis designers and engineers this should be an exciting, if hectic, period ahead. The opportunity to start with a clean CAD screen (drawing board for Adrian Newey) containing basically the dimensions mandated by the FIA and the fundamental need to accommodate driver, fuel and power unit must be unique in recent times. Concept rather than just endless iteration is surely a…

With its 2019 911 RSR GTE Porsche has developed a car that is 95 per cent new Porsche used the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July to launch its new Le Mans contender, a racecar which sure does have a lot to live up to. Its predecessor, launched just two years ago, has won the world championship title in both GTE Pro and Am this year and is on course to secure the titles in the IMSA series in the US. It was also victorious at Le Mans in 2018. Little wonder then that some suggest it is probably good enough to do another year, and they may be right. But Porsche did not want to stand still and in the 2019 version of the 911 RSR GTE it has developed a…

Body Weight-optimised bodyshell in aluminium-steel composite design; removable roof hatch; FT3 fuel cell in the front of the car; welded-in roll cage; aerodynamically-optimised and quick-release body components made of CFRP; rear wing with swan neck mounts. Engine Water-cooled 6-cylinder boxer positioned in front of the rear axle; capacity, 4194cc; stroke 81.5mm; bore 104.5mm; power, 378kW (515bhp) depending of restrictor; 4-valve technology; direct fuel injection; dry sump lubrication; single mass flywheel; power output limitation via restrictor; electronic throttle; side-exit exhaust system. Transmission Weight-optimised 6-speed sequential constant-mesh gearbox; twin-shaft longitudinal layout with bevel gear; shifting via electronic shift actuator; shift paddles on the steering wheel; magnesium gearbox casing; multi-disc self-locking differential with visco unit; three disc carbon race clutch. Suspension Front axle: double wishbone; four-way vibration damper with coil spring set-up; anti-roll bars, adjustable by blade position; electro-hydraulic power…

Formula 1’s only official B team was created out of what was once Minardi when Red Bull acquired the Faenza, Italy based outfit. The team that was the result of this, Scuderia Toro Rosso, now exists chiefly to give young drivers an opportunity to prove that they are worthy of a seat in the main Red Bull Racing team, and the title challenging expectations that come with this. Despite this unique driver-focussed approach the Toro Rosso team has always done things its own way technically, and that was the case even when it was using chassis designed by Red Bull Racing. Yet with its 2019 F1 car the team has in fact taken something of a different direction, in terms of both the aerodynamic development and the car build. Work on what…

Chassis Moulded composite monocoque. Engine Honda RA619H (see page 26). Transmission Red Bull Technologies (2018 specification) composite casing with Xtrac internals; eight forward gears, one reverse; multi-plate carbon fibre clutch. Suspension Unequal length carbon fibre double wishbone, with pushrod actuated torsion bars (front), pullrod actuated (rear); Inboard front parts and all rear components supplied by Red Bull Technology. Brakes Carbon-carbon with Brembo calipers to Toro Rosso design. Tyres Pirelli. Weight 743kg minimum (80kg driver minimum).…