Racecar Engineering February 2020

The F1 drag reduction system (DRS) was introduced in 2011 as a means of enlivening racing, as the aero effects of following a car into a corner effectively made it impossible to be close enough to overtake down the next straight. In a nutshell, the array of flaps, vortex conditioners, vortex generators, wings and diffusers on the leading racecar do sterling work to generate the maximum amount of downforce with the least amount of drag, but the wake that is thrown behind that racecar, very turbulent, can cut the downforce of the following car enormously. There is laminar flow, where air runs along the surfaces and has a gradually increasing but thin boundary layer, and there is turbulent flow. The more complex the flow pattern of the air the car is running…

Global warming and the contribution that petrol and diesel-powered vehicles make to this are hot topics. The huge part that agricultural, industrial, transport and marine diesels play in this seems to be conveniently overlooked in favour of the political game of targeting cars. I could devote the whole of this column to the fallacies that surround the headlong rush for all-electric, but this is not what Racecar Engineering is about. Instead, I want to highlight one of the contradictory automotive avenues in which motor racing appears set to play a part. Roborace is being touted as a great proving ground, technically and for reasons of perception, for self-driving cars. I fail to see, aside from those who are addicted to computer gaming, the point in this driver-less racing car concept –…

IndyCar’s Aeroscreen was widely considered to be more aesthetically pleasing than the Halo, but that wasn’t the reason why it was adopted Motor racing purists, it seems, have lost the argument over whether single seaters should carry head protection. Halos are now common on many high-level single seaters, including Formula 1, F2, F3 and Super Formula. More importantly, since its introduction in 2018, the then much-maligned device has been credited with saving the lives of race drivers in F1, F2 and F3. Now, two years on from the debut of the Halo, IndyCar will introduce its head protection system into competition for the first time. The Aeroscreen has been developed by IndyCar in collaboration with Red Bull Advanced Technologies, and although the construction of the structure is totally different to that of…

The introduction of the new IndyCar chassis has now been delayed at least until 2022, partly due to the aero team focussing on the Aeroscreen. The initial plan was to change chassis in 2021, giving the teams a year adapting to it and then bring in the hybrid engine in 2022, but the new chassis may not be available until 2023 now, according to Tino Belli. The new chassis is in the early planning stages and the design targets are only now being set. They will be based on the outgoing DW12, which was introduced in 2012 but which has been extensively developed since. ‘The DW12 monocoque has been strengthened considerably pretty much on a yearly basis, and we have never gone back and measured the strength of the DW12,’ Belli…

From a branding perspective, GM wanted its top models represented on the race track In 2020, Chevrolet will be the only manufacturer introducing a revised body into NASCAR’s Cup series, with the arrival of the Camaro ZL1 LE. Due to the series gaining an all new regulations package for 2021 (which is detailed on page 24), this car will only run for a single season. In 2018, Chevrolet brought the Camaro body style to the top level of stock car racing, replacing the short-lived SS (the US market version of the Holden Commodore) which in turn had usurped the long serving Impala. Now there’s a new version for 2020. ‘The Next Gen car was then still in the planning stages and I don’t think that even NASCAR thought it could happen for 2021’ Single…

The 2021 season will see a seismic shift in NASCAR, with all-new regulations moving the cars away from a template that has remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s. The current NASCAR Cup machinery retains many features that have been present for decades, not the least of which are chassis that feature ‘truck arm’ rear suspension, live rear axles and steering boxes rather than racks. The ‘Next Gen’ Cup car will be a radical (by NASCAR standards) departure from the current Gen 6 machines. Tubeframe chassis will be retained, but the fabricated steel suspension set-ups, consisting of A-arms at the front and truck arms and live axle at the rear, will be replaced with machined uprights and double wishbones front and rear. The first prototype chassis were designed by Dallara in conjunction…