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JonnyWeir

Questions About F1

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G'day,

I've always liked F1 but it's only recently that I've started following it closely. That said, I've got a few questions that I'd really like an answer to that have been bugging me for a while. Sorry for bothering you all with these but there's no place on the internet I can find that clearly explains all the rules.

1. What's the difference between hard and soft tyres? Hard = speed and soft = grip?

2. Are teams no longer allowed a spare car?

3. What was a "qualifying shoot out"? Are they still around?

4. What do all the flags mean?

5. Do engines have to last more than one race?

6. What is 'camber'?

7. Can anybody explain (in stupid person's terms) what torque means, realistically?

8. Why can't Mark Webber just win one race? (Yes, I'm Australian)

Thanks guys,

Jonny.

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Welome to the forums! I'll try my best to answer some of your questions, though there's other members more with knowledge than me ;)

1- Soft tyre's provide increased grip, the driver can corner a little faster thus improving laptimes. They wear faster than the hard options though, so hard tyres are better suited if a driver needs to do a longer stint. This year there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between the the soft and hard tyres, so there has been occasions where the hard tyre option has brought more pace than the softs. Go figure!

2- not sure

3- the old quali format use to be a shoot out. drivers would get one outlap, than one hotlap. Grid position were designated by quickest to slowest laps. This changed for the 06 season onwards.

4- everything you need to know about flags is here

5- engines must last two GP weekends

6- camber usually refers to the angle a wheel stands. In most forms of motorracing, a degree of negative camber will assist when cornering. (someone more technical here will answer that question more accurately)

7- better let one of the techies explain than one. Discussions on torque and power can get messy.

8- The poor sod has been unlucky with the teams his decided to/ had the chance to drive for. They've not provided him with a car fast enough, or reliable enough to win GP's. I may be a little biased though, I'm an Aussie too!

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2. FIA Regulations concerning spare cars:

FIA regulations state that drivers may have no more than three cars available for use at any one time. Usually a team will bring three or four cars to a race; a race car for each of its two drivers, and one or two spare cars for use by either driver. Use of those spare cars is subject to various restrictions.

If a driver switches car between qualifying and the race then he must start the race from the pit lane. A change of car is not allowed once the race has started.

As for What is torque? - sorry - must have fallen asleep in Physics lessons at school and missed that bit - :blush:

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7.Torque

Torque is the (vectorial) product of a force times the distance between and axis of rotation and the point where the force takes effect.

In a F1 car the force comes from the engine through a gearbox directly to the wheels (the transmission is integrated in the body of the gearbox at the rear of F1 cars. I think it was Jordan that removed transmissions back in the 70s?). The distance from the axis to the point of effect is the radius of the wheel from the axis to the surface of the tyre wich is on contact with the asphalt.

Torque, in intuitive terms is the force that you transmit by means of a rotary device (wheel). Not all the torque is 100% effective, as the grip a wheel determines how much of the force goes to acceleration and how much gets lost by skidding. Friction (grip) is a friend when you want to convert torque to acceleration. A wheel with low rotational inertia (a wheel that opposes small resistance to a change of spin speed) is a big advantage for transmitting acceleration as well as for breaking (it takes less energy to accelerate and decelerate).

Traction control is a series of devices and methods to ensure that when the wheel starts skidding (loss of traction) the rotation speed is lowered so as to assure that the wheel surface gains grip on the asphalt again and the torque can be used again to provide acceleration.

I hope i didn't mess the facts up to much :)

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I try to explain the difference between power and torque (roughly)

Torque is directly related to the force and in fact is the way to meassure the force on any rotary device. Power is related to speed. If you have a little mathematics background you will understand it easily.

Power = force x speed = force per time unit; at higher rpm you get less force (torque) with the same power.

Example:

engine 1: 200 hp at 8500 rpm

engine 2: 200 hp at 6000 rpm

then the 2nd engine produces more torque. (that is why truck engines are "slow" engines)

So when you consider an engine specs is very important to see not only the total power but the way this power is delivered and the better way is to watch the power and torque curves.

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Another easy way to remember (very roughly) the difference between Torque and Power is that Torque is what gets you off the line quickly, where power is what gives you top speed.

Argento has it correct in that it's not peak torque or power that's important, but the area under each measure's curve. Somewhere in the tech or outside the circus forum is a long rant on my part about the differences in how they are measured, their usefulness, etc. Unless it got removed due to time, as it was about a year ago that I posted it.

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Another way of looking at it is tourque is how much force the punches are thrown with - times this by rpm, then a miralce occurs and you can work out yor bhp. I don't do physics when drunk & tired.....

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Another way of looking at it is tourque is how much force the punches are thrown with - times this by rpm, then a miralce occurs and you can work out yor bhp. I don't do physics when drunk & tired.....

Another factor that modifies the bhp is weight and, if it applies, downforce (as this is expressed as weight).

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Thanks guys. I'm really bad at Science so I'm still trying to get my head around this.

BHP is the potential power the car has, torque is how the car applies the power to the road

Correct me if I'm wrong, I probably am

Thanks again, really really helpful of you all

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