> The F1PU Car Designing School

Deary me, thank ye kindly.

Well, im not entirely sure where to start :D:) But if you have any questions feel free to ask

Also, im NOT an expert :D But I HAVE been following F1 closely for many years now and have also been keeping a keen and close eye on the more technical areas of Aero and Chassis and feel I have a good understanding of F1 car design and philosophy.

So. Lesson 1.

Drafting concepts and Ideas.

I'm not sure how many of you keep a close eye on Aero trends but either way www.formula1.com has a great techincal analysis section and f1technical.net has great blogs and a forum dedicated to these things.

Your ideas and concepts should hopefully be some kind of evoultion of whats already around or omptimisation of what you have seen. (i.e. Honda's front wing could easily be improved by a slightly wider nose and a more McLaren or Ferrariesque design e.g. 3 Main planes and an upper element) Depending on your own level of engineering and motorsport knowledge one can come up with some awesome ideas!

By checking out pictures or models of F1 cars one can see whats there and (Hopefully) how it works and will see ways of possibly improving on whats present.

So whenever you're getting the urge to design grab a pencil or pen and a surface (Paper preferably but desks, walls and backs of bald peoples head also work) and get to it. Start with what you know is used (2 - 3 planes and upper elements for front wings in most teams, sculpted sidepods, podvanes (Sidepod shields), mid wings, "T" wings (the ones behind the cooling chimneys) 3 planes in the rear wing etc...) For me I tend to start drafts with front wings as they're constantly changing and are the front of the car (Obviously). Umm.... go crazy and if you like post some of you're front wing drafts or concepts for all to see and comment on and i'll do so also when I can.

Sorry if that was unclear :D if you need anything cleared up dont hesitate to ask :)

Here we go, MS paint is REALLY hard to use! Im out of credit on my cellphone so I cant send my drawings so Im making do with what ive got.

Not spectacular, but by using the upper element as the plain mounts this reduces drag marginally by reducing surface area. Also like the McLaren front wing, I have got the mounts on the 2nd plain allowing for the front wing to pick up the air without disturbance this (I think) is why the McLaren has been considerably more stable in slipstream than the Ferrari.

Good to see the response :D haha anyways Im more than happy to explain anything on an existing teams car and try help with understanding of F1 Aero.

I hope to have the next "lesson"sorted soon

Looking foward to it :)

Whether this idea would work Im not sure as I kinda dont have a super computer and the CFD software :D But the idea here is to lower drag (and consequently downforce) in the centre section of the wing but this allows most of the downforce to be generated at the outer extremeties more toward the wheels where the grip is needed :)

Nothing special here but no team has gone and connected ALL the midsection elements together (T-Wing, Cooling Chimney and Podvane) and this would cut down on disturbed airflow although possibly lower downforce generated. Barge boards are designed to get a venturi effect swirling into the radiator ducts (Although, This may not be the desired effect) and direct airflow under the car for the diffuser.

There we go, some (poorly) MS painted concepts not a difficult task many can be taken and developed from pictures all over the interwebs. I'll be away next week and have two big Hockey games over the next two days. I'll do my best to get online though to post the next lesson.

and because GS has problems

The midsection

So, that should be the end more or less of Concept and Idea designs. Working off pictures found on ther internet is a great place to start gpupdate.com has great albums and galleries.

Please if you find anything hard to understand don't hesitate to ask questions.

Right, so I've finished my stat assesment and school so I'll get the 2nd lesson underway now. You have (Hopefully) drafted some cool ideas and designs and will be wanting to put them together. Now in reality one must note that while the idea seems great it mightn't work as well as you would hope. But you don't get far without trial and error, so go hard!

I'll start from the back this time: Rear wings can be mounted in two ways. Via pillar or endplate. With the pillar mounts the rear wings load is dispersed through the pillars in the central section like on the McLaren MP4-22 (I'll post a pic here when I find a good one)

Endplate mounts come from the endplate funnily enough. You will see that the end plate curves up and connects to the rear crash structure. My understanding is that this would create less drag (No pillars) and more flex (No support in the middle) and would be my choice. BMW Sauber's F1.07 uses this method I believe.

Mid wing- Quite optional the wing that extends across the rear of the car connecting to the end of the airbox Renault have put it on and taken it off a number of times throughout the season but Ferrari have kept it the whole way through.

T-Wing - Could be mounted to the cooling chimney as is in my drawing and on the Williams FW29 and BMW-Sauber F1.07 or Mounted to the cooling chimney but have its on support pillar (Like the Ferrari) or totally independant of the cooling chimney like on the Renault R27 early in the season not sure about now.

Cooling Chimney and Podvane - Can either be connected or not. Podvane could be mounted totally on its own (Super Aguri)to the sidepod or integrated like on the Renault.

Barge Boards - Once optional but now run on most if not all cars. Universally mounted to the side of the cockpit and extending to the far end of the sidepods.

Airbox wing - (Okay so we're travelling a little back now) These tend to generate either a tiny bit of lift or downforce but mostly act as a part of the aero package being flow conditioners for the rear wing. The Horns on the McLaren are gone and havent been replaced after the update of its rear wing. Be interesting to see if BMW-Sauber follow suit.

Cockpit wings - Like the knives seen on the side of the Ferrari, flow conditioners and are normally mounted closer to the dirver end of the cockpit so as to defer airflow around the drivers helmet.

Nose cone - attatched not far foward of the front wheels about 10cm from the furthest foward suspension arm.

Front wing - Pillar mounted from the nose cone. The pillar mounts may be on the 1st or 2nd plane of the wing or inbetween the two planes (McLaren 2nd Plain BMW Sauber in between) whether or not the upper element of a wing takes much load I dont know but I'm putting my money on no because most are very thin. Although by making them from a stronger commposite or a tad thicker a team could in theory mount thew front wing like I did in my concept.

I'll try follow up with pictures as I can :)

I've decided to do a few designs myself. But should they go in this topic or the other car design topic?General-Doug

Well here you go.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h71/Dougfacejokemaster/Frontwing.png

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h71/Dougfacejokemaster/F1Sidepod.png

And I did this earlier in the year.

...and backs of bald peoples head...KimisApprentice

I actually want to try this now...

Go ahead!

With regards to your design Doug: Now no offence 'cos its a great design but the bargeboards could be a little more refined but they do still do the airflow directing job well enough. The T-wing pillar is swept back which is a plus but the surface area is a touch big which would increase drag, but considering its position behind the chimney it might be alright. Is that a cockpit wing infront of the sidepod? It'd probably create more drag than wanted and looks to disrupt airflow to the radiaters big time. Ideally there would be a little more sculpting on the sidepods but with MS paint thats a little tricky to convey :) Rear wing looks good.

Engine cover looks very good nice and sleek and front wing looks good in the sideview.

Front wing front view looks excellent very sleek and effecient. Go send it to Honda :P

That other sidepod side view is awfully complicated, nice looking but probably not very effecient sorry! That and its illegal :P it shadow floors (The sidepod overhangs the floor) But it looks really cool!

Btw, Martin Brundle did an insight on how F1 cars are designed and also the various restrictions that the designers have to stay within. If someone can find and upload it, please do. Either that, Damon (Kimisapprentice) can draw an F1 template showing those restrictions.

And also that F1 template of mine. Even though it's notexactly legal I did it merely for fun so people could design F1 liveries.

http://www.fia.com/sport/Regulations/f1regs.html

That there is all the F1 Sporting regs new and a little old. I'll read through them soonish and give you a kind of overview :)

Well, heres the total F1 Techincal Regs.... A little overly complicated :D and I think its an Adobe file but ill give the URL anyway

http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/71EDB18A1DD3F7C3C12573290033806D/$FILE/06F1_TECHNICAL_REGULATIONS.pdf?Openelement

Basically the car cant be more than 1.8m wide .950m Tall (From the ground I THINK but it may be from the floor) and I THINK no more than 4m long. And not equipped with WMD's guns, lasers, nitrous, diesel squirters, electric windows or rocket boosters. Ejector seats are also prohibited.

I think changes are highlighted in yellow, but I cant be sure.... Gosh these are confusing! Okay this is a big read Im gonna have to get back to you :P

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/09/18/honda-tries-bridge-wing-at-jerez/

Now, now Honda. Good to see you trying! (Did I just here an ugly cough?)

Hey hey! If you check my rear wing concept in page 1 it has a Ferrari esque bottom plane with the w shape in it. Then the main plane has the cut out like in the RedBull wing. I'm begining to predict F1 aero trends lol.
KimisApprentice

Sue them for copyright! :shock:

Spygate 3 anyone? :lol:

Yeah, there is a spy among us, I'm thinking Aloushi has been away at Red Bull and Ferrari giving away my design secrets....

Well, in light of the new cars being released it's sparked some more creativity :) so a new car design, I give you the new Pagani BMW :D

It was drawn by hand then a photo taken by my new cellphone, then travelled by USB into the laptop then copied into photoshop elements 4.0 then I went and made the car ugly lol I really need to sharpen up my skills but eh, here it is.

Gamespot is awful for image posting no? Er, I can't hit submit...

Basically the car cant be more than 1.8m wide .950m Tall (From the ground I THINK but it may be from the floor)

KimisApprentice

I think it must be from the car floor, otherwise when the teams lowered the cars ride height, they'd have to add something to the car to make it taller. or maybe my logic doesn't make sense....