F1 Car - Some Facts

Crazy_Eddy

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Keymaster
Got this as a forward. Some bits dont seem true (for eg, the part about "levers for gearshifts"??), but still an interesting read :)

F1 Car - Some Facts
01. An 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!
02. 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.
03. An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!
04. 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...
05. 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!
06. An average F1 driver loses 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!!!)
07. At 600 kg an F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.
08. In an F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm,(the piston travelling up and down 300 times a second) whereas cars like the Palio, Maruti800, Indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times slower.
09. 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 are 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.
10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would empty in just over a second.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.
14. Without aerodynamic downforce, 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.
15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is travelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it's own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!
16. In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the downforce 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!
17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.
18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds.




19. 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.
20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.
21. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km (That's Khandala and back).
22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils at 100 C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.
 
Crazy_Eddy said:
G

04. 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...

false!!!! they last for 4 hours :P atleast now :bleh:
 
NIce read, IIRC this was once featured in OverDrive a long time ago :)
Let me add one more thing, the Brakes cost 1000 pounds a corner ;)
 
18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds.

CRAP!!! Takes at leeast 4-5 secs.

19. 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.

Now this is also available in Bangalore. At a tyre shop in Double Road. For normal Maruti 800s and bikes and all vehicles........

Makes a big difference. Read abt that on the web. Helps the tyres last longer...... and all that.........
 
12. 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.
no chance of an overweight person getting in then..though it wud have been nice to lose some weight since..
06. An average F1 driver loses 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!!!)
21. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km (That's Khandala and back).
frm mumbai to khandala & back na? u shud mention that ;)

nice read...good facts...thanx for that. :)
 
QuickFire said:
no chance of an overweight person getting in then..though it wud have been nice to lose some weight since..
Wrong, cockpit is tailor made, so they can make one for you too :P, but those lateral and longitudinal g-forces will automatically make you shed ur weight :cool2:
 
See, Mark Webber's cockpits are special as he is the tallest driver. When he went for a test at Williams last year, he had to wait for one day because the cockpit wasn't long enough......
 
^^^ u shud have seen that Minardi driver..whats his name??? damn... he had made some shares, stock etc...to fund his F1 career.....he was looooong as an electric pole :bleh:

he was very popular for superb starts...he once jumped from 20th to 9th in the first corner :ohyeah:
 
Have read em before.. intresting ones, just shows how extreme this sport really is, and this stupid FIA had to bring out that stupid tyre rule to mess it up :(
 
NO..... I think it is a nice rule...... I know that rule has spoiled Ferrari's year but still, that is a very good rule. A driver cannot afford to flat-spot histyres even in qualifying.......... Otherwise, his WHOLE race is as good as ruined.....
 
Ferrari, all teams wud be hurt from this rule, its just a matter of time, u know what that means? no great or even extreme overtaking moves, no last minute sprints, and much much more, imo its a crappy rule and shud be changed..
 
Ferrari( and all Bridgestone teams) are hurt more as Michelin tyres were harder from the beginning. BS tyres were softer.....so they are finding it more difficult to make tyres which reach temps fast and last the whole race..........
 
here we go again ... back to tyre wars.//hehe

Another fact -

If you try to drive an F1 car u'll prolly end up in an hospital or heaven even before u exit the first corner.

:P:P
 
Not really..... if you drive slowly, it is not all that difficult. It is even easy to touch 280kmph on the straight, take a turn and complete a few laps. But your lap time will be abt 10 secs(if you are really really lucky) slower than the the slowest car.

It is doing lap after lap at high speed which will literally kill you.

Nikhil posted 0.87 minutes later:

And who does your siggy refer to???

He knew he was going to crash, but he also knew he would come through the final corner significantly quicker and take pole position. It is hard not to love such acts of sheer lunacy.
 
^^Err...dont think so..
10 sec is too less....an untrained fellow(me) cannot withstand >2.5G without fainting ... so he's (me) gotta brake really early(some 400meters maybe...avg braking distance for F1 car for first chicane at monza where cars approach at 340kmph is around 80metres)
and also accelerate slowly outta the corners.
so expect to be some 30-40 off the pace (provided ur car control is unquestionable)

BTW my sig refers to myselfy :bleh:...er..actually Senna
 
COuld anyone tell me from where
I can download old videos of races??

The big F1 crashes, the best races, seeing some of Senna's and Prost's fights..... and all that........

Any idea guys???

Sorry for going off topic......
 
I dunno about downloads . ... but if u have good library wherevr u live .. u shud find it there.
i dunno if there are British libraries in other cities as well ... but its the best place to look for such stuff.
 
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