7 replies to this topic

[wiligates]

Hi . I havent posted in this tech forum before , but have a question regarding the wings on an F1 car .

My question is ... at what speed roughly do the front and rear wing actually start to change the grip level of the car ? eg. is it when it hits over 50km/h or lower ? I'm a complete novice in the aero department .

I ask mainly in an effort to try to get a basic grasp of the cornering difference at a high downforce curcuit like Monaco where there seems to be a few 80-90 km/h corners . Are the wings applying a lot of downforce in those low speed corners .

Thanks .

[moog101]

as soon as it has forward motion....

[Keith Young]

As long as the cars are in forward motion the car will generate downforce, although at low speeds it might not make a very big difference. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have heard at around 100 MPH the car could hold itself to the ceiling of a tunnel. In other words, it produces at least 600 Kg of downforce.

[Yelnats]

I also believe that they produce usefull downforce at 100 mph though 600 kg at that speed may be overstating the case.

600 kg would provide about 3 G's of traction at 100mph which seems a tad high if the accepted coeficient of cornering friction for a racing tire is 1.5 . This would extrapolate to 6 G's corrnering force at 170 mph if the cube law of drag is applied to downforce! I believe that about 3.5 to 4 g's is the accepted limit of steady state cornering forces for a F1 car in racing trim so perhaps 350 kg would be a more accurate figure at 100 mph and still provide over 2 G's of cornering force at that speed.

[MRC]

The friction coefficent of the tire will not remain the same with increasing load. The load sensitivity of the tire should be factored in, too. This will most likely require you to have a bit more downforce, than calculated.

[carlos.maza]

I found these figures for 1999. Don´t remember where. Sorry...

Since
D= 0.5 x Cz x ro x A x S2
ro = air density
A = frontal area
S = speed
we can calculate A (constant) and then graph D vs V .
You can see how big Cz is for Monaco and Hungary, compared to
Monza.


1999 Formula 1
Average configurations

Country |Cz    |Cx   |S(km/h) D(kg) |d(Kg)
Austral |2.496 |0.981 |297 |442 |174
Brazil  |2.511 |0.942 |305 |530 |199
San Mar |2.421 |0.912 |306 |470 |177
Monaco  |2.661 |1.000 |290 |476 |179
Spain   |2.447 |0.898 |305 |516 |189
Canada  |2.257 |0.832 |319 |504 |186
France  |2.628 |0.962 |297 |520 |190
Britain |2.436 |0.872 |310 |533 |191
Austria |2.330 |0.884 |306 |429 |163
Germany |1.908 |0.697 |345 |455 |166
Hungary |2.647 |0.990 |300 |561 |210
Belgium |2.418 |0.850 |315 |572 |201
Italy   |1.845 |0.680 |347 |435 |160
Europe  |2.586 |0.938 |305 |576 |209
Malaysi |2.580 |0.952 |304 |562 |207
Japan   |2.633 |0.991 |300 |552 |208


Cz = Downforce coefficient
Cx = Drag Coefficient
S = Speed
D = Downforce
d = Drag


Hope it helps
Carlos

[carlos.maza]

oops!

The format looked fine while I was typing it !

[wiligates]

Thanks everyone .