Some Formula 1 fans today claim that races today are less exciting to see than they were in the past. Since the start of the turbo hybrid era, competition in this sport has decreased a lot. We have always seen Mercedes at the top. And the differences with the second car only in every race have been exceeding unbelievable numbers. The only two seasons which were really exciting in this era are 2016, when Nico Rosberg became champion and then the current 2021 season, because it is the first time in the turbo hybrid era that we are seeing another team really catch up. The last lap wheel to wheel races that occurred in the earlier eras have long gone. Especially the competition in the V10 era was amazing. And the v8 and v10 eras were of great innovation. We see innovation now too, but it is of course only done by one team: Mercedes AMG PETRONAS. We don't have now all the great innovations like blown diffusers, tuned mass dampers etc.
Despite all the regulation changes, still much can be done to make the sport exciting again. The 2022 car promises more competition since the effect of dirty air has been minimized and the ground effect is coming back. This way, as per FIA quotation, the cars will be very close on the track, and we will have a chance to see more following, more overtaking and fierce final laps with drag races towards chequered flag. But do those cars really mean all these qualities? Well, the removal of MGU -H means the cars will become prone to the effects of turbo lag, especially in the corners. In short, if the FIA is making the cars fast by reintroducing ground effect, it is also slowing them by introducing turbo lag. In addition to that, FIA has increased the power output from the MGU-K from 120kW (161bhp) to potentially 350kW (469bhp), which may seem to make F1 safer, since cars would slow down more quickly if needed, but they would lose so much speed in the process that overtaking in corners almost seems impossible. So, to sum up, the sport is not going to be as exciting as we think it is going to be. Then what can be really done to make it much more exciting? A few things that can be done in this regard are as under:
AERODYNAMIC INNOVATIONS:
- Auto-DRS:
Drag reduction system gives the drivers the opportunity of overtaking by increasing the speed a few mph. Though drivers like Kevin Magnussen have described it as overrated. The cars really can survive throughout the DRS zones if their DRS is open, because for straight line speed, the front wings and the rest of the body work is already producing enough downforce to keep the car stable. A lower downforce is not acceptable while cornering, because the car can get unstable. So, what if just like qualifying you are allowed to use the DRS throughout the zone and it is not actuated by that wing that flips but by some hoses and flow pipes running throughout the body work that are actuated by the steering wheel position, I mean if the steering wheel is in the center straight position, this DRS is on .But if the steering wheel is curved the DRS hoses are sealed and it is off ( just like in F-duct times ) .This would make the cars so fast and still safe. This would seemingly make overtakes a bit less exciting, but the cars will be incredibly competitive which would make wheel to wheel competition even more workable and the overtakes will be very quick, top speeds will also increase.
- Aero Vectoring:
Another thing which can be done to make races exciting is aero vectoring. The places that slow down the laps are the corners, apexes and chicanes. If you know about Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, you will know that it is fast around track because
It's Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva package has something called aero vectoring. By the principles of circular motion physics, we know that the outer wheel of the car must move more distance than the inner wheel around a corner. That Is why differentials are used to make inner wheels slower and make cornering faster. To further increase the difference in velocity of both sides of the car, we can use active aerodynamics technology. We can give the air an easy path in the outer side of the car and restrict the flow to the inner side of the car. This way cornering will become easier and faster. This can be put into effect by the same hoses and flow pipes method like the one we discussed for Auto DRS. Vents and valves can be placed on both sides of the car ,which will be actuated by the motion of the steering wheel .A few current F1 cars like the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS w12 and the Red Bull RB16b are said to have front wings that are flexible and can expand and contract using the pressure generated by air flow because of their aero elasticity .They actually try to create ground effect and crate almost a similar effect to aero vectoring however using the vent technology it will be more pronounced .The only down side will be that the car will have to be very carefully designed so that the aero vectoring setup doesn't decrease the downforce of the car .
- Turbo-fan car:
The Brabham BT46 (the fan car) was something that looked to have started a new era of race cars, but sadly the unfair advantage it gave, and the highly insane cornering speeds made the innovation short lived, and we didn't see much more of similar f1 cars and other race /sports cars (though the Gordon Murray T50 and the McLaren F1 are fan cars too). But this technology can still make a comeback, and this time the fan would be quite hidden. The current F1 car is already using forced induction technology because of its turbo. What if we mate these two technologies into something that might be called " Turbo Fan Car".
The way it will work is that a separate channel in the form of a flow hose from the turbo could be led towards the floor of the car. In this way, the turbo will also suck the air from below the car, and thus will push the car further downwards, thus producing more downforce. Now, using this concept we won't have to add a separate fan to harness ground effect and still we will have those awesome cornering speeds. And we also won't need those floor vents that will be standard in 2022. As an added benefit, if we get to see this technology and auto DRS together, we can get rid of the rear wing. This can help get the
POWER UNIT INNOVATIONS
- Lighter Engines:
The current F1 cars are getting heavier and heavier each time the regulations are reviewed. When the turbo hybrid era started, there was a hope that the cars will get lighter because the engines were getting smaller, but all the weight that was reduced to due downsizing the engine was again then increased by addition of energy recovery systems which include the two Magnetic generation units and the batteries etc. As humankind is technology advancing, cheeky new tech is becoming standardized in cars. That results in the cars getting heavier and heavier. So, if we look at all the modern F1 car technology deeply, the only thing where we still can save weight is the engine. This doesn't mean that we should now further downsize the engine to four cylinders. The need is an engine with an extremely high power to weight and power to volume ratio. Maybe you have already guessed it. The thing that is being talked about is the Wankel engine / rotary engine. Yeah, some of you might still be thinking about the bad efficiency of them. But Liquid Piston and Libralato are two companies that have worked separately to solve this problem and have greatly succeeded in it. There improved Wankel designs now offer 40% thermal efficiency, which is more than enough because current Standard Otto cycle have about 35-40 % efficiency, and then because of recovery systems and design changes, they achieve about 50 % thermal efficiency. So, the improved Wankels like Liquid Piston x4 will supply a good efficiency, lower weight and exceptionally low volume. This way it is not saving weight but also saving space for expanding the capacity of the recovery systems. Thus, making competition even more fierce when the extra electric power output will work for longer than just 33 seconds per lap as it works now.
- New Batteries:
Though the engine is a place of special attention when we have to reduce the weight but there are other things too that could be done to reduce weight. The lithium-ion battery could be replaced by graphene batteries, Solid State batteries or Aluminium ion batteries. The Solid State batteries are known to have approximately 2 - 2.5 times the energy density of lithium ion and graphene and aluminum ion batteries are known to have about 3- 4 times the energy density of the best lithium ion batteries out there .So that means the current heavy battery pack can be replaced by a small cooled battery strip that is attached to the back of the , which can perform better than lithium ion in the harsh conditions imposed by Formula 1 .Currently a lot of research is also being done on structural batteries which are sometimes referred to as " massless energy storage " . These batteries are integrated into the body of the car, I.e., car body and chassis are a battery. And this technology can have a bright future in formula 1, because pretty much the whole of the f1 car is made of carbon composites, that are mainly being used in the research of this kind of battery. Moreover, not only battery but also motor units can be focused to save weight. The new axial flux motor technology has a remarkably high power to weight ratio, and they are very compact too, with a shape like a disc. They can generate more power in a smaller size and weight. This can help increase straight line speed of the cars, and overall power to weight ratio, since we are getting more power now out of smaller weight.
- Change of thermodynamic cycle:
But why are we only focusing on decreasing weight while we can increase the total power output, while keeping the weight same? We can also use a more efficient cycle. The current Otto cycle is practically limited to 35-40 % thermal efficiency and then with the addition of improved design and recovery tricks, the thermal efficiency is increased to 50 %. There are several cycles that can give better efficiency than that. The list includes Atkinson, Spark controlled compression ignition and many more. But a special attention should be paid to the entry ignition cycle which theoretically offers a thermal efficiency of about 63 %. The design is particularly complex, and a lot of research needs to be done but on paper the performance and efficiency is at a next level. Along with recovery systems, we can get a combined thermal efficiency remarkably like that of electric cars.
- Totally electric:
A lot of fans might come to blows on reading this. But this is something that needs to be accepted. Till 2039, Formula E has the license to conduct full electric open wheel racing. But once their contract ends. Then F1 can get a chance to conduct full electric open wheel racing competition. People love the sound, and mechanical thrill of the F1 engine. But those who have seen Teslas destroying Lamborghinis in drag races will accept the fact that the performance is on a next level. This all begs a few questions. What about the low energy density, that hardly last 45 laps, what about the weight if we make the batteries bigger, what about the power, will electric motors be able to generate power equal to an f1 engine, will the formula e cars ever be able to outperform formula 1 cars. Well, the truth is that currently the formula e cars we see racing are just the third iteration of formula e technology, which are already matching the F1 cars in several aspects, so there is hope for a very bright future ahead. And there are several technologies under research or use that prove that formula e cars can outperform F1 cars one day. Examples include axial flux motors, liquid metal batteries, aluminium ion batteries and graphene batteries etc. The batteries mentioned above all have about 3 - 4 times more energy density than the best lithium ion out there. The structural energy storage concept can also prove to be game changing in this regard. The axial flux motors supply so much more horsepower that the synchronous motors in such a compact package. So, the electrification campaign really has a place in Formula 1. And there is hope we will one day see a totally electric open wheel single seater racecar with power and weight equal to F1 car, and range even better. For those who still don't believe this possibility and love the turbo V6 sound, should see the Volkswagen I.D.R, which is a car that is said to have already destroyed F1, and it's totally electric.
- Hydraulic hybrids:
The engine, the batteries and the gearbox together make most of the weight of a modern F1 car. Turbo hybrid technology on paper was at first very pleasing for laypeople, because it seemed to make the cars so light as there were only 6 cylinders now, and the two others have been replaced by a turbo. But there were no weight savings at all and indeed the cars were heavier now because they also had battery packs and MGUs now. The electrical energy recovery system has made the power unit very heavy. But what if we had an energy recovery system that would have been loads lighter and yet would have recovered loads more energy? As you already know from the heading, we are talking about hydraulic hybrids. The MGU-K, the MGU -H and the battery pack could have been replaced by hydraulic pump motors and a pair of nitrogen cylinders. The working mechanism would have been the same. The difference in this case is that the energy is stored, moved and converted due to the movement of fluids between two cylinders. The energy density would have been a lot higher with this technology, and the cars would have been lighter, agile and faster. The weight reductions could have made power to weight ratio higher, and the recovery systems could have given the boost for a longer time. The downsides that might have been faced by use of this technology are that the system is lighter, but it might not have been compact and it might not have been able to deliver the same power that the motor unit provides because of limitations of fluid motion.
Drivetrain Innovations:
- Simulated Gears:
F1 gearboxes are a technological marvel because they are shifting so fast. There is no doubt that they are the fastest shifting semi-auto gearboxes. But when we already have a technology that can limit engine power flow known as cruise control, or pit limiter in F1 language. Than why we don we really need those heavy gearboxes .We all know that electric input will be after than mechanical input .What if we remove the gear box, and instead connect the floppy pedals behind the steering to an ECU (Engine Control Unit) that can control engine parameters to keep power flow and speed under control .Sounds amazing as it is ,and what is even amazing is that it is totally possible .This can be done by adding just one or two compulsory drive gears, and leaving the rest on an ECU .In implementation ,it will require two gears still , the 1st and seventh and all the intermediate gears can be simulated and actuated by cruise control technology or active power unit control technology . This will require a bigger ECU but will after all result in overall weight savings.
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