New Enthusiast Has Some Burning Questions..

[razami 0]

howdy people

Ive got a lot of questions regarding forumla 1 which i simply can't seem to wrap my head around so i was wondering if somebody would be kind enough to shed some light on them for me? If you can't thats cool but if you could i'd be very appreciative!

1) what exactly can drivers tweak to make there own car "personal" ? outside of steering wheel size, button layout, where the peddles are? I hear so much about customisation but what else is optional?

2) teams talk about setting up the car for the track, in terms of monaco i know they raise them due to it not being an officla race track and thus has things like water drains/grids but outside of that what else is possible?

3) how do drivers know they are in the 1 second DRS zone? do they simply judge it by distance? eyesight? do the team radio over?

4) why do they have 2 clutches on the reer of the streering wheel? and why is one held in fully at the start and one only half? i was always under the impression all gearboxes used single clutches to essentialy slide out of one gear into another

5) where is the water located for a driver to drink during a race? is there a straw inside his helmet?

6) ive always been under the assumption that 4 wheel driver vehicles have far better traction/grip than reer wheel, why is this not implemented in forumla one?

7) how is it possible that one car has "more pace" some weekends than another but this can then alter from race to race? surely the suspension, enginge, aero package generates a top speed of the car which the team would not deliberatley ever lower?

8) is hamiltons helmet an homeage to senna? the colour scheme seems very similar

9) what do the numbers on the front of the cars mean? example; alonso is 5

10) why are the FIA so restrictive on design of cars? for example; the adrian newey car for GT5 is what i consider to be an evolution of the technology at present and yet teams are not allowed to build the ultimate racing machine?

I do apologise if this are the most novice of questions but id really be thankful if anbody could spare a moment to help

thanks in advance

[HandyNZL 1]

howdy people

Ive got a lot of questions regarding forumla 1 which i simply can't seem to wrap my head around so i was wondering if somebody would be kind enough to shed some light on them for me? If you can't thats cool but if you could i'd be very appreciative!

1) what exactly can drivers tweak to make there own car "personal" ? outside of steering wheel size, button layout, where the peddles are? I hear so much about customisation but what else is optional? Drivers don't really "tweak" a whole lot. They have seat fittings, which means that they sit on top of a bean bag that is in the c#ckpit, into which a gel is inserted and the chemical magic between gel and bean makes it solidify and shape itself around the body, thus making the seat sit nice and tight against the driver (or vice versa). This is agreat thing to do to warm up on a cold day as the reaction of the two chemicals is nice and warm. Also, they will have grips moulded on the steering wheels to suit their mits. During a race, they can control brake bias (move it to the front or rear - you want more front at some corners, and less at others depending on how much over/understeer you are comfortable with), engine mapping (tune up or down the revs), fuel mix (make it lean by letting in more air), and a few other things that all their knobs and buttons activate on the steering wheel. But these are all minor things done outside of car setup which is determined during practice / on the simulator at HQ.

2) teams talk about setting up the car for the track, in terms of monaco i know they raise them due to it not being an officla race track and thus has things like water drains/grids but outside of that what else is possible? Cars need to be set up in various ways to suit the track, and different things affect performance. In general though, what the driver is doing is getting the car as comfortable to his liking as possible whereby he can keep his foot planted for a greater percentage of the lap including through corners, which is where cars are ultimately determined to be fast or slow over a lap. It is not good enough to just be fast in a straight line - if you can't carry that speed (or most of it) through and out of a corner, then you are going to be slower. If you exit a corner 5km/h slower than the next guy, then he is always going to be 5km/h faster down the straight and into the next corner - add that up over various corners and various laps and you have HRT vs Ferrari. Things that they alter are: rideheight - higher rear reduces understeer, higher front reduces oversteer; anti-roll bar stiffness - stiffer at the rear reduces understeer, stiffer at the front reduces oversteer; tyre pressures - more pressure equates to more heat, more heat can be good or bad, also different pressures will affect under and over steer as well - generally the fronts will be lower than the rears; downforce - more on the front reduces understeer, more on the rear reduces oversteer; castor and camber of wheels produces reductions or gains in bump steer (the cars ability to self steer and nothing really to do with bumps on the track) - open wheelers are set up opposite to your road car - the wheels are set so that they pigeon toe in opposite directions to aid....wait for it....cornering; gear ratios - these are set so that the engine hits the rev limiter right at the end of the longest straight in top gear, they then work backwards from there - your top gear determines you ultimate top speed. Some times they will sacrifice top end speed for torque and drive through corners by setting it lower, and having a closer range of gears for said corners.

3) how do drivers know they are in the 1 second DRS zone? do they simply judge it by distance? eyesight? do the team radio over? A light illuminates on their steering wheel or dashboard. They then push their DRS button, and the wing opens. As soon as they touch the brakes, it closes (or is supposed to)

4) why do they have 2 clutches on the reer of the streering wheel? and why is one held in fully at the start and one only half? i was always under the impression all gearboxes used single clutches to essentialy slide out of one gear into another Because of the high revs and high torque at race start, they need two clutches so that they don't do damage to the gears. During the race, however, the clutch is not used. The gears are straight cut and therefore they slide into each other easily - your road car has helical cut gears, and these need to be stopped from rotating when you change gears otherwise you will crunch your gears and destroy them. There is nothing sweeter than driving down a track, hitting your change point and just lifting your foot a little and jamming your gear lever into its new gear on the upshift - pop and in she goes and your foot is straight back down (I race a Formual Ford)...downshifts are a little trickier in that you need to blip the engine to the correct rev range to slide the gears in...so a clutch comes in handy there, plus you can use the clutch to engine brake a little too....but as for F1, the brains on board (no not the driver) takes care of all teh blipping and rev matching, so they just hit their flippers and change gear, and use the clutch only when starting, driving off from the pits, or if they are spinning and don't want to stall.

5) where is the water located for a driver to drink during a race? is there a straw inside his helmet? A bottle inside the c#ckpit, and yes a straw goes in through the helmet

6) ive always been under the assumption that 4 wheel driver vehicles have far better traction/grip than reer wheel, why is this not implemented in forumla one? To put it in the immortal words of Bruce McLaren (founder of McLaren) after testing a 4WD race car: it was like "trying to write your signature with someone constantly jogging your elbow". 4WD requires a drive shaft and second differential - this is all extra weight. Also, as the drivers bottom is a mere 80mm off the race track, the drive shaft needs to go around the driver, and not under, thus requiring some pretty stupid driveshaft angles, all of which would unblance the cars due to off set weight distribution and having a spinning mass off to one side of the car. c#ckpit areas would need to be wider, meaning there is more frontal area to the car (not good for aero) and the already minute radiators would be further pressed for space. There was a push for 4WD in the late 60's but everyone quickly came to the conclusion that they were pigs.

7) how is it possible that one car has "more pace" some weekends than another but this can then alter from race to race? surely the suspension, enginge, aero package generates a top speed of the car which the team would not deliberatley ever lower? Tyres my son...tyres. They are the most fundamental thing to have working on your car. They are what stop you from sliding, and they are what puts the power from the engine to the road. Without them, you are slow. With them, you are fast.

8) is hamiltons helmet an homeage to senna? the colour scheme seems very similar Yes it is. He has a bromance for Senna.

9) what do the numbers on the front of the cars mean? example; alonso is 5 The geezer that wins the drivers championship from the previous year gets number ONE. His teammate gets number TWO. The rest of the cars are numbered according to where the team came in the championship. ie, McLaren came second, so they have numbers 3 and 4. Ferrari came third so they have 5 and 6. And so on. There is no number 13. Teams (other than the world champ team) choose who gets what number...this is why Schumachers number is lower than Rosberg's even though Rosberg has beaten Schumacher in all seasons raced together thus far. Car numbers used to be differently assigned, but they have been assigned this way now for about 15-20 years.

10) why are the FIA so restrictive on design of cars? for example; the adrian newey car for GT5 is what i consider to be an evolution of the technology at present and yet teams are not allowed to build the ultimate racing machine? The answer is in the name of the category "FORMULA". The cars must conform to a set of prescribed rules. They are what they are, and they are not trying to make a dragster. Having a formula also guarantees that within obvious limits, racing does not come down to just money. Obviously with an open rule book, and an open cheque book, you could make a monster - however this is not fair on the smaller teams, whom would soon surely shrivel up and die. They have enough problems in keeping up now as it is, with restricted design. Without it and you would end up with only two or three teams....much like prototype racing (Audi v Peogeut / Audi v Toyota.....and no other teams close)

I do apologise if this are the most novice of questions but id really be thankful if anbody could spare a moment to help

No worries - stick around, learn more...hassle Brad....

thanks in advance

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Why you decided to answer in red is beyond me, at the 2nd answer my eyes were hurting.

Have to keep on have to keep on....

Try green next time...

FFS

btw, very informative, pity about that dreadful colour...

[HandyNZL 1]

:P to Brad

[Grabthaw the Hammerslayer 4]

Well it was "burning" questions, so should be in red

Craig, you can answer my "burning" question - I have this rash......

[dribbler 6]

btw, very informative, pity about that dreadful colour...

Yep.

Apart from negating to mention that in Monaco, a different steering rack is used in order to facilitate more steering lock through Lowes.

Welcome, Razami.

[AleHop 0]

Nice reply by Craig (HandyNZL).

It could be nicer in blue though.

[razami 0]

thanks a lot for the reply handy, i feel each year involved in f1 i find out more and more about the sport but my learning is never really complete. i started with history, the drivers, the tracks and now im leaning towards the more technical aspect of the cars.

thanks again

[Delta 0]

howdy people

Ive got a lot of questions regarding forumla 1 which i simply can't seem to wrap my head around so i was wondering if somebody would be kind enough to shed some light on them for me? If you can't thats cool but if you could i'd be very appreciative!

1) what exactly can drivers tweak to make there own car "personal" ? outside of steering wheel size, button layout, where the peddles are? I hear so much about customisation but what else is optional?

Just about everything. Ride height, suspension geometry, differential, gear ratios, break pad material, aero balance, front wing angle, rear wing angle... If there's something that can be tweaked it can be driver dependant

2) teams talk about setting up the car for the track, in terms of monaco i know they raise them due to it not being an officla race track and thus has things like water drains/grids but outside of that what else is possible?

Various ways. Aero balance, gear ratios, throttle maps, engine fuel mixture, size of break calipers, break cooling, engine and gearbox cooling, break disk size, ride height, suspension geometry, suspension stiffness... and plenty of others

3) how do drivers know they are in the 1 second DRS zone? do they simply judge it by distance? eyesight? do the team radio over?

A light flashes on their steering wheel to indicate when DRS is available

4) why do they have 2 clutches on the reer of the streering wheel? and why is one held in fully at the start and one only half? i was always under the impression all gearboxes used single clutches to essentialy slide out of one gear into another

Although teams use these buttons for various means apart from what has already been mentioned in terms of launch maps, some teams also have buttons that can change engine maps at various points around the map, for example to give them better traction out of some corners. Something McLaren were known to do

5) where is the water located for a driver to drink during a race? is there a straw inside his helmet?

The straw runs into the helmet, the bottle is usually located under the driver's seat although it's positioning varies team to team

6) ive always been under the assumption that 4 wheel driver vehicles have far better traction/grip than reer wheel, why is this not implemented in forumla one?

As mentioned above, mainly for technical reasons

7) how is it possible that one car has "more pace" some weekends than another but this can then alter from race to race? surely the suspension, enginge, aero package generates a top speed of the car which the team would not deliberatley ever lower?

Hard to explain, the design of some cars just suits them more to some circuits than others

8) is hamiltons helmet an homeage to senna? the colour scheme seems very similar

Despite Lewis's love for Senna, it's a false assumption of a lot of people that his helmet colour is for that reason. It was initially chosen so his father could tell him apart from other drivers and it seems it's just stuck with him through his career

9) what do the numbers on the front of the cars mean? example; alonso is 5

The #1 driver is the driver that previously won the world championship (and his team mate will be #2) the others are assigned sequentially in order of where their teams finished in the constructor's championship (so for example the second placed constructor would have numbers 3 and 4), it's up to the team to decide which of their 2 allocated numbers each driver runs.

10) why are the FIA so restrictive on design of cars? for example; the adrian newey car for GT5 is what i consider to be an evolution of the technology at present and yet teams are not allowed to build the ultimate racing machine?

Originally it was simply a matter of increasing the challenge. Formula 1 is as much a technical challenge as it is a driver's championship, and restricting where the cars could be developed forced designers to think more creatively about their designs. Since then other changes have been made to increase safety by reducing the amount of downforce cars generate, and to reduce cost by limiting development in areas not easily noticed by spectators

[HandyNZL 1]

Yeah...what I said lol - you're just going for bonus points by not using red

[Argento Reloaded 1]

7) When you design a car -or something else- you take a lot of decisions in advance, making assumptions and resolving compromises (most obvious is corner grip vs. straight line speed). But when a the result depends on too many factors the over develop of a few of them will be against the overall performance, so you need a balanced package for every track and every racing conditions something almost impossible even today. For example we saw some cars struggling with brakes at canada: some teams change their brakes -design, airflow, or even supplier- only for this race; others don´t. Canada puts a unique stress on the whole braking system and some teams can´t afford the extra cost or others has more "brain" to resolve the problem.

Summing up, despite the relative overall performance of one car, is very important the racing conditions of each weekend hit the "sweet spot" of the car design.