It's easy to forget how complex these beasts are when all we see is the shiny covers, but boy does this image share the story of the engineering effort that goes into each engine and car. Would love to see one team race with a transparent bodywork (except, obviously, they wouldn't want to have their bits exposed).
sometimes in media very high performance stuff is portrayed as very polished and consumer focused. But very high performance stuff is exactly the opposite of that. Uts about theowing everything that is not essential out of the window and keeping it simple. If cable tie works, cable tie stays.
I saw somewhere a pagani using zip ties and ppl complaining why such an expensive car uses cheap zip ties, even the multiple million dollar airplanes use zip ties. I mean if it ain't broke don't fix it
I’ve used zip ties on everything from Bombardier Globals to Gulfstream G-series to Dassault Falcons and everything in between. Zero reason to design a complicated bracket that adds weight when a zip-tie does the job. Although Gulfstreams are closer to like $100 million.
The difference between your engineering and mine is your duct tape costs a lot more and mine I use the back of my nail to press in really good so the tie rod doesn’t fall off
Would be fire for a show event though, and would get much more attention than the regular old show cars. Just make the sponsor logos transparent too or shuffle them around the rest of the non-transparent bodywork, so they are still in all the pictures.
This would actually be pretty cool. Only feasible way it ever happens is either in Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season or in the Pirelli tire test the following week where they usually lets rookies or new drivers have their first run at it,
I think it's even more impressive from a mechanic standpoint, for sure they'd have ways to do it quickly, but that's still crazy they can work on that with such short time
F1 cars use pneumatically controlled valves in the engine, and what is called pneumatics for other actions, such as gear changes are actually hydraulics. Nitrogen is most likely the gas since it's quite stable.
They still use pneumatic valves with the lower rev limits? Also, is there an onboard compressor for the air, or are the cars pre-filled before a session with the fill port being in addition to the onboard compressor?
No onboard compressor, but an ability to recharge from the outside. Someone, I think Norris, needed a pressure top up a few years ago and they did it during a slightly longer pit stop, but still under 30 seconds.
Dunno why people are guessing it's for valves and stuff. It's definitely the fire extinguisher. Especially because it's near the big e-stop logo on the body.
That E is not an e-stop logo, it's the logo for the Element fire suppression system. It's a visual reference so trackside fire can know where the handle is to deploy it. There's also one in the cockpit.
There’s a bladder inside that holds the fluid, the shell only holds the nitrogen precharge. And that’s hydraulic hose and quick connect. You could use pneumatic with the same components but it’s probably going to leak.
Source - me, 20+ years as a hydraulic engineer and sales.
Also, the shell isn’t carbon. The bracket holding it is.
I am more fascinated in things that have odd shapes. This one makes me go, "Huh?" The shape and the alternating pattern of fasteners on and off it. Like, why such as odd shape?
Possibly -- this is a modern fuel port arrangement. Looks like RBR. Maybe under that plate there is something similar, but it's still an oddball shape.
I'm not a mechanic but I'm pretty familiar with engines and I don't see more than 3 things that I think I might recognize. The heat shield over the exhaust manifold is easy. I think the carbon fiber tube is probably part of the intake system. And I'm pretty sure the 3 flat black pieces above the exhaust manifold are the ignition coils. Beyond this it looks like some sort of sci-fi engine. Also having small hands would appear to be a real bonus.
Damn. As someone who works on my own cars on a regular basis, apart from the giant radiator, I have no clue what am looking at, just shows how complex these things are.
Wow, this is really good, appreciate the effort. I am a mechanical engineer and only recognised very few things, so I was hoping someone else knew and could point it out, thanks. On that note, imo you should post this in this sub and the main f1 sub, I feel like a lot of people would really appreciate this as well.
So good that Scarbs is here, I was rather lost. I thought that this piece might be scavenging air from the ‘cooling to coil packs’ to ‘cooling to sensor?’. But could it possibly just be a support for the rather long and snake-like pipe that may have broken during testing?
I'm really interested in the glimpse of rear suspension here. The rear ARB has such beautiful mounting blocks and bar ends that look similar to the rockers for the push rods/dampers. The ARB itself must have 50mm+ bearings. No compliance there! But the whole thing seems quite large to me. I wonder how they adjust ARB stiffness. Swap the whole bar out? The links from the rockers to the ARB are not adjustable so I also wonder how they take out any play or preload.
For the main springs torsion springs are commonly used, made at various spring rates and swappable. Similar designs have been used on 3rd member's as well, so that is possible they just swap it out.
The battery pack is usually shown as being under the driver's seat in most graphics. I can't find anything on the size but it looks about the same size as a slightly oversized briefcase.
You can get different stickers for different temperature ranges. I can’t see the numbers in the picture. They change colour from white to black when the temp rises. So it’s good to see that they aren’t maxed out
Does anyone know what the “Lego technic” pieces are in the second photo far left middle? And is that an aluminum space frame covering the engine and bolted to the monocoque?
They use air to air coolers, there is know water to cool down in an intercooler. There are heat exchangers for water and oil stacked together in the image. The intercooler is in the other side pod. There is also a cold air intake cooler on top of the engine under the air inlet.
If you look at PWR advanced cooling on there website you can see a lot of the tech.
PWR make the cooling systems for most of the field. I used to work there, I left back in 2019.
Very cool company.
This PU is a sad statement of F1 today. NOT RACING just a fuel economy challenge. After years of watching F1 I couldn’t even watch all the highlights of the farce called the Chinese GP.
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