PSP in F1

Hello and thanks for tuning in on this frequency again.

The following article comes exclusively with the help of the kind people from ISSI - Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated. Their commercial site is located here.

We are not going to talk about PlayStation Portable, as the headline hints, but for Pressure Sensitive Paint (henceforth abbreviated PSP) - a method which stands between traditional F1 development paths - wind tunnels and CFD (but not a replacement for any of them). This is something that has been in use for quite some time, especially when it comes to NASA and airplanes.

WHAT IS PRESSURE SENSITIVE PAINT

In short, this paint-like coating fluoresces under a specific illumination wavelength of incident light and the fluorescent response is a function of the external air pressure being applied locally to its surface.
A typical PSP is consists of luminescent molecule and a polymer binder which must be permeable to oxygen.

There has been some use and some interest by certain F1 teams in using PSP in their own tunnel testing. 30m/s is typically the lower limit of PSP due to smaller pressure gradients below that speed. Most use PSP to validate CFD results or vice versa.

Imagine that in the end you could receive the same pressure distribution picture as you normally get from a CFD simulation run:

Image credit:  http://www.psp-tsp.com/

WHY IS PSP ADVANTAGEOUS 

A key advantage to traditional experimental techniques like pressure taps and transducers:

• cost savings 
• not limited by model geometry
• provides much higher spatial resolution than traditional methods

Essentially you'll have a "pressure tap" at every pixel of your camera. So if you are using a 1-megapixel camera, that's like having 1 million pressure taps on the surface. Once the experiment is set up, many runs at various conditions can be made rather quickly by comparison to CFD and data turnaround is much quicker as it can be processed on site with some knowledge of the test conditions and local pressure taps on the model if available.
Paint formulations have also been developed recently which allow for unsteady measurements of pressure using a high speed camera. Measurements can be made upwards of 10 kHz on the surface.

THE PROCESS

The typical process could be described with the following simple steps:

1. Painting: Whatever the testing object might be, the usual paint gun or airbrush could be used. 
2. Excitation: The molecules inside the paint have to be excited, so there is a light illumination source applied to the painted surface.
3. Data gathering: The CCD camera kicks in collecting the fluorescent response from the illuminated surface
4. Data visualization: Different software packages could be used to visualize what's already being recorded and thus used for analysis of pressure gradients. 

Two immediate questions have arisen, fortunately Steve Palluconi, a research engineer, was available for this short interview: 

Question: Due to its (PSP's) spraying technique - would that be too much disturbance of boundary layer or not at all? Negligible, maybe?
Answer: Generally the layer thickness is 20-30 microns and is very smooth. Negligible for these types of tests. Pressure taps are more invasive as we’ve actually seen flow separation caused by them.

Question: Are there any estimates on cost? For example, would it be too expensive to implement or improper, for example, due to model scales (in F1 - up to 60% of the real car size)
Answer: Costs depend on the scope of the test and size of the model. Large models like the one referenced would usually be imaged with a multi-camera system. Smaller models can be imaged with a single camera. We've done testing on some large aircraft models.

Should you have more in-depth and scientific questions you can always contact Steve through their web site.

F1 aero glossary

The idea of that article is to be a reference point for the most used aerodynamic terms in Formula 1.
The list doesn't pretend to be exhaustive or fully descriptive on certain topics, such as CFD, but for now I'd prefer the simpler variant, listed alphabetically for easier navigation. Additions and comments are appreciated , but at the same time I will assume that you know the basics, for example the fact that there are four forces that act on a car: lift, weight, thrust, and drag.

The format is simple:

• TERM
• Explanation
• Illustrated picture (almost all have larger sizes)

Shift into gear!

AIRFOIL
[Explanation] In British English you can also find the term as "Aerofoil", but generally this is a transverse cross-section of a wing. This is how the term is named in all aerospace sources, but in motorsport that's just another word for wing or its shape.

[Picture] To follow below, when explaining Angle of attack

ANGLE OF ATTACK
[Explanation]
This is the angle between airfoil's chord line and the crosswind airflow, regardless of wing's direction.

[Picture]

image credit: http://wikipedia.org

ASPECT RATIO
[Explanation]  The ratio of the length of wings to their width is called aspect ratio. A high aspect ratio indicates long, narrow wings. A low aspect ratio indicates short, wide wings.

In short, a simple formula to present it mathematically: 

Aspect ratio = wing length / wing width

[Picture] 

Image credit: http://NASA.gov

BARGEBOARD
[Explanation]
Bodywork piece on an open-wheel race car, which is usually situated between the front wheels and the sidepod. They, the bargeboards, are usually created with trapezoid profile, and their main task is to redirect turbulent air (flow conditioners), from the wake of the front wing, tires and suspension.

Another function of bargeboards is to serve as vortex generators, for example, creating and directing a quite fast vortex around the sidepods.

[Picture] 

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

BERNOULLI'S PRINCIPLE

[Explanation] 

In 1738 the Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli publishes in his book, Hydrodynamica, the principle stating that an increase in a fluid's speed occurs simultaneously with accompanying decrease in pressure or decrease in fluid's potential energy.
Here we see very close relations and roots with the Conservation of Energy principle, as well as Newton's 2nd law. 

BOUNDARY LAYER
[Explanation]
When an object moves through a fluid or gas the molecules of the fluid near the object are disturbed and aerodynamic forces are created, whose magnitude is dependent on fluid's viscosity and its elasticity.
The former is very important, as the molecules right next to the surface of the object are sticking to it. Then, there's a collision between molecules sticking to the surface and those above it - this creates a tiny layer with 0 to very small velocity which is called Boundary layer.
Boundary layers can be Laminar or Turbulent, which are covered below.

[Picture]

Image credit: NASA.gov

CAMBER (ANGLE)
[Explanation]
Misdirection such as "camber is the top surface of a wing" do exists, but in fact if we look previously at Angle of Attack's picture, we will notice that one of the surfaces is just more curved than the other - than it's said that the airfoil has camber, while the camber angle is the difference between the chord line (red) and camber line (blue).

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)
[Explanation]
CFD is a leaf on the large tree of fluid mechanics which uses numerical and computational methods to solve issues arising during fluid flow.
It is important to note that typical CFD simulation offers approximations and assumptions by solving Navier–Stokes equations, which define any single-phase fluid flow. Recently there is a lot of interest in two or multiphase models.
F1 teams would usually use CFD along with wind tunnel testing to correlate the produced data and produce parts with greater confidence, having done simulations prior to actual fabrication and production. Such simulations often require large computing power in order to complete as fast as possible.

Generally, a CFD task usually consists of three main stages:

• Pre-processing - where geometry is defined, the total occupational volume of the fluid is divided into cells - mesh creation, as well as physical models and boundary conditions;
• Solving - the actual process of  iteratively solving the conditions of each cell;
• Post-processing - the stage where the results for each calculations are being analyzed and then presented in a readable form, usually like the picture below.
  In most of the cases the red color zones will mean high pressure, while the blue is the opposite - low pressure regions. 

[Picture]

ANSYS Fluent pressure gradients in polyhedral mesh

[Picture]

Image courtesy: Voxdale
In this particular case, the colors stand for velocity - red is high, blue is low.

DOWNWASH
[Explanation]
The downwash effect is simply an air which is forced down - due to wing trailing edge or due to the shape of the body in general. In case of downforce inducing airfoil, the downwash occurs in front of the wing.

Video with downwash effect on a finite wing can be seen below, at Wake section.

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

END PLATE
[Explanation]
In order to overcome the problem of turbulence created between the front wheels and the front wings, end plates have been introduced (blue color on the picture below). During the years they had different shapes, but have been used to redirect air away from the tires, and also as pressure equalizers (at rear wing), having in mind the usual wingtip vortices.

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

FLAP
[Explanation]
The front wing of F1 car consists of end plates, center section, cascade elements and main flap, highlighted in blue on the picture below. Generally, there's a slot gap between each of the elements, in order to keep the air as attached as possible, thus prevent stall and flow separation. This flap is the element that determines the angle of attack of the front wing, it is adjustable, and therefore it is very important part.

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

GURNEY FLAP (WICKERBILL)
[Explanation]
That term originates back in 1970's where American Dan Gurney was fixing this small device at the trailing edges of the wings on racing cars. This is really an effective way to increase the downforce of a wing at the expense of small drag induced. Different researches are quoting different numbers, but let's throw some average numbers and give a ratio of 8% more downforce vs. 3% increase in drag.
What is actually little known as fact is that Gurney flap increases lift by changing the Kutta condition (related to sharp trailing edges), so the wake behind the flap are two counter-rotating vortices (also very typical to diffuser lateral edges, where Gurney flaps are present, too).

[Picture]

OR

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

LAMINAR FLOW
[Explanation]
Laminar flow is sometimes also known as streamline flow, occurs when fluid flows in a parallel uninterrupted layers. The main characteristics of laminar flow are its smoothness, the lack of swirls or vortex formations (as much as possible), steady velocity and hence stable pressure gradients.
Few more lines below we are going to talk about Reynolds number, but generally laminar flow is characterized with low Reynolds number (Re).

[Picture]

LIFT TO DRAG RATIO
[Explanation]
Most commonly you will find this term abbreviated as L/D ratio or simply Ld - is the amount of lift (or downforce) generated by a wing or vehicle, divided by the drag it creates by moving through the air.
That ratio has lots of components that build it, but for now we will skip the math and the formulas, and will conclude that in F1 engineers are always trying to achieve higher downforce at lower drag coefficients, which is usually a result of a balancing act - in either setup or design stage.


PITCH SENSITIVITY
[Explanation]
While in motion, certain aerodynamic forces act on a race car. The magnitude of those forces is commonly known as pitch movements, and the ability of the car to cope with them is know as pitch sensitivity. That ability is directly related to the way the car feels and handles, for example sudden and excessive diving nose when braking. More can be seen below at Yaw paragraph.


REYNOLDS NUMBER
[Explanation]
Reynolds number can be frequently seen when solving fluid dynamic issues, just as well as characterize different flow modes, such as laminar or turbulent flow. It is generally a ratio of inertial to viscous forces.
For example, at high Reynolds number the flow is turbulent, characterized by unstable formations, such as eddies and vortices, while at low Reynolds number the flow is laminar (usually smooth flow).

Reynolds number as a measure is very useful for aerodynamic engineers which are trying to match data produced by wind tunnels testing with real track data. This is also one the very possible reasons for data correlation mismatch (a popular topic in F1 world) - the Reynolds number is different on a wind tunnel scaled-down model and real car, because the boundary layer is different.

The formula is simple: 

where:

• v = is the mean velocity of the object relative to the fluid (m/s)
• L = characteristic linear dimension, (travelled length of the fluid) (m)
• mu = is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pa·s or N·s/m² or kg/(m·s))
• u =  is the kinematic viscosity (v = mu / p) (m²/s)
• p = density of the fluid (kg/m³)

Hence:

Laminar flow: Re < 2000
Transitional flow: 2000 < Re < 4000
Turbulent flow: Re > 4000

SLAT
[Explanation]
This is part of multi-element wing which is installed ahead of leading edge of the airfoil, below the main element. Certainly, it's there to create more efficiency and downforce. See picture below - a typical aircraft installment, imagine it reversed for a race car.

[Picture]

STRAKE
[Explanation]
A flat plate body fixed to race car in order to control and direct airflow (falls under the general category of Flow conditioners).

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

TURNING VANES
[Explanation]
The turning vanes on the picture below are rather Mclaren style, as opposed to the L-shaped from Red Bull and recent 2012 Ferrari incarnations. Turning vanes serve similar purpose to bargeboards, but are usually smaller in size. They started as very simple elements, like the ones highlighted with blue below, but have turned into increasingly complex in the recent years, given the strong aerodynamic profiles of modern Formula 1 cars.

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

VENTURI
[Explanation]
Here we will talk about both the effect and the tube, named after the Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi.
The Venturi effect is a jet effect per se - in a tunnel the velocity of the fluid increases as the cross sectional area decreases, which is accompanied with a decrease of the static pressure.
In Formula 1 Venturi effect is closely related with underbody aerodynamics, which included shaped channels (before flat floors) aimed to accelerate the air and hence create low pressure areas.
See the picture below and imagine how and where can this be applied in a race car.
Again, the blue areas are low pressure ones and red are high.

[Picture]

Image credit:  http://www.symscape.com

VORTEX
[Explanation]
Vortex in aerodynamics is any fluid or gas formation which usually has turbulent flow. What is typical for a vortex is the low pressure at its core, which rises progressively as we go away from the center to the outer edges where the pressure is very high. This is one of the reasons why aero people generally would like to avoid creating vortices - the high pressure would mean lower velocity of the surrounding layers, thus drag.

Other reason why vortices are generally avoidable is because of the possibility of "vortex burst" - this is the moment where the formation literally breaks and creates even more turbulent and uncontrollable flow. This is less likely to happen with weak vortices and respectively, usually seen with strong vortices, where the core sometimes disintegrates into few smaller vortices.

The reason why, however, vortices are sometimes deliberately induced is to wake or re-energize the boundary layer - the small portion of air which is very close to a surface, where due to skin friction and resistance the velocity of the air is very low. We would like, as aero people, to have less drag, so we create a vortex generators - small winglets, which often induce normally rotating, weak vortices. The trade-off is the smaller portion of drag induced due to the shape of the device, but it's more beneficial in terms of L:D coefficient.
In F1 world we often hear the term referred to as "wingtip vortices", as seen on the picture below. The reason for creation of such formations is the natural tendency of the air to move from high to low pressure regions, being a continuous function. Here, since we operate with negative lift (downforce), the direction of the vortices is upwards.
These wingtip vortices, on the other hand, create lift-induced drag and drag is unwanted in any of its forms in motor sports, where speed matters.

[Picture]

VORTEX GENERATORS
[Explanation]
We have already explained what boundary layer is, so down on the alphabet we reached the vortex generators - small, usually vertical wings (or winglets, if you prefer - the synonym for small wing) whose purpose is re-energize the boundary layer, and thus increase the overall velocity of the air stream.
Generally, they are quite an easy way to direct air (flow conditioning) and enforce some turbulence close to the surface. In Formula1 cases we have even seen plastic-like Vortex Generators used on Toro Rosso's car - most probably a quick prototype parts, still, they do the job.

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

WAKE
[Explanation]
This is the turbulent disturbed air behind an object where the total pressure is low. Notice the 3D grid generated behind the wing's trailing edge below.

[Video]


YAW (PITCH AND ROLL)
[Explanation]
Yaw, in particular, is the motion of race car around a vertical axis, which occurs for example during steering.
All three directions are shown below.

[Picture]

Original concept: deus1066, Model remix: F1 Framework

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Congratulations, you have been very patient :)
Once again, this is just a reference point to some of the aero-related terms and devices in Formula 1. Some that are not included in the list, one reason or another: diffuser,  rake (article coming on that in the future, studying effect of diffuser angles and rake together), high velocity tunnels (ducts), F-duct like devices, NACA ducts (or "submerged inlets", due to their vortex-generating nature) but they will find their place at the F1 Framework in detailed articles.
As usual, I'm open to topic suggestions - next raft of blog posts are likely to be attributed to exotic technologies that can make it into F1.

F1 factories

The following article is aimed at describing the 'average' Formula 1 factory and the processes happening behind the walls of these buildings. I'm even going to talk about specific vendors and introduce you the solutions that they offer to F1 teams.

When we discuss F1 teams and the way they engineer/produce parts, we should note that some choose to outsource the car's development to a different extent. For example, the brakes for Mclaren MP4-27 are provided by Akebono (since 2007).

Image credit: akebono-brake.com

Certainly, Mclaren don't have to invest time in creating that component, since there's already a good product on the market. That's the case with Brembo as well, which is provider to 6 of the teams. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean each team gets the same product - instead, there are custom solutions, "tailor-made", as they say.
Also, we are not going to talk in depth about the case where the respective team manufacturers its own engine, gearbox and KERS inside the factory, since it's only Ferrari (and former Toyota) who choose to build entire car (100%) at their own factory.

What's inside a typical F1 facility

Before going into details, we should note that different factories will vary in what type of machinery is inside, but most are having design offices, fabrication and assembly area, wind tunnel, CFD center, autoclaves (Red Bull have two, for example, the bigger one is from USI) and supporting areas.
Often you will find that some parts are produced with high precision in isolated areas with no external access whatsoever (3D printers), exhausts are being welded behind closed walls (single pipe takes about 40 hours, one exhaust set lasts around 1000 race kilometers, material is Inconnel), but sometimes you will just find screwdrivers hanging around together with boxes of bolts close to adjustable jigs - purely human environment.

Enstone Virtual tour, Renault F1 engine

Rapid prototyping / stereolithography

3D Rapid prototyping is very intriguing process where scaled-down parts are produced in shorter periods of time than the usual carbon fiber components being 'baked' in autoclaves.

Those type of machines allow the teams to produce testing parts (for the wind tunnel) directly from the CAD design, i.e. you draw your advanced geometry feature on the new front wing for the next race, send it to the printer where the new front wing is produced in just a few hours, as opposed to the real one, which can take days. Brake ducts, winglets, full-scale wind tunnel models - literally anything can be created. The pure magic happens inside that 3D printer where the object is created by laying down successive layers of material (epoxy resin) via ultraviolet laser. 

Here's a short video from NASA's tool lab, printing a wrench:

Essentially, this is a technology that is becoming more and more popular in the recent years, even though, depending on the size and the purpose, a complex of such machines can cost several million US dollars.

Another interesting F1 example would be creating a wheel rim with rapid prototyping methods:

Wind tunnels

A lot can be said about the aim of the wind tunnels and their leading role in aerodynamic analysis, but most of the talk will be self-explanatory, so let's just watch this video, courtesy of Sauber F1 team (HD):

Let's recall that no wind tunnel testing may be conducted using a scale model which is greater than 60% of full size, as the rules say, just as well as: No wind tunnel testing may be carried out at a speed exceeding 50 metres/second, which is 180 km/h or respectively 111 mph for those who prefer Imperial units.

A company named "Wind Shear inc" is citing the following interesting facts about wind tunnel anatomy here:

• The air in this wind tunnel design flows from the fan to the vehicle, then is collected and returned to the fan in a closed circuit
• The circuit will cover an area of 160,000 square feet
• It will take an estimated 20,000 tons of steel and 2,000 cubic yards of concrete to construct the circuit
• The main fan has a diameter of 22 feet, and is rated at 5,100 hp
• The fan is capable of producing a maximum air speed of 180 mph
• At maximum air speed, the fan produces an air flow volume of 2.85 million cubic feet per minute, and its total power consumption is 7 megawatts (one megawatt is equal to one million watts)

Finally, a word about costs - an average wind tunnel installment can be estimated to tens of thousands of US dollars (40 to 50).

CFD / Computing power

Generally, F1 teams will use the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) as primary step for a new design, which would allow more flexibility in the early testing process. Certainly, most teams are using CFD in conjunction with wind tunnels to correlate the produced data, but some have tried CFD only approach, such  as Virgin with Nick Wirth. However, it turned out that CFD is not a sole replacement for wind tunnels, simply because it relies on approximations and assumptions by solving Navier-Stokes equations. Therefore, exhaust gases and turbulence are hard to model with CFD. Still, as soon as you have the results (having created the mesh prior to running the simulation, often a time consuming task) you can visualize the flow.
In order to get those results, you need a huge computational power, if you want them as fast as possible. Let's drill down into some technical details.

A research made by students from Brigham Young University a while ago is stating:

The CFD analysis was performed with the help of the BYU Fulton Supercomputing Laboratory (FSL).
The BYU FSL contains 9592 core processors and a total operating memory of 27.1 TB. A simulation took approximately 22 hours and 30 minutes to reach the set.

More on that subject follows, again from Sauber and the vendor that supplies their super computer, DALCO, the information is from 2009, but the idea is to grasp the ballpark figures:

The system, based on Intel Technology with a total weight of 21 Tons, was already one of the most powerful supercomputers in Formula 1 when it was launched. Albert 2 featured 256 compute nodes, each with two Intel Xeon 5160 dualcore processors, which gave a total of 1024 processor cores. The capacity of the main memory was 2048 GBytes and the maximum compute power was 12,28 TFlops (12.288 GFlops). An extension of 32 more compute nodes to a total of 288 nodes or 1.152 processor cores was added soon afterwards.
Now, BMW Sauber F1 Team has launched the next step by extending the existing system. A further 384 nodes, equipped with Intel Xeon E5472 quadcore processors (four cores per processor) and related Intel technology where added to the existing system so that the new supercomputer, Albert3, now has 4224 cores. The main memory grew to 8448 GBytes and the peak compute power is now at 57,7 TFlops, that's 50,700,000,000,000 arithmetic operations per second.

This is Albert 3, the super computer that runs the CFD software from ANSYS - the same vendor that Red Bull is working with, too. Pat Symonds says that the governing body sets limits on what can be used with CFD technologies, and the max peak is 40 TFlops.


Here we can add the numbers for Toyota Motorsport facility and services in Cologne:

• Up to 80 million hexahedral cells making up a complete vehicle model
• 600 CPUs and 1,200 cores cluster
• With a typical full-car model of 60 million hexahedral cells, calculation, including automatic generation of post-processing movies, can be performed within 24 hours and three cases of this size can run simultaneously.

Lotus, for example, are using CD-ADAPCO and a system provided by Boeing Research and Technologies. Still, let's not forget that even though you have supercomputer at your disposal, the price and the number of calculations are limited in order to fit into the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA).

On a related note, it is my guess that the teams are also using pressure sensitive paint in the wind tunnels in order to have a backup for CFD results, but at this point I have no solid evidence about that.

Design office

In general, design offices in F1 factories are the usual places with many people in open area sitting close to each other behind at least two large computer monitors, working on CAD designs.

For example, Red Bull Racing's solution for Product Lifecycle Management comes from Siemens.
They say it's essential to have good tools when you want to assemble about 4,000 pieces and make a race car out of them. 

A sneak peek inside their design office (over engineer's shoulder):

And a shot from the assembly area (race bay):

2010, RB6

Suspension, stress and other rigs

Some factories have suspension rigs where they simulate the loads coming from the track and forces acting on a car - downforce, pitch, roll, etc. Usually, these hydraulic rigs transfer collected data from previous races and then it's being replayed in order to fine tune the different components. The vibrations and the pressure that chassis and individual components take is enormous (simulating real bumps with high speeds), but this is not unusual for a stress test. The results are collected from sensors and subsequently displayed for analyzing potential weak points.
The potential cost of some of these machines is in the 100 - 200,000 US Dollars range.

Autoclaves 

Unlike the usual sterilizers that are used in the medicine, the typical automotive autoclave acts like a giant pressure cooker where the carbon fiber parts are being 'baked' with temperatures about 140C. Prior to that, the carbon fiber comes at the form of a sticky cloth, which is then laid over the respective part. The whole process could take about 7 to 12 hours.  

In order to get a good grasp of the sizes, here's a picture from the autoclave in Mclaren Technology Center: 

Photo credit: theroom.ru

These large ovens (7-8 m2) are one of the least expensive parts in F1 factory - around 1 million US dollars considering that the teams that build their own engines are investing lot more.

Here's another shot, this time from Red Bull Racing factory at Milton Keynes:

Simulators

Simulators are another type of extremely sophisticated machines that you may find in F1 factory. Usually they are built to recreate to a maximum extent the driver experience while driving the car, sitting in a real racing tube.
More on the subject comes from Ferrari: 

Photo credit: blog.axisofoversteer.com

This is a picture of their simulator, a giant spider, created by the company "Moog". You can read the entire press release here involving words from Marco Fainello, Head of the Car Performance Department, who says:

The dynamic driving simulator completely meets our specifications and expectations for a system that can test car designs as well as train drivers. Working closely with Moog during the two years of development on this system has helped us realize the maximum benefit from high performance simulated motion control.”

The simulator cost can really vary, but let's say that a number of 3 million US dollars would not be unusual.
In the meantime I was reminded by my Polish friends from F1 Talks that there's a video footage of the simulator in action:


Clearly you can see the red prancing horse tube inside the spider's cabinet.
Further explanation from Moog's engineers:

The test pilot is seated in front of a screen providing a viewing angle of more than 180°. Ten multiprocessor computers control the system with a total 60 GB of RAM producing around 5 GB of data per day. It features a 3,500 Watt Dolby Surround 7.1 sound system

Other stuff inside a typical F1 factory is paint shop (more further down the article), large CNC N-axis milling machines for chassis creation or engine parts (example is HURCO, used by Williams), metal engineering machines like these ones by Mazak:

Photo credit: http://theengineer.co.uk

Another interesting example is the partnership between Mitsubishi and Sauber. In the picure below we can see a wire-cut EDM machine, which is being used for rapid prototyping parts:


or a sneak look around in Milton Keynes, RBR factory

Photo credit: CNN

Painting

The paint on an F1 car is around two kilograms, and we already know that each kilogram costs around 0.05secs per lap (depending on the track). Apparently, the paint department can't afford too much paint while the rest are trying to engineer low-weight components. 

When it comes to time frames, painting the chassis, for example, is a very lengthy process - it can take about  three full days! You can imagine how much time does it takes to build/assemble a completely new car from scratch. 

One of the most prominent partnerships in this paint department is between Mclaren and AkzoNobel - a move mostly driven by Ron Dennis in 2008. Back then, he decides to pursue a unique silver/chrome appearance for Mclaren, and this turned out to be a great challenge for painting company. Not only they managed to reduce the weight of the paint, but the base coating was no longer required and the chroming process took only four and a half hours instead of six. 

The next speed performance gain was achieved in the drying process - a normal road car bonnet is cured in about 40 minutes (at 60C), while the high-tech ultra-violet LED gun by AkzoNobel does the same in just 7 minutes. 

While this may seem fairly marginal interval for us, the mere mortals, in F1 speed matters a lot - both on the track and in the factory.

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I'm glad that you made it all the way down here. The sources of that article are purely available to the public, though some a bit more cryptic, so you just have to know where and how to search.
Some special people have contributed for the accuracy of that article, and I'd like to take the chance to thank them, although they prefer to stay comfortably hidden.

All multimedia and facts are used under "Fair use" doctrine for purely educational purposes and best efforts are made to credit the original owner. 

How to become an F1 driver

The recent win of Pastor Maldonado in Spain was quite a good match to revive this old topic, very exhaustively covered originally by Ivan Nikoloff here.
Ivan is from Bulgaria, a compatriot, and he is, I quote: "Management & IT solutions for motor racing / Helping produce the F1 broadcasts in Bulgaria / Giving an innovative view from inside F1" His Twitter account is here.
I have his explicit written permission to link and translate his original post. I hope you will enjoy his insights just as much as I did.

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I'm sure that every fan of Formula 1 wants to know what makes these drivers so special and how they have done it?
There's no definitive and straightforward answer, so let's start explaining the specifics.

First, he has to be quick, i.e. to have a feeling about the car, managing the pedals and the steering wheel. A sense for speed and lateral acceleration, just as well as mental strength and clear brain to process all these information subconsciously. In addition to that, that brain must have the capacity to collect the data and plan ahead, and finally a good vision, though this can be corrected with lasers.
The physical parameters of the body, such as weight, are less important, but still, the engineers will appreciate lower Center of Gravity.

In general, there are quite a lot of similarities between F1 drivers and military airplane pilots - why am I mentioning this? Remember Williams F1 team had a technical partner, Qinetiq, who has done a research on how the nerve endings are sending info to the Cerebellum (smaller region in the lower part of the brain) about perceptions of yaw, pitch and roll. The research claims that if stimulated at early age, these perceptions are being developed much faster - what's the relation with F1 drivers? Kart racing. A driver that has started kart racing after age of 10 will have worse results than the one started as early as 8!

That claims makes a lot of sense, especially if we look back at Senna, Michael Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel. Even the 8 time rally champion Sébastien Loeb has started as gymnast at the age of 3!
So, kart racing is clear: KF3, KF2 or KF1 if you want to be professional. Alternatives like Rotax Max or Easy Kart exist, but in Rotax class there's a distinctive characteristic: the engine doesn't have enough torque on low revs, which is probably why there's not many succeeded, as opposed to Easy Kart, which has a better and equal engine, but it is yet to become popular.
TKM is widely known in UK (primarily), but drawing the bottom line reveals that drivers who have competed in WSK or Italian Open have had notable success after kart racing.

Kart racing is very popular in Italy - everything there is very professional and very expensive, too. I'm talking about a ballpark figure of several hundred thousand euros. After that kart stage in Italy, you need to decide what to do, i.e. when to step in for the larger cars.

1. As early as possible - even if that means 12-13 years age. 
2. Race in kart up to 18-20 years - preferred by Jos Verstappen :)

Both variants have their pros and cons. In the former option the driver is getting used to a larger car, real track and setup very early and more quickly, which is an advantage and experience. The latter option offers the possibility of having training at its full size.
Back on option #1, it's still not that popular and hasn't produced an F1 driver, because just a handful of pilots have made the early transition from kart to a formula car. There are, however, some interesting talents out there.

Last year Valtteri Bottas has become a champion in GP3, and he's likely to get a real chance from Williams other than Friday practice sessions.
Another driver which is worth mentioning is Mitch Evans from New Zealand. He had scored the most points in the dry races in GP3, but made some errors in the wet races and thus lost the title.

The other extreme is to debut at age of 18-19 and quickly make way through the crowd ahead - just like Kimi and Jenson did. This option isn't really popular, as budgets in kart racing have recently become almost equal to GP3 or F3.

Couple of weeks ago Sergey Sirotkin (16) and Matheo Tuscher (15) managed to surprise lots of people by getting pole positions in Auto GP and Formula 2 respectively. Evidently, contemporary drivers are able to cope with serious cars at that age, if they have had a proper training and wins before that.

Now, there's the choice of category: Formula Ford, Formula Abarth, Formula Renault or Formula Master ADAC.
Formula Ford gives you the chance to drive a lot at affordable price, but no aerodynamic downforce is present - the driver controls the car only via mechanical grip provided by the tires.
In the other three formulas you have to learn everything, but including the complexity of the aerodynamics.
Lots of people think that your first step has to be Formula Ford, because you need to learn gradually, whereas Formula Abarth or Renault are two steps at the same time. At this stage the driver must work at least 2 years, unless you are Kart legend like Trulli or Liuzzi. The first year you get used to formula car with suspension, and then next year you can fight for podiums, wins or the title.

From that point, however, everything is decided by the budget and the current levels of the championships.
In F3 Euro series and British F3 there's a lot of testing with Dalara's cars and in the end the whole experience is close to F1. F3 is also a really important step because the driver has the chance to participate in parts development - something that happens all the time in F1.

The last level, GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5, is for successful drivers from previous series.
You have to adapt quickly to the highest levels of power, the carbon brakes, strategies and pit stops. The cars are quite complex and it is expected that a developed driver will win at this point. The increased pressure from the fitness point of view is also here to tell you that, if you win the title, you should be expecting a seat in F1 soon.

Generally, these are the steps prior to getting into F1. Missing a step is as vital as missing a class in school. With every step further the chances to test, practice and therefore cleaning your mistakes become less and less. Making the right step is usually a bit easier if you have the financial backup, but then you need patience, hard work and dedication.
Certainly, if you do not follow the development of each of the series, you can easily be mislead from a cool marketing presentation.
Still, if you don't make it into F1, but you have a lot of wins, you can become a professional driver - they are usually preferred in GT series or touring championships because of their high level of car and team education , but mostly because formula cars are the hardest to drive.

Essentially, this is the really short and straightforward answer how to reach F1 today. It is really hard, even if you have a finance plan, simply because the expenses are too high, and a normal person would hardly reach that level. Not impossible, but some extra million bucks would make that less painful.

F1 car setup

Hello and thanks for tuning in.

The goal of the following article is to give an overview, as well as two interesting pictures, to the reader in regards to Formula 1 car setup - and a rough idea of the complexity that every team/driver has to cope with.
Note: Some of you may be more advanced in F1's technical matters, so to some extent you may be familiar with the information below. But I'm sure you'll like the pictures.

Probably quite often you hear from a driver after the race: "For some reason, we couldn't get the balance right with the current setup and I was struggling on every fast|slow corner".
Conventional racing wisdom says that the car setup is a balance between different things, but sometimes could be a trade-off, too, for example, if you want to overcome certain shortcomings of your design, e.g. running "more wing" to compensate for lack of downforce.

Let's dive into the details about on-track settings. 

• Tires - A bit aside from tire optimal working temperatures, depending on the compound (90 - 125C), a word about the pressure. Usually, they (the tires) are filled with a special, nitrogen-rich air mixture, designed to minimise variations in tyre pressure with temperature. The mixture also retains the pressure longer than normal air would.
  The tire manufacturer would provide the teams with a limits for variation, so it will be up to the race engineers to decide, because incorrect values may simply ruin the car's performance.
  A typical average pressure number would be 19 psi.
• Suspension - There are couple of settings and terms I'd like to highlight:
  Camber, caster, toe, rear and front ride height and rake.
  
  - Camber - That's the angle between the vertical axis of the wheels and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front. In a simple picture, that looks like this (negative camber):

  

  Ferrari F150 - Negative Camber Tire setting
  (click for larger image)
  Photo credit: http://ferrari.com/

  
  Negative camber merely means that both wheels are inclined inwards at the top, as seen above on Ferrari F150. If you are looking for a typical ballpark number, that would be for example 3 degrees, i.e. the wheels are inclined inwards by 3 degrees compared to the center line.
  
  - Caster - That's the angle to which the steering pivot axis is tilted forward or rearward from vertical, as viewed from the side.
  Just have a look at any shopping cart wheel to understand what this is.
  As it can be seen from the final two images below, teams can use figures from 9 to 12 degrees, for example.
  
  - Toe - If you look a car from above, a pair of wheel can have their leading edges pointed to each other - this is Toe-In, whereas opposite - edges away from each other, that's Toe-out. Again, let's use Mclaren 's 2012 competitor, MP4-27, to demonstrate this:
  

  

  Mclaren MP4-27 (click for larger image)
  Photo credit: http://www.mclaren.com/mp4-27

  
  On the left, that's the axis showing Toe-In, only in case where both wheels are aligned the same direction (V like shape).
  Similarly, the opposite is true for the right axis, which is Toe-Out. (Like Lambda ( λ ), from the Greek alphabet).
  More details on what Toe setting can bring in the comment section of the post.
  
  - Rake, ride height - Both are related, but put simply, rake is the car’s attitude from front to rear. Such setup should, in theory, increase the diffuser exit area, and thus increase rear downforce, for example, but it's not that simple, because there are number of settings to take into account, like suspension geometry, overall aero setup, induced oversteer from stiff rear suspension, etc.
  Example or rake here (image link @  http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com Mclaren MP4-27).
  In both pictures below you can see real numbers for rear and front ride height (in mm.)
• Engine maps/modes
  - Map is rather a high-level term describing variations of fuel strategies, ignition timing, torque settings and so on, whereas mode (or mix) is more like a setting for being inline with race demands, like fuel saving and proper amount of power.
  
  Examples of team communicating those are:
  Red Bull telling Vettel: " torque map 5 "is available", while Mercedes say to MSC:  "torque mode 3"
  
  It won't be unusual to hear race engineer on the radio: "Engine 2, mix 5" on the start - they use those values to communicate with the driver the proper settings throughout the course of the race.
  
  Example of engine software modification was the infamous "Off-throttle blown diffuser" employed last year mainly by Renault-powered engine teams.
  Small hint about how the things could be done here - software / automotive engineers will know the answer to that riddle.
  
  - Gear ratios - While real numbers can be seen in Arrows A22 picture below, we should note that this setting can really make a difference. For example, back in 2011 season it was quite evident that Sebastian Vettel had shorter 7th gear choice for Monza - a move which had its merit, namely for better acceleration out of the corners. It was a bit of a gamble, too, because Vettel was assuming that he would lead right from the start and won't need to overtake anyone. His top speed was affected, too, but it played well for him in the end.
  
  
• Differential - Among one of the most important things that driver can control from the cockpit. An example of its importance is the end of the race, where the fuel levels are going down, and car starts to behave differently, so alterations are needed.
  On average of 5 laps there is at least one adjustment, though sometimes drivers are doing it from one corner to another.
  The settings are usually a numbers, just as Rosberg was advised to try "mid-corner diff 7 setting" in Valencia FP2. 
• Angle of attack (AoA) - That's something pretty self-explanatory - it's related to the more or less extreme angles of a wing, for example, aimed to achieve respectively downforce or high-speed.
  The efficiency of a wing is its downforce/drag ratio - more downforce (or lift) typically comes at the cost of more drag and lower top-speed. The greater the angle of attack, the more downforce and drag.
  
  A while ago (2010), a mechanism for changing the angle of attack of the front wing was available for drivers, but in 2011 this was no longer allowed.
  
  Illustrated nicely with the following image, F2012 front wing:
  
• More on aerodynamics is coming here, in the blog, as well as other places, in the next few months - not general aerospace, but Formula 1 related.
• Brake balance / bias - Often adjusted by the driver from the steering wheel. During the race, the brakes can worn to some extent, for example, and in order to avoid instability during braking, the pilot can switch the bias from rear to front or vice-versa. In some cases the brakes can experience extreme overheat (thermal runaway), being loaded with values between 400C and up to 1000C.
• Ballast - Usually plates from high density metal like tungsten steel. Often planted on places where balance and in particular weight in small available space is needed.
  One piece of it usually fits on your palm, and could weight about 11 kg.

And finally to the promised pictures. I found the first one in Ebay a while ago, screenshot it, but the original URL is no longer present.
It's a setup sheet of Arrows A22 - a car that competed back in 2001.

"Arrows A22" car setup 2001

And here's a more recent one. Prior to joining back the F1 madness in 2012, Kimi R. had to complete a "smoke-test" with an old Renault car, namely R30.

Renault R30 - Kimi in pre-2012 private test
Photo credit: http://f1news.cz

These are real numbers from the notebook of his race engineer and that's part of the amount of data that goes into F1 car setup.

Finally, there's a picture available with a team race weekend program, Toro Rosso were generous enough not to hide the sheet from curious eyes. While it's not exactly a car setup, it still gives a good overview of how many of the described permutations are being tried on Friday alone. The picture is from Monza, 2012:

Larger version available, image courtesy of http://f1.f-e-n.net

Thanks for reading all the way down. These are some of the important pieces that take place in a Formula 1 car setup. I'd love to hear more from you, in case I missed something significant, or just a general feedback.
Cheers.