Why is the appearance of F 1 racing car different from that of ordinary cars, and special tail fins should be installed at the rear?

As we all know, F 1 racing car has strong power. This powerful power comes from the engine installed behind the driver and hidden in the streamlined body. The power of F 1 racing engine is above 800 horsepower. In contrast, the thrust of an ordinary family car engine is about 100 horsepower. F 1 racing car has a high power-to-weight ratio (specific power) because of its high power and light weight. The combination of high specific power and other advanced automobile technologies makes the F 1 racing car perform exceptionally on the track: it takes only 3 seconds to go from 0 to 160 km/h; The top speed is over 360 kilometers per hour.

You may say that the performance of F 1 is just a drop in the ocean compared with the supersonic speed created by the British SSR car in the Blackstone Desert in the United States a few years ago. That's true, but you should know that SSR uses two jet aero-engines, and F 1 can only use the FIA's V 10( 10 cylinder, V-shaped arrangement) self-priming four-stroke fuel engine, with a total cylinder capacity (working volume) of less than 3 liters.

Considering the safety factors, the FIA banned the use of mechanical supercharging and turbocharging technology, and took measures to limit the cylinder capacity. However, from the development of 10 years in the past, it is found that the laws and regulations have not restricted the innovation of engineers and technicians, and the overall size and weight of racing engines are more compact and lighter, while the power is gradually increasing. 200 1 Ferrari racing car F 200 1 uses the 050 engine, which is 589 mm long, 530 mm wide and 353 mm high, weighs only 97 kg, and the maximum power exceeds 800 horsepower. In previous years, BMW provided its partner Williams with a maximum engine power of 900 HP. It is suggested to further reduce the cylinder capacity in the future.

The secret of F 1 engine's small size and high thrust is that it can run at 18000 rpm or even higher, which is twice as high as that of ordinary automobile engines. Of course, high-speed operation also means doing more work per unit time. Although the power generated by the engine can not reach the theoretical linear growth relationship with the rotational speed under actual working conditions, the output power of the F 1 engine with more than 800 horsepower has lagged behind that of the ordinary engine. In order to realize high-speed operation, the F 1 engine adopts the structure of large cylinder bore and short piston motion stroke. The cylinder diameter and stroke length of Ferrari 050 engine mentioned above are about 96 mm and 4 1.4 mm respectively. In addition to the difference in cylinder diameter and stroke size, another biggest difference between the engines of each team is the included angle of the cylinders, ranging from 70 degrees to 1 1 1 degree.

95% of the materials used in F 1 engine are aluminum and steel (their consumption ratio is about 2∶ 1), and the remaining 5% are titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber. No matter what kind of material, it must stand the test of high temperature. During the competition, the internal surface temperature of the engine exceeded 300 degrees Celsius, and the temperature of engine oil and cooling water also reached 1 15 to 120 degrees Celsius. When you stop to refuel and change tires, the temperature of oil and cooling water will immediately rise to 140 degrees Celsius. In addition, although the engine of F 1 has strong power, it also consumes a lot of fuel, which is a typical "fuel consumption", and it can run about 1.5 km per liter of oil. Comparatively speaking, an ordinary car can run 10 km per liter of oil.

Amazing "wings"

Aerodynamically speaking, the fairness of F 1 racing car with four wheels exposed outside the car body is far less than that of a sports car with four wheels wrapped. However, using modern computer technology and pneumatic technology, designers have fully exerted aerodynamics in F 1 racing car. As we all know, F 1 track is a combination of straight and curved roads. During the race, the car needs to be able to run at full speed on the straight and pass through the corner stably at a relatively high speed.

Driving at full speed on a straight road requires the least resistance of the car, and fast and stable cornering requires the car tires to have enough grip. Because high-speed cornering can help the car create the best lap in the race, the designer carefully designed the shape of F 1 car to get enough downforce. In addition to the streamlined design of the car body and the deflector of the chassis, nearly 60% of the downforce of F/KLOC-0 comes from the front and rear wings of the car body. The fixed wing is like an inverted airplane wing. The wing generates upward force, while the fixed wing generates downward force. Generally, the downforce generated by the front wing of F 1 racing car is 25% of the total downforce of racing car, and that of the rear wing is 33%. In the race, if you approach the front car, the turbulence at the rear of the front car will make the front wing of the rear car lose about 30% downforce, and there will be understeer when turning.

When the car is running at full speed, the downforce generated by the car can reach twice the weight of the car itself. Theoretically, the F 1 racing car can travel at high speed on the ceiling under such a large downward pressure. However, the fixed wing is like a double-edged sword, which not only produces the downward force required for the car to turn at high speed, but also produces the resistance that affects the car's full speed. One of the challenges faced by designers is to find the best balance between the downward pressure and resistance generated by the fixed wing. Interestingly, this balance point varies from track to track. because

However, we can see that the front wing, tail wing and deflector of the car will change to some extent in different cars.

Lightweight and sturdy "body"

F 1 racing car adopts single-shell body, which is a masterpiece of modern engineering. It is made of carbon fiber and honeycomb aluminum plate "pasted" on the car body model and then compounded at high temperature and high pressure. Some people like to call it "sandwich" structure: two outer layers are carbon fiber and the middle is honeycomb aluminum plate. In addition, tufnol (the material of modern body armor) is also used in some parts of the car body (such as punching holes) to achieve local reinforcement. Although the single-shell body weighs only 35 kilograms, it is very strong and is known as the driver's survival cabin. 1994 After the famous Brazilian driver Senna was killed in a racing accident, the safety of the racing car has been continuously improved. In the past 10 years, although there were frequent accidents on the field, there was no such tragedy as Senna.

One of the reasons for the improvement of security is the stricter requirements of FIA. The body of F 1 must pass the FIA crash test before it is allowed to enter the track. The Cranfield Collision Center (CIC) of Cranfield University in the UK undertakes the collision test for most local teams in the UK, and the cost is $3,500 per day. Collision test is divided into dynamic and static. Dynamic tests include frontal collision, side collision, back collision, tumbling and chassis collision. The methods, external forces and standards of various tests are different, but the purpose is to ensure that drivers can escape safely in accidents. For example, the frontal collision test of the car body is to test the ability of the nose box to protect the hands, feet and ankles of the car, and the ability of the car body (especially the nose box) to absorb collision energy and reduce the deceleration force to the driver.

Every season, each team prepares a different number of cars for its drivers, such as 200 1, 7-9 cars for large teams and 4-6 cars for small and medium teams. Usually, if the car body is not seriously damaged in the accident, engineers will repair it and reuse it after passing the test. Only badly damaged and irreparable car bodies will be "discarded".

Hard-working "four legs"

As the saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", which is perfect for F 1 racing cars. In order to get good results, F 1 racing cars must have tires in good working condition. Experts believe that tires are the only and most important factor affecting the performance of F 1 racing cars at present. Only when the tires firmly "catch" the ground and do not produce unnecessary friction can the car run at a normal high speed. No matter how good a racing car is, it is impossible to create good results without ideal wheels, just as it is difficult for Jeancard Lewis to become a "flying man" in the 100-meter race wearing shoes (such as big leather boots).

Family cars usually use a set of tires to drive in any weather (except heavy snow). The F 1 racing car is equipped with two kinds of tires: dry tires and wet tires. The former is used for dry runways and the latter is used for wet runways. The four basic components for making F 1 racing tires are rubber polymer, carbon black pigment, petroleum and chemicals. Different tracks, different cars, and different formulas for producing tires.

According to FIA regulations, the front tire width is 305 to 355 mm, and the tread width does not exceed 270mm；; The width of the rear tire is 365 to 380 mm Generally speaking, when the tire width and tread size are fixed and the tire pressure is normal, the larger the contact area between the tire and the ground, the greater the grip of the car. Before the end of 1990s, "bald" dry tires were popular in F 1 stadium in order to obtain ideal grip effect. For safety reasons, in order to reduce the speed, the FIA now requires that the tread of a dry tire must be provided with four grooves, the upper width of which is not less than 14 mm, the lower width is not less than 10 mm, the depth is not less than 2.5 mm, and the groove spacing is 50 mm. The drainage groove area of a wet tire tread accounts for 25% of the total tread area.

Both dry tires and wet tires have an ideal working temperature. The effective working temperature of dry tire tread is about 100℃. The wet tire is about 40 degrees Celsius. In order to get the car into the race state as soon as possible, before the car leaves, the workers often wrap the tires with electric blankets for heating, and it takes 90 minutes for the dry tires to reach the appropriate temperature. If the tread temperature is too high during the race, it will accelerate the wear of dry or wet tires. On the semi-dry and semi-wet track, spectators can often see that racing cars with wet tires have to avoid the gradually dry track and choose the wet road to "walk" in order to avoid too high tread temperature.

In order to ensure the tire pressure of the racing car is quite stable, the tires of F 1 racing car are filled with anhydrous helium. For drivers, it is a key factor to protect their tires as much as possible during the race. His driving style, track surface condition and track temperature can all affect the working efficiency of the tread, thus affecting the driving performance of the car.

According to the rules of the competition, each car can use 10 sets of dry tires (divided into soft tires and hard tires) and 7 sets of wet tires in each competition (practice, qualifying and official competition). Both dry tires and wet tires are much softer than ordinary cars. The price of each set of tires is about $6,000, and each car usually uses three sets of tires in each official race, with an interval of slightly more than 305 kilometers.

Responsive "braking"

F 1 The car as a whole embodies the word "fast", even if it is slowing down. F 1 racing car can decelerate to 80km/h and enter a slow (low-speed) curve within 3 seconds when driving at 320km/h, with an interval of1000 m, and the acceleration during deceleration is negative five-gravity acceleration (5G).

The high performance braking ability of F 1 racing car comes from the perfect braking system. The system mainly includes brake pedal, hydraulic circuit, caliper, brake pad and brake disc. When working, the driver steps on the pedal, and the hydraulic circuit applies force to the caliper with brake pad to close it and clamp the brake disc in the wheel. Brake discs and brake pads are carbon-carbon materials (that is, carbon fiber doped with carbon). When braking suddenly, due to strong friction, the temperature of the brake disc and brake pad reaches 1000 degrees Celsius, which is why sometimes we can clearly see the bright yellow light in the middle area of the wheel during the race. Carbon-carbon material is chosen because it works better in a certain high temperature range without deformation and melting.

However, carbon-carbon materials also have their limitations. If the temperature is too high, its efficiency will begin to decrease. Therefore, in order to avoid overheating, all four wheels of the car are equipped with non-powered air cooling devices. In addition, for the sake of safety, the braking system adopts the layout of single pedal and double hydraulic circuits to control the front wheel and rear wheel respectively. However, in order to reflect the driver's driving skills, the FIA stipulates that F 1 racing cars are prohibited from using power-assisted braking system and tire anti-lock braking system (ABS).

Through the above introduction, you may be familiar with the technology of F 1 racing car, but don't think that the speed-related technology of F 1 racing car is limited to this. In fact, the semi-automatic gearbox, engine cooling system, engine intake/exhaust pipe, traction control system, deviation control system, steering wheel, fuel, suspension and even helmet of F 1 racing car are all high-tech crystallization, which ensures the excellent performance of the racing car. In addition, we can't forget the drivers who have brought the extraordinary performance of F 1 racing car to the extreme. You know, people who can drive F 1 racing cars, especially those who compete every year, are undoubtedly excellent drivers. It is reported that only a few hundred people in the world have F 1 racing driver's license issued by FIA, and the driving opportunities on the track are only drivers and test drivers of various teams.

In addition to superb driving skills, drivers must also have good psychological and physical qualities. Every race with an average speed of about 200 kilometers per hour and a time of about 100 minutes always tests the driver's will and physical fitness. When cornering at high speed, they have to bear a centrifugal force as high as 3.5g At this time, the driver's neck muscles are like adding a lateral load of 30kg. When you suddenly brake when driving at a high speed in a straight road, your body will bear 5G of gravity. During 60 to 70 laps, they have to accelerate, decelerate and turn corners, so they have to bear these loads continuously. In addition, when racing in hot weather, the temperature in the cockpit can reach above 50 degrees Celsius, and the driver will lose about 2 kilograms of body fluids after the race. Even in the case of all kinds of physical "torture", drivers still can't be careless, otherwise there will be unpredictable consequences.

With the help of high technology, the team endowed each F 1 racing car with powerful engine, perfect aerodynamic body, tires with strong grip and intelligent and reliable braking. And carefully select the owner of the car. According to F 1 racing experts, only those teams that combine the above factors perfectly and harmoniously can finally become the Wang Zhongwang of F 1.

Explanation of terms: F1"Formula One World Championship" is an automobile race organized by the FIA, and its name is translated from English "Formula New World Championship".

Although "Formula" is translated into "equation", its real meaning should be the automobile race according to the specified size, weight and cylinder capacity. Formula One is the highest level of Formula One racing car, referred to as "F 1". (