Innehållsförteckning för October 2022 från Racecar Engineering

Race strategy in IndyCar is like no other motorsport series on the planet. The number of tyres and the compact race weekend schedule makes tyre degradation impossible to predict, while the teams – which are much smaller than those in Formula 1 – also need to manage fuel consumption, pit windows and full course yellows. But the biggest headache for strategists is the variety of types of track on which IndyCar races. There are three types of circuit on the IndyCar calendar: ovals, road courses and street courses. Ovals can be split into short ovals and superspeedways, where the latter is more than two miles long. Road courses are permanent tracks which feature both right and left turns, and street courses are made up of closed-off public roads or airport…

Electric motorsport, probably more than any other genre of racing, is all about incremental gains, particularly in terms of powertrain development. Take Formula E, where even in the first season of competition efficiency of the spec McLaren supplied motor and inverter package was around 96 per cent, a fair figure today would be somewhere between 98-99 per cent efficient. But however small the improvements, across the board – be it in WEC, F1 or FE – manufacturers have been chasing electrical efficiency gains from motors, inverters and battery systems. It is the first of these that we will focus on here. An electric powertrain must be considered in terms of the motor and controller when thinking of efficiency (and where used, the transmission). Each element is closely linked, and gains…

TECHNOLOGY – DRIVING SIMULATORS For all the technology that exists in modern racecars, driving them is still a fundamentally analogue experience. Drivers rely on intuition, sensing minute changes in the forces acting on the vehicle and those fed back through the controls, not to mention other cues such as watching for braking markers or listening to the engine revs. The best drivers in the world are extremely consistent from one lap to the next, but they achieve these results by responding to the track conditions and the racecar’s behaviour as it subtly changes. This human touch is the key to extracting performance from the car in the real world. For instance, a simulated engineering set-up that’s theoretically quicker around a track could, in practice, be a hindrance if it renders…

The Lynk & Co Cyan Racing team has withdrawn from the remainder of the World Touring Car Cup, citing failures of the Goodyear tyre as its reason for doing so. In a statement, the team said that tyre failures have ‘become a recurring occurrence in the 2022 WTCR season’. As a result, the WTCR race of Germany in May was cancelled on the grounds of safety.’ The team withdrew its cars from the race at Vallelunga, Rome, after a high-speed off for Yvan Muller and it pulled no punches, stating that ‘only a handful of cars in the remaining 11-car field finished without a tyre failure.’ The team pointed towards its balance of performance criteria, saying that it ran 80kg heavier than the championship-leading Hyundai, as one reason why it…

The new for 2022 technical regulations meant there was a huge opportunity for teams across the grid to change their fortunes. For the Sauber Motorsport-run Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team, which unquestionably suffered poor performance in the latter years of the previous generation of cars, the revolution has certainly been welcomed, and in the C42, the team’s 2022 challenger, it’s made the best of the opportunity presented to it. At the time of writing it lies sixth in the Constructors’ championship. The technical director of the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 Team, Jan Monchaux, says of the C42: ‘It has been a significant journey to the 2022 car, and so far, other than a few teething problems, it has been a huge positive shift for the team. Our good results are…

Like most things in motor racing, testing is all about time. Get the most out of your test time and chances are it will show in your lap time. These days this is doubly important because at a higher level, from FIA F3 up, there’s very little testing time to be had because of cost-led restrictions. It is, then, vital that teams hone their testing skills at every opportunity. There are still quite a few opportunities to do just this, too, as many categories do not have major restrictions on testing – most of the junior single seater formulae for a start, as well as the GT series in which giving amateur drivers seat time is important. And if you are in this fortunate position, where your team is free…

You can’t really avoid additive manufacturing (AM) in motorsport these days. It’s everywhere, and for good reason. AM is a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to traditional ‘subtractive’ manufacturing methodologies. It is well-understood that AM gives engineers far more freedom to produce components with complex shapes. It also has the potential to deliver a more significant impact on technology and manufacturing for industry than almost any other technology to date. Motorsport is a constant exercise in continuously improving performance within rapid time-frames, so it’s not surprising to find that this advanced manufacturing technology is a crucial element in implementing new designs and technology. As Michael Fuller, CEO and founder of Conflux, which specialises in AM heat exchangers, says:…

The FIA World Motorsport Council approved the new power unit technical regulations mid-August, during the normal shut down period, which has paved the way for Porsche to enter the series in 2026. The new regulations confirm that the fuel will need to come from sustainable sources as part of the series’ plans to go carbon neutral by 2030. The internal combustion engine will continue to be high-revving and will produce around 400kW of power. The MGU-H will be ditched while the battery cells will need to be non-exclusive in a bid to retain control over costs. There are controls for dyno usage, including specifically identifying the number of test benches for single cylinder testing, power unit dynos, powertrain dynos, full car dynos and ERS tests. The amount of time that…

Porsche’s next generation GT3 car has now completed its test programme and will be made available for competition starting at the Daytona 24 hours in January 2023. The company has made a number of changes to its previous model, including revised aerodynamics, an engine upgraded to 4.2 litres, wider track, longer wheelbase and a wealth of safety features, all targeted at making the car easier to drive, more durable and also faster. The base model is the 992 GT3 production car, the choice of not waiting for the GT3 R version having been made early on. This allowed the development team to start work in the summer of 2019. The team looked at all the weaknesses of the 991 Generation 2 and sought to fix them with the new model.…

From 1990 to 1993 the Toyota TS010 Group C car was put through an intensive aero development programme by Tony Southgate and Geoff Kingston in the Kings College 20 per cent and 35 per cent wind tunnels in London. In those three years the pair completed over 2000 runs, reviewing the full spectrum of body modifications from brake duct positioning to complete body design and wing placement, and in the process pushing downforce figures way higher than had previously been seen in any form of motorsport at that time (a process that will be examined in detail in a future issue). From the sheer amount of data sheets and photographs that has been provided to us, it was clear they investigated every available option the regulations would permit to ensure…

Formula 1 has taken steps to address the porpoising issue that has affected some of the 2022 cars and which has left teams and drivers concerned for driver health. The controversial move to try to tackle the issue by regulation has been taken against opposition from teams that have not suffered the same effects, leading to another debate over who is responsible for driver safety; the FIA which created the rules, or the competitors that designed cars that suffer the problem. Discussions in Technical Advisory Committee meetings found that the porpoising phenomenon appears to particularly affect cars that run with a low ride height and small amount of rake angle. The FIA believes that the problem will become worse in the future, and so has taken steps to address it.…

The KC Motorsports Group has been selected as the sole supplier of Formula 4 cars to the second FIA Motorsport Games, to be held in France in October. The Games, based on the concept of the Olympics, where competitors compete under their national flag in a variety of disciplines, has had a two-year Covid-induced hiatus after its inaugural event in Rome in 2019. JAS Motorsport has been KCMG’s technical partner in building and maintaining the cars since 2020. Hitech GP will run the operational side of the event and will set up the cars to be identical to ensure a level playing field. The KM MG-01 will have the same specification, configuration and set-up as the cars that raced in the Games three years ago. ‘This programme is a really…