Racecar Engineering September 2015

The Toro Rosso STR10 is designed and built at the former Minardi factory in Faenza, Italy, though this has been substantially upgraded and redeveloped. New buildings have gone up around the site and many new staff have been taken on. ‘Our new STR4 building here in Faenza is nearly complete and will be fully operational this summer’, Franz Tost reveals. ‘It will be attached to the STR3 building and it will mean that we are all finally working under the same roof, drastically improving the team’s internal communications. If we also add the fact that we’ve already improved the wind tunnel in Bicester, UK, as well as making sure that all communications with our colleagues over there run as smoothly as if they were here in Italy, we can be…

The Australian V8 Supercar series has taken a radical step and relaxed its engine regulations, opening up the possibility that smaller capacity turbocharged engines will run alongside its V8s for the first time since 1993. It’s a big decision, but one that organisers felt was necessary to attract new manufacturers which may not produce a 5-litre V8 engine, while current trends in production cars also lent themselves to changing the engine regulations. Cars will have to meet certain criteria, including 5000 must be sold worldwide, be right hand drive, front engine and with four seats. The racing version must have rear wheel drive and the target is that the engines will all have around 635bhp. Where that power is delivered is up to the engine manufacturers as organisers will keep its cumulative…

UK-based sportscar team Strakka Racing is to build an LMP1 car for 2017 and has now called time on its Dome-designed LMP2 project. Strakka will design and build the non-hybrid P1 in-house and has elected to run a Gibson 015S in LMP2 for the rest of this season, while the Strakka Dome S103 it’s campaigned thus far will now be used as a development mule for the LMP1 car. The Silverstone-based outfit says the ACO’s decision to limit LMP2 to just four manufacturers was the reason behind its move to P1 – Strakka decided not to bid for one of the four permits to build P2 for 2017 (see lead story). Strakka team principal Dan Walmsley said: ‘The 2017 LMP2 regulation changes that restrict the number of chassis manufacturers meant we had to…

This year the triangle was completed: LMP1, LMP2 and now LMP3. But actually it’s more of a pyramid than a triangle, as the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) president, Pierre Fillon, explained at the announcement of the new-for-2015 category in July last year: ‘From the base to the summit, we want to make it easy for drivers, teams and constructors to enter endurance [racing]. The LMP3 class is the base of our pyramid devoted to the different LMPs.’ Designed to build a bridge between GT racing and sports prototypes, LMP3 has been prepared to test the limits of bronze badge drivers, while also being user-friendly. Coming with LMP1 safety standards, the LMP3 class has been shaped to offer drivers a prototype experience, but at a reasonable price. Competitors such as Olympic…

Paris in the springtime Formula E has unveiled the calendar for its second season, which will include a race in Paris. The French capital takes the slot vacated by Monaco – which is unavailable as Monte Carlo’s biennial Historic Grand Prix runs in 2016. The Parisian circuit will be built around the historic Les Invalides area, and will open the European leg of the championship at the end of April. The schedule for 2015-2016 will once again be made up of 11 ‘ePrix’ and will begin in Beijing in October, a month later than in 2014. Making history The owner of Silverstone, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC), has started a fundraising campaign to raise money for a new heritage centre to be based at the British Grand Prix venue. It is to…

GP2 has applied to the FIA for the right to run the all-new Formula 2 category, which the governing body for world motorsport plans to reintroduce next year. Formula 2 is to be revived in an effort to consolidate and clarify the single seater ladder, and is to be the final rung after the successful new Formula 4 entry level category and the revitalised Formula 3 European Championship. The new Formula 2 is also to be given a substantial points weighting when it comes to the new points-based superlicence system that comes in in 2016, which should make it more attractive to drivers. However, this could marginalise GP2, which has filled the space under Formula 1 since it took its place on the grand prix bill in 2005, when it took over from…