Innehållsförteckning för January 2025 från Racecar Engineering

In 2010, the management group behind the Williams Formula 1 team set up a company to commercialise its engineering capabilities. In 2024, the management group behind the Williams Formula 1 team set up a company to commercialise its engineering capabilities. On the face of it, history appears to be repeating itself. However, the newly formed Williams Grand Prix Technologies (WGPT) is a new and different proposition to its predecessor, focusing on distinctive technologies for evolving times. Launched in April, WGPT is a sister company to Williams Grand Prix Engineering, which is the official name of Williams F1. It has its own management board and is based at the same campus as the F1 outfit at Grove in Oxfordshire, UK. WGPT has proposed a range of services, including platform dynamics, advanced…

Super GT is at a crossroads when it comes to the future of its technical regulations. Like many series worldwide, the Japanese sportscar championship is having to grapple with changing trends in the automotive industry, while taking care to keep its paying audience satisfied as it plots a direction for the remainder of the current decade. Those that follow the series, both from within Japan and from afar, will tell you that its uniqueness is core to its appeal, and the current breed of GT500 class cars is a major part of that. The three current GT500 machines, the Toyota GR Supra, Nissan Z and the new-for-2024 Honda Civic Type R-GT, may all look very different, but they are all based on the same chassis, manufactured by Carbon Toray Magic.…

There was a clear goal for NASCAR’s Next Gen car when it was under design: reduce cost, without compromising quality. To achieve that, the sanctioning body moved towards a single supplier in some areas, including the braking system. The target was to reduce the cost of the package by around 50 per cent, compared to the previous Gen 6 system, and a tender process was initiated to find the chosen supplier. UK-based AP Racing exceeded that target relatively comfortably, and won the tender to supply the brakes. From an engineering perspective, it was no easy task to bring down the cost, while at the same time retaining the performance level seen on the previous car generation. However, AP Racing was helped in several areas by the regulations, which included an…

The FIA World Rally Championship will drop hybrid systems from its premier Rally1 class next year, having previously rowed back on that position earlier in 2024. Approved at an electronic vote of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, Rally1 cars will become 80kg lighter without the electric motor and battery. The air restrictor diameter will be reduced from 36mm to 35mm in an effort to maintain the same power-to-weight ratio as this year. A spec hybrid system from Compact Dynamics was introduced in 2022, giving the cars a 100kW (134bhp) boost. With the boost active, and combined with the 1.6-litre engine, cars produced a total output of more than 500bhp. The FIA originally announced in February that hybrids would be scrapped in 2025. One of the cases that was made,…

Alpine will use Mercedes power units and gearboxes for its Formula 1 cars when the new regulations come into force in 2026. The multi-year agreement sees Alpine transition from being a factory team to a powertrain customer, following the announcement in September that its Viry-Châtillon plant in Paris will cease producing F1 engines after next year. Mercedes’ deal to supply Alpine with its Brixworth-built power units will be valid until 2030 at least. Alpine, which is based between Viry in France and Enstone in the United Kingdom, will effectively replace Aston Martin in Mercedes’ customer line up as Aston is moving to Honda power units from 2026, when the championship adopts 100 per cent sustainable fuel. McLaren and Williams also currently use Mercedes power and are set to continue with…

On paper, the fortunes of the three LMH cars that ran the full FIA World Endurance Championship season in 2024 echoed those of the previous year. Ferrari successfully defended its 24 Hours of Le Mans victory and Toyota secured the manufacturers’ title, while Peugeot was again out of contention for accolades, even with a heavily altered version of its 9X8. But despite their season outcomes being similar, each of those LMH factory teams (plus Ferrari’s satellite squad) had to battle different issues throughout the eight-race campaign. Toyota was hit at the beginning with a huge weight increase courtesy of the Balance of Performance system. The GR010 Hybrid was set at 1089kg, exceeding the previously stated, crash tested, minimum of 1080kg. The extra weight told immediately at the opening race in…

If you know just a little bit about Formula Vee, you might think it’s quite a restrictive, even archaic, category. After all, its regulations stipulate the cars use the air-cooled, 1300cc engine from the original Volkswagen Beetle, along with much of the same car’s suspension. Dig a little deeper, though, and you may be pleasantly surprised, because not only is Vee (as it is commonly known) open to a variety of different chassis, it also allows for a surprisingly wide range of technical approaches. Formula Vee has been around since 1967 in the United Kingdom, while Vees also compete in Ireland, the United States and other countries, each of which have evolved their own set of regulations over the years. In America, for example, they use 1200cc versions of the…

The vehicle control unit (VCU) is a device that monitors and harmonises the racecar’s key functions, such as engine performance, electronics systems and battery management. VCUs have become more powerful and complex over the years, as they cater to the demands of increasingly advanced machinery. Italian company, Marelli, is aiming to pioneer the next step for this technology in motorsport with its new product, the VEC (vehicle edge controller). The device features an in-built neural processor unit (NPU) that enables artificial intelligence (AI) tasks to be carried out. The result is a drastic increase in computing power. The NPU of the launch version VEC_480 has a computing capacity of 26 TOPS (tera operations per second). According to Marelli, this is two and a half times more powerful than the family…

Williams unveiled its 2024 car later than the other Formula 1 teams. The FW46 only emerged on track one day before pre-season testing commenced. Meanwhile, its competitors had time to plan and execute elaborate presentations. Unfortunately for the Grove, UK-based squad, there is no such thing as fashionably late in F1. Its tardy arrival indicated the team had rushed to make the car ready, and gave the ominous impression it would struggle to improve on its commendable seventh place in the 2023 constructors’ championship. As the season progressed, that impression rang true as Williams contended for more than half the season with an overweight car. By the time it had reached the same race weight as its competitors, it was ninth in the 10-team table, and more than 20 points…

Motor racing has traditionally followed a set path when it comes to technology used in the sport, though the increase in manufacturer support, and money, has rather skewed the regulators towards what they require to achieve boardroom sign-off. In the past, that has included a move to smaller capacity, turbocharged engines, electric racing and then the arrival of diesel in endurance racing. That then gave way to hybrids in endurance and Formula 1 but, more recently, the paths of the OEMs and racing have deviated from each other. Racing has found itself in the unenviable position of needing to satisfy the needs of the OEMs, while at the same time retaining the essence of competition and entertainment that is the backbone of the sport, as well as staying ahead of…

The NASCAR Euro Series will adopt a five-speed sequential gearbox in 2025, departing from its traditional H-pattern manual in a major change. Announced at the Professional MotorSport World Expo in Cologne, the championship has struck an agreement with Lithuania-based Samsonas, which will provide its RS90 transmission to all cars next year. The new gearbox is a versatile unit that can be adapted to any rear-wheel-drive racecar, and has been used extensively in drifting. Samsonas fitted an adapter plate to accommodate the Euro Series car’s bellhousing and added a specialist clutch shaft. The package was trialled in race conditions at this year’s season finale and will be fitted to more cars in a driver recruitment test at Oschersleben this month. NASCAR Euro Series sporting and technical director, Joe Balash, said the…

Mercedes will return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since 1999 next year with an LMGT3 programme run by the Iron Lynx team, which has switched from Lamborghini. The German auto maker last contested the French endurance race 26 years ago as a factory squad. In recent years, it has been highly active in GT3 customer racing with its AMG high-performance division, but such cars were not allowed at Le Mans until this year. Mercedes-AMG wanted to join the party, and a guaranteed way to do so was to have a full-season FIA World Endurance Championship entry. However, it was denied a place on an over-subscribed WEC grid due to the organisers prioritising GT3 manufacturers that also had a Hypercar programme. However, the departure of…