What techniques take the manufacturers out of F1?

Posted on 27-07-2014 at 12:47 by JordyS – 17 Comments”

Mercedes was one of the biggest proponents to the Formula 1 cleaner (and so quieter). High time for the Germans to themselves to justify it.

The criticism of the new image of the king’s class of motorsport is not tender. The sound is gone, the cars don’t look and it’s no longer about who can make the loudest on the gas pedal. Tyre saving and fuel-efficient ride is much more important. Mercedes was one of the manufacturers that insistence that the technological developments in the sport used also had to be able to be in street-legal car. We see already something of back?

Mercedes gets that question more often, let it be through technical director Paddy Lowe know. The team explains that it’s not as easy as it seems. The V6 turbo with hybrid, you see, for example, not as a whole back in the new models of Mercedes. That is true, however, for components that hybrid drive, because according to the brand, each Mercedes-rider a small F1 car, under the hood.

Hybrids
For example, if we look at the energieherwinningssysteem CHERRY, then we see that in this area much progress has been made. The first system in 2007 weighed 107 kg, and only 39 percent of the recycled energy reuse. Now weighs ICING is still only 24 pounds and is capable of 80 percent re-use for the drive of the car. That we saw, for example, back in the Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive, which made use of a further refined version of the F1 system.

The new Mercedes S500 Plug-In Hybrid is, according to the Germans the car which is the most advantage of the techniques from the F1, because it’s a brand with that model against the same challenges ran. The S-Class had to be as energy efficient as possible, without performance sacrificing. Also this car is the hybrid technology of the Mercedes GP W05 namely inherited, while there are also aerodynamic area, the necessary cross-pollination has taken place.

Wind tunnels and CFD
In addition, it is for the car manufacturers become more and more important to, as much as possible results with the least possible resources. The time that a car immediately the way was sent to a new part of testing is over. Instead, aerodynamic parts, with models tested in the wind tunnel, and manufacturers use CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). These techniques have for many years been commonplace in Formula 1, but now the transition to the design departments of the manufacturers.

Fuel and oil
Mercedes is proud that already in the fifties made use of engines with direct petrol injection in his Silver Arrows. That technique was later also the transition to production models. The new 1.6-litre turbocharged engines allow for new challenges, because they are warmer than the old V8 blocks. In cooperation with partner Petronas appeared there since 2010 no less than fifty new types of oil for engines, transmissions and hydraulics. Those products we see back in the faster Mercedes cars, such as these cars of AMG.