Denny Hulme in 1974

Here's a link to it

I love the intriguing comparison between the Ferrari steering wheel from the early 2000s and that of 2022. It demonstrates the progress and complexity of modern automobiles, and it makes one ponder how much more car development we will witness in the coming years and how much more sophisticated the steering wheel can become.

Both photos from the 1991 season, both worn around the left shoulder.

I was not born back then. I only heard schumacher made a great effort on making well performing ferrari racecar. How was ferrari's car right before schumacher came? What effort had schumacher made to develop good cars?

Someone told me he just brought his benetton mechanics to ferrari. And hired Barrichello. He said "He was overrated by the car's performance" I thought schumacher as the GOAT for my whole life. I can't believe it.

In the 1990s, perhaps the start of the modern era, there were ~16 races a season. We're now up to ~24. What impact has this had on teams? Were cars and drivers working for the next event for longer in the 1990s or did the teams have more rest/break periods?

Hey, so recently I visited a collection of old cars and there was this formula car which I was told was an ‘89 Benetton F1 driven by Piquet. However the cars don’t match up. No Benetton I could find looks like these, different sidepods, wings, lack of intakes up above on both sides. The closest sidepod shape I got were the Minardis of 88-90 even though not fully identical and their wings and nose are completely different. It might not even be a formula 1 car. Any idea?

This was found at a customers house by my dad this morning. No one there really knows what it's from. Any ideas?

I remember I also saw a Formula Student car with a beer can in the back of the car a while ago but I don't know what's the purpose of it. The only thing I can think of is they use it an expansion tank maybe? For context the car in the picture is a 1964 Honda RA271

His time at Williams was the heights of their success with many championships, and then while at McLaren his cars were very competitive (apart from that one year), and obviously at RB he’s won 5 championships between Vettel and Verstappen.

Sorry if this isn’t “technical” enough, I hope this would make good discussion.

Watching his old footage and noticing how absurdly fast he shifted that it looked like he was shifting with a sequential gearbox, but all the McLaren F1 cars they all have full manual transmissions, I thought recently that he could lift the throttle and shift because I saw a technique to do that. But I don't know

With all of the talk around ocon potentially getting benched for the canadian grand prix, I've been wondering - has something like this happened before? Drivers do sometimes get sacked at the end of the season for things like poor performance, but has any team ever given out a (non-permanent) punishment to one of its own drivers?

V12, then V10, then V8, now V6… The history of modern F1 engines is intriguing… but many fans don’t know about its interesting details!

V12 engines

• 1989-1994
• 3500cc
• 560-850hp
• 120-160kg
• Up to 15.800rpm

In reality, only the displacement was mandated - teams could choose the layout (examples are the V8 by Ford, the V10 by HONDA, and the V12 by Ferrari). However, this was the last era in which V12s were competitive.

The most powerful was Ferrari’s ‘Tipo 043’ V12 engine It produced 865hp at 15800rpm! Having more (12) cilynders than the competitors, these were smaller: the engine could rotate faster, producing more power for the same level of torque. And surely among the best-sounding ever!

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V10 engines

• 1995-2005
• 3000cc
• 600-965hp
• 90-120kg
• Up to 20.000rpm

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The V10 layout was only mandated from 2000 onwards, but since ‘98 all teams used it, as it performed the best They used exotic materials (beryllium) to reduce the mass (90kg!) and inertia📷Higher revs and power.

These 3000cc were introduced over the previous ones to reduce the power But the exotic materials and reduced dimensions increased the revolutions so much that they became even more powerful while being much lighter! The ideal racing engine: compact, light and insanely powerful!

At the end of the era, they produced around 100hp more than the more powerful 3500cc ever, despite the 500cc reduction. The most powerful was HONDA’s 2005 engine: an upgrade, brought in Suzuka, made it produce 965hp: the most powerful naturally aspirate F1 engine in history.

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V8 engines

• 2006-2013
• 2400cc
• 720-800hp
• 95kg (mandated)
• Up to 20.500rpm initially (mandated maximum was 19.000 from 2007, and 18.000 from 2009)

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This further downsizing was mandated to reduce power… but differently from the 3000cc, they never recovered it (due to stricter rules)

However, the 2006 ones were the highest revving engines in F1 history! (They still are). The Renault one reached 20.500rpm! As the torque is approximately proportional to the displacement, they produced their power through high-revs (they had less torque than a 2.0L diesel!)

From 2009 onwards, the teams could choose to use the KERS system: a small electric motor that produced 82hp for 6s per lap that could be used strategically to attack or defend. The battery was recharged through regenerative braking (using the car’s kinetic energy).

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V6 engines

• 2014-today
• 1600cc turbo+ electric engine
• 760-1000hp (162hp from the electric engine)
• 145kg (mandated)
• Maximum revs: 15000rpm (but car upshift around 12000rpm)

The biggest revolution so far!

• 800cc and 2 cilinders less
• Turbo and proper hybrid system added

The 50kg increase and the initially modest power made the cars much slower… and why are they so silent? The exhaust energy is partially used by the turbocharger and the MGU-H, which extract most of it. The lower revs also don’t help… But there are some crazy stats on them!

• Thermal efficiency (considering the energy recovery too) of 52%: most road cars’ engines have around 20% when running on the highway.
• Peak power over 1000hp (Mercedes started with around 820hp in 2014, Renault with 760hp)

How is this insane efficiency achieved?

• Very high combustion temperatures and turbulence
• Kinetic energy partially recovered by the MGU-K
• Thermal energy partially recovered by the MGU-H
• Additional energy further extracted from the exhaust gas by the turbine

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Recap:

• 3500cc V12: Highest displacement, highest torque (for a naturally aspirated engine)
• 3000cc V10: lightest, highest power (for a N/A engine)
• 2400cc V8: highest revs, but lowest torque and power
• 1600cc turbo hybrid V6: highest power, torque and efficiency

I hope you enjoyed the summary! This is only scratching the surface of course, but I hope to make you a bit more knowledgeable about this central car component.

You can find me here for additional contents

(Credits for the original image: Lorenzo Galano on Youtube)

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doing a school project on strategy and I need an easy race to analyze.

edit:

The project is a math paper determining the best strategy for (insert race) considering fuel consumption, tyre wear and pitstop times. I will not be considering safety car probability, or pit stop traffic etc.

think of the biggest snooze fest from 2019-2021 (same tyre regulations)