F1 Cars
F1 Cars
Many people are great fans of the best car racing industry in the world, Formula One. They are all great fans of the racing and of the drivers, what they don’t know is what happens inside those pits, and where the car is build.
Formula One cars are under a lot of limitations and restrictions. All of these restrictions are minor details that someone would think wouldn’t hurt the car´s speed at all, but sure can it take away a couple of thousands revolutions per second.
In this type of racing even the least bit of a millisecond is worth gold. Everything designed to be used in this car had to be able to last and be as efficient as it gets. For example the pits stop. Usually pits stops last from 6 to 8.5 seconds. In these seconds the four tires are changed and the car is refueled with gasoline. The tires are made under restrictions, but that doesn’t mean some can be more efficient than others, this is where it gets interesting. Every racing team out there, investing millions of dollars to invent the next generation of tires that is going to make their team win. A usual car tire can be used up to 80,000 km. average, while a F1 car can use its tires for 300km/186mi.
Speed, if you think accelerating from 0-60 km in 6 seconds (normal for most luxury sport cars) you are totally of. F1 cars have 1,250 hp and can accelerate from 0-100 in 2 seconds although the power it has is able to do it in 1 second but it can’t get enough traction.
The construction of these cars has to be made by the pit group and assembled by them too. This regulation was made by the FIA. The cars are made out of carbon-fiber and weigh a bit less than 605 kgs. Carbon fiber can also be expensive. The steering wheel weighs about 1.3 kilograms and is made out of carbon-fiber and is worth a bit more than 40,000$.
Aerodynamics, wow does this affect the car. The car is dependent on many things, but for the car to go at speeds that are unimaginable it needs to be aerodynamic. You are probably thinking that that wing on the back of the car is there to “break through the wind and make it faster”, but that´s not its task. Remember that these cars go at speeds such as 350-400 KPH (kilometers per hours) and it only weighs 440 kilograms so it can easily be airborne, therefore this wing exerts a downforce on the car and has a minimum drag on the car´s speed. There are many other aerodynamic parts in a F1 car but this wing is the most important part.
The engine, this is what makes this 440 kilogram car reach speed of over 400 KPH. F1 cars started out being a V10 of 3.0 liters; this gave them a whole other sense of speed. Now the FIA has regulated for it to be a V8 engine of 2.4 liters. This regulation also includes that the engines cannot exceed the 18,000 RPM (revolutions per minutes). They also made regulations about the materials that can be used to build cylinders, crankshafts and connecting rods were made in the late 1990´s when teams started using alloys and they created a lot of collisions and failures during the racing. These types of engines also are air-dependent. Each engine consumes about 650 ft. (23 ft cubed) per second; they need powerful exhausts and radiators to dump all this air that can reach a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius.
Although the racers take all the fans and the acknowledgement they know who really ought to have it. The FIA is making many regulations since the 1990´s that will make this type of racing a bit slower. Every single small regulation can add up to be a lot less speed.
Lets go LEWIS HAMILTON!! (This year he will win)
