Innehållsförteckning för July 2016 från Racecar Engineering

The ‘city’ credentials of an LMP1-H car are demonstrated by regulating that they must only use electric power in the pit lane The WEC’s Silverstone 6 hour race in April offered the first opportunity of the year to evaluate the development and changes put in place by the big three LMP1-H protagonists in anticipation of the main event, the Le Mans 24 Hours. The LMP1 regulations are a set of carefully crafted rules that aim to offer all the contestants the maximum technical freedom, but pull the different configurations together to equalise the performance of these technologies, for close and exciting competition. The FIA and ACO have been very successful in activating this through the use of a Fuel Technology Factor (FTF), a K Technology Factor (KTF), which balances fuel…

The much debated upgrade token system has been dropped entirely allowing for free performance development during the season After over a year of debate, dispute and speculation, F1 has finally settled on a new set of technical and sporting regulations for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. As expected the rules will see the cars built to a higher weight limit, with wider bodywork and tyres and more dramatic looking aerodynamic devices. Those changes have largely been detailed elsewhere (see V26N5), but the more recent changes to the regulations relating to the power units have been less widely discussed. In nutshell, the headlines relating to the design of the units have remained unchanged – a direct injection 1600cc turbo V6 mated to an electro turbo-compound hybrid system – but the details…

In marketing terms it was a logical decision by Subaru to pick the Levorg When it was announced that Subaru was to enter the cut and thrust of the British Touring Car Championship, which of us immediately thought: ‘They’ll be using the new Levorg GT estate then’? Few, I’d say. Partly this was down to decades of watching Imprezas achieving worldwide rallying successes. And partly it was because few (in the UK at least) had heard of the Levorg. In that sense Subaru’s entry into the BTCC has already been a huge success. After just three BTCC meetings at writing time, the exercise has put the model in the minds of millions of race goers, magazine readers and TV viewers. The Levorg GT is, in fact, the latest evolution of…

Where do tools like lap time simulation fit in to the engineering process? It was with great interest that I read an article by Sam Collins and Phil Morse in May’s Racecar (V26N5) about the application of simulation in motorsport. The focus of the piece was driver in the loop simulation. With its widespread adoption in the upper end of town, such as F1 and NASCAR, such an article is both timely and necessary. However, it also got me thinking. Where do tools such as lap time simulation now fit it in to the race engineering process? As the director of ChassisSim Technologies I think I’m in a good position to comment on this. Despite team owners getting excited about driver in the loop simulation, lap time simulation also has…

Images of the racecar with which Porsche is planning on making its works return for a full season in GTE in the WEC next year have been released. The all-new 911 RSR has recently completed a shakedown test at Porsche’s Weissach test track, the company tells us, but there are few other details. The car is based on the new facelifted 991 version of the legendary 911, which was launched as a road car earlier this year, but Porsche would not say if the new racer would be propelled by a normally-aspirated 4-litre flat-six engine, as its current GTE car is, or a turbocharged unit, as is widely rumoured. At its first test runs at Weissach, the majority of the Porsche works drivers were able to get a first impression…

A bombshell was dropped. The STR11 would not be a Renault-powered car after all. Indeed, it was not clear which unit it would be fitted with A falling out between a car manufacturer and an energy drinks company resulted in a team of designers and engineers in Italy facing a race against time to create a new Formula 1 car in time for the 2016 season. What they created is, according to many in the paddock, one of the best chassis of the year. When Toro Rosso technical director James Key and the design team at the Faenza-based outfit started to lay out the concept of a new grand prix car, dubbed the STR11, they believed that they were working on a Renault-powered racecar, so it is perhaps no surprise…

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has slammed the new Formula 1 engine regulations, saying they are the product of a ‘very weak agreement’ between the FIA and the teams. The 2017 engine rules feature a commitment to reduce engine prices by €1m next year and by a further €3m from 2018. Performance convergence and engine noise has also been addressed, while there has also been a move to oblige manufacturers to supply a certain number of teams, if this is required – for a detailed analysis turn to page 32. ‘It’s a very soft agreement between the manufacturers and FIA,’ Horner said. ‘It tickles the price, deals a little bit with convergence, the obligation to supply doesn’t really apply. It’s a very weak agreement.’ However, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff…

International Speedway Corporation (ISC), the publically-owned NASCAR company that owns and operates many of the tracks on which the premier US race series competes, has reported much improved financial results for the first quarter of 2016. ISC, in many ways a bell-weather for NASCAR – which as a privately owned company does not publish results – posted total revenues for the first quarter of 2016 of $142.6m, compared to revenues of $136.6m in the first quarter of fiscal year 2015. Operating income was $31.2m during the period, compared to $21.6m in the first quarter of 2015. Lesa France Kennedy, ISC chief executive officer, said the results were record breaking, while she put much of ISC’s success down to the new Daytona Rising development at the Florida speedway, which was finished…

The opportunity to bring in more manufacturers to develop high performance products with low emissions could rejuvenate the sport While all the talk might be about making Formula 1 and endurance racing racing better, maybe we are missing something more positive, for there can be no doubt that manufacturers are now using motorsport to develop road car products that will benefit the end user. Tyre companies, battery suppliers and engine companies are pushing these new boundaries of efficiency, as well as performance, and coming up with some valuable solutions. Companies such as Michelin are using their LMP1 experience at Le Mans to provide technical information to their product development teams. For instance, with narrower tyres having been mandated at Le Mans since 2014, Michelin has been able to take something…

The entire aero concept of the car has been changed, with the cockpit moved towards the rear of the car in a bid to free up space low down at the front For the 2016 version of its R18, Audi has embraced change. Gone is the flywheel, replaced by a battery storage system that is mounted high in the nose of the car by the drivers’ legs, while the entire aero concept of the car has also been changed, with the cockpit moved towards the rear in a bid to free up space low down at the front, to make full use of the front wing that has been allowed by the regulations since 2014, and to direct the airflow through the car. The rear bias of the car has…

Toro Rosso pioneered a new approach to the rear wing support on its cars some time ago. The current generation of power units have the single large tail pipe located in the exact spot where the rear wing pylon or pylons need to be mounted to the upper surface of the transmission casing. To get around this some teams have experimented with inverted Y shapes at the base of the wing pylons, asymmetric supports, or just opted for the simpler but less efficient twin supports. Toro Rosso, on the other hand, simply decided to put the wing support directly through the tailpipe itself. ‘It’s pretty tricky to do that because you have to minimise any power unit performance implications from having the support running through the pipe,’ James Key says.…

‘The project has restarted and the idea will be for the unification or harmonisation to now happen in 2019’ With its close racing, star drivers, tyre war, and works teams, Super GT has become a significant part of the international motor racing landscape in recent years. Under the leadership of GT Association (GTA) chairman Masaaki Bandoh, it has undergone an overhaul and it now has plans for a major expansion. The most notable change has been the introduction of a new technical rulebook for the GT500 class, which saw the Japanese manufacturer teams adopt almost all of the DTM technical regulations albeit with a similar, but different, variant of the chassis used in Europe. This change was made originally to allow GT500 and DTM to have fully harmonised regulations and…

The team has claimed an impressive 13 drivers’ titles and three teams’ titles across several series Carlin Motorsport is synonymous with success in single-seater competition below F1. Yet while motorsport insiders note the team’s growing collection of trophies, and roster of successful drivers, its partnership with technology solutions company PTC is less well known. ‘Our aim is to take drivers from karting to the door of F1,’ says Stephanie Tindall, PR and marketing manager with Carlin. Indeed, the list of drivers to have graduated from the Farnham team’s school is very impressive. Its alumni include a four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, and three-time grand prix victor Daniel Ricciardo, while seven other current F1 drivers are also previous Carlin racers. Since its beginnings in 1996, Carlin has expanded from a long-running…

Recently-released financial accounts have shown that the Force India F1 team continued to make a loss in 2015, but that its performance was much improved when compared to the previous year. The accounts show that the Anglo-Indian team reduced its loss from £15.4m for the 2014 financial year, to £6.8m in 2015. Its turnover increased from £59.92m in 2014 to £64.26m in the same period. Force India’s income in 2015 was boosted largely by increased sponsorship, much of it derived from Mexico as a result of having Sergio Perez in one of its race seats. The team has also benefited from FOM income paid for it finishing sixth in the World Championship in both 2013 and 2014. This is awarded in the year after the result, so the fifth place…

The Williams Group’s relentless quest to transfer Formula 1 tech to the wider world has resulted in another high profile tie-up, this time with the use of it pit-stop expertise to help with the resuscitation of new-born babies. University Hospital of Wales (UHW) approached the F1 team after it recognised the similarities between neonatal resuscitations and F1 pit-stops, both of which require a team of people to work seamlessly in a time-critical and space-limited environment. The resuscitation team invited members of the F1 outfit to the hospital last year for an exploratory meeting to discuss how F1 techniques and processes could be incorporated into its work. Now members of the neonatal team from UHW have also visited the Williams factory, to observe the team practice pit-stops and to see first-hand…