Mind-blowing facts about an F1 car.....

[JJ Irani]

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT F1:

à F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

à When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!



à F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!

à F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...




à An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)

à At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.



à To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

à Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.



à In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!

à The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 liter family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.

à TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point

à During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.




à Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.

à A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best 20grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.


Amazing, uh?

[DSJ]

I have always been amazed by these vehicles. Thanks for sharing the factoids!

[redshirt1957]

And your post went from 800 to 80 in a nano second!

[tifosi]

These are all the reasons I am fascinated and addicted to Formula1 racing. Nice post JJ!

[JimSnyder]

F1 Rules

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by JimSnyder

F1 Rules

Good stuff, Jim. It's funny how easily these cars fall apart on even the slightest impact.

JJ

[jdc]

Kubica's crash at the Montreal GP shows who tough these cars are and the safety features that exist so drivers walk away from smashes that would have killed them in days gone by
Real life footage and a computer SIM

[Mosco]

Impressive facts, JJ!

[JimSnyder]

The Duel, Villeneuve and this was for "2nd" place

[frostie]

1. F1 Drivers cannot breath on high speed cornering and that's because they are subjected to high G forces due to the grip of the car

2. Formula 1 cars have over a kilometre of cable, linked to about 100 sensors
and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.

3. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of
approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while
braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of steel
but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wear
and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.

4. In an F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm,(the
piston travelling up and down 300 times a second!!) wheres cars like
the palio, maruti 800,indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times
slower.

5. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system
would empty in just over a second.

6. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced
regularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high degrees of
stress.

7. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must
be removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latch
behind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles for
changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick!
The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gear
paddles.

8. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres.
Most racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a
more consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically
contains varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its expansion
and contraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure
unpredictable.

[Alcan]

Should be even more interesting for 2009 with KERS in place. The FIA has already defined the amount of energy recovery it will allow for the 2009 season, which is 400 kilojoules per lap, translating into an extra 80 hp over a period of 6.67 seconds per lap.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Mosco

Impressive facts, JJ!

Yes indeed......especially the bit about the manhole covers having to be welded down!!

[frostie]

And here is the accelaration


Forward acceleration

The 2006 F1 cars have a power-to-weight ratio of 1,250 hp (932 kW)/tonne (0.9 kW/kg). Theoretically this would allow the car to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 1 second. However the massive power cannot be converted to motion at low speeds due to traction loss, and the usual figure is 2 seconds to reach 100 km/h (62 mph). After about 130 km/h (81 mph) traction loss is minimal due to the combined effect of the car moving faster and the downforce, hence the car continues accelerating at a very high rate. The figures are (for the 2006 Renault R26):

0 to 100 km/h (62 mph): 1.7 seconds
0 to 200 km/h (124 mph): 3.8 seconds
0 to 300 km/h (186 mph): 8.6 seconds*

* Figures may alter slightly depending on the aerodynamic setup.

The acceleration figure is usually 1.45 g (14.25 m/s²) up to 200 km/h (124 mph), which means the driver is pushed back in the seat with 1.45 times his bodyweight.

[JJ Irani]

Great info, Velitsko!! Many thanks!!

[frostie]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

Great info, Velitsko!! Many thanks!!

No problem JJ

[swatty]

Great info, JJ and Frostie
They are trully amazing to watch live. The noise and speed just doesn't come across on TV .

[Lion]

Gentlemen, Thanx for all the great information and video clips. Formula 1 racing rules!!!

[bodybump]

very nice JJ..thanks for sharing!!!

[wanasub]

Two weeks to go!!

[MrRetep]

Wow! Okay so where do i get one of these?

thanks JJ and Frostie

[Gedanken]

Originally Posted by JimSnyder

The Duel, Villeneuve and this was for "2nd" place

Ah, back in the days when you didn't lose all grip fifty metres behind the next guy - now THAT's racing!

Villeneuve/Arnoux is one of my two favourite bits of F1 footage. Here's the other:



Forget horsepower. Forget aerodynamics. Forget all of the electronic doodads they packed into the FW14B. In a wet race, none of it mattered to the absolute greatest racer of all time, hands down.

I love what the commentator said about Schumacher's maneuver - in years to come drivers aplenty whinged about Schumacher shoving them off the track, but Senna just drove around him easy as you please.

[Toxicant]

An F1 car has so much down force, you could drive it upside down after reaching 100mph I believe.

F1 engines do not uses head gaskets, machining is that close.

There are tons of things these missiles can do, just to bad that they can no longer be the un-restricted machines they once were.

Technology is so advanced that if the teams had no restrictions they could create a car that could generate such high G-forces no one could drive it to its potential.

Go Kimi!

[frostie]

Unbelievable how much R&D goes into F1 cars

[JimSnyder]

Let's talk teams and drivers. For me
Ferrari
Kimi Räikkönen'

[jdc]

Originally Posted by JimSnyder

Let's talk teams and drivers. For me
Ferrari
Kimi Räikkönen'

Fangio, Jim Clark, and the best for me Senna.
This year should see a lot of closer racing I think Alonso will be a surprise and maybe Brawn GP the other dark horses. Ferrari will be strong but Kimi has a lot to prove this season and I think Massa will out do him. BMW and Kubica will be strong challengers.
Hamilton will have to go it alone again for Mclaren as Kovalainen is not good enough, but Mclaren seem to have problems with the new car and it does not seem competitive for the Melbourne GP. I will be following Hamiliton.

[Gedanken]

I'm hoping the rule changes will level out the playing field and that we won't have a championship decided primarily by equipment.

If that is the case, we'll see Alonso and Kubica cometo the fore - they've already shown what they can do with equipment that's less than the class of its field. Hamilton's yet to show that he can bring the bacon home when the car isn't great and Raikonnen's always been on a performance roller coaster - some days he's great and some days he seems happy to cruise - I expect Massa will outshine him.

[jdc]

Just be announced that the championship will not be decided by points but the driver with most wins.

[Latrodectus]

Thanks for posting those facts. I am a huge F1 fan and can not wait until the races start again in a few weeks. I would like to experience the 4 seconds of speed and brake power mentioned...several times. I think that would be great. I like a plane taking off as well and the power of the brakes after landing...

[JimSnyder]

Slicks are back

[jdc]

Originally Posted by JimSnyder

Slicks are back

nice one Jim