Interesting facts about Formula One cars
Before or during a race weekend our focus of attention is buzzing cars, overtaking drivers, fast pit stops, controversies and championship standings. There is a lot more to Formula One than what meets the eye. Here are some very interesting facts about Formula One cars that even some of the biggest fans of sport don’t know.
Formula One cars are powered with advanced engine technologies that give them the power to accelerate from 0 km/h to 160 km/h and decelerate back to 0 km/h in just four seconds.
A Formula One car is composed of 80,000 components which have to be designed and aligned with 100% accuracy. If a car was assembled with 99.9% accuracy, it would have 80 components wrongly placed and hence it would be unfit for the driver.
A Formula One car engine runs optimally for one race only. After two races, it becomes completely useless. Compare this with normal road car engines that serve for decades. These fine pieces of technology last for such a little time which means that they are absolutely pushed to the limit during the races.
A Formula One car engine revs up to about 18,000 rpm meaning that the piston moves to and fro 300 times a second. Normal road cars rev up to 6000 rpm at maximum.
Each engine consists of about 5,000 components that together generate 750 boiler horse powers (bhp) and have a life span of only 3 hours.
Automatic gearboxes are not allowed in Formula One cars.
Gear cogs or ratios undergo extremely high degrees of stress and are replaced after one race to prevent failure.
Gear levers are located on the back of the wheel. The clutch levers are located below the gear paddles.
The braking power of a Formula One car is extremely high. Brakes of Formula One cars take about 55 meters and 1.9 seconds to bring the car to standstill from full throttle. This helps in entering slow corners without losing much time.
Formula One brake discs heat up to 1,000 degrees Celsius and to withstand such high levels of temperate they are made up of carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is much harder than steel, has a high melting point and is resistant to wear and tear.
When a Formula One driver applies brakes from such high speeds, he experiences huge retardation or deceleration. It could be compared to a regular car driving through a brick wall at a speed of 300 km/h.
Unlike normal tyres, Formula One tyres are not with nitrogen instead of air. Nitrogen has consistent air pressure whereas air contains water vapours which affect the contraction and expansion of the tyres at high speeds and high temperatures, and hence make the tyre pressure unpredictable.
Road car tyres can last for 60,000 to 100,000 kilometres. On the other hand, Formula One tyres are designed to last only 90 to 120 km. Supersoft tyres have an even shorter life.
Part of the tyre which makes contact with the track surface reaches a temperature of 900 to 1200 degrees Celsius during peak performances. At top speed, the tyres rotate at 50 times a second.
The tyres lose weight during the race. In a Grand Prix each tyre loses about 0.5kg in weight due to the wear and tear.
The front and rear wing of these racing cars generate a good amount of down-force as well. These can even generate a down-force equal to that of the car’s weight when it reaches a speed of about 160 km/h. That means a car could actually hold itself to the ceiling of a tunnel and drive upside down.
Aircrafts take off at a slower speed when compared to Formula One cars. This is mainly because of the improved aerodynamic structure of these cars that generate incredible high down-force. Without this aerodynamic down-force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 km/h. These cars usually race at over 300 km/h.
Street circuits cause a car to produce even more down-force and as a result cars produce enough suction that they can lift manhole lids. That’s the reason why these covers are welded securely before the race.
If a water hose of the car were to blow off, it would take only a second to empty the entire cooling system of the car.
The sensors and actuators in a Formula One car that are used to monitor and control a car are setup with the help of at least one kilometre of electric cable.
The fuel rigs used in the pits have a capacity of injecting 12 litres of fuel per second. This means that these rigs take just 4 seconds to fill an oil tank of about 50 litres. They use the same refuelling rigs used on U.S. military helicopters today.
Ideally, pit crews can change tyres and refuel a car in 3 seconds.
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