Formula 4
Formula 3
Formula 2
Formula 1

🏎 What makes these cars different, and each one faster than the previous one?🤔

This thread compares their performance: you can’t miss it if you’re a #F1 enthusiast!
👇👇

Formula 4
-Engine: road car engines (1.4l to 2.0l), ~160hp
-Mass: 570kg
-Width: 1750mm
-Wheelbase: 2750mm
-6 Gears
-0-100km/h: 3.5s
-Top speed: 250km/h (in low-drag spec)

Small, lightweight, raw: despite the road-car power, it would still destroy supercars in most circuits!

Formula 3
-Engine: 3.4l V6 N/A 380hp
-Mass: 550kg
-6 Gears
-0-100km/h: 3.1s
-0-200km/h: 7.8s
-Top speed: 300km/h (in low-drag spec)
-Max lateral acceleration: 2.6g
-Max braking acceleration: 1.9g [low, but official value]

A big step from F4: similar mass but over twice the power

Formula 2
-Engine: 3.4l V6 Turbo 620hp
-Mass: 755kg
-6 Gears
-0-100km/h: 2.9s
-0-200km/h: 6.6s
-Top speed: 335km/h (in low-drag spec)
-Max lateral acceleration: 3.5g
-Max braking acceleration: 3.9g

The game gets serious: almost unmatched downforce/mass and power/mass ratios!

Formula 1
-Engine: 1.6l V6 Turbo ~1000hp
-Mass: 798kg
-8 Gears
-0-100km/h: 2.2s
-0-200km/h: 4.4s
-Top speed: 350km/h (in low-drag spec)
-Max lateral acceleration: 6.0g
-Max braking acceleration: 6.0g

The queen of open-wheel racing: the downforce/mass ratio is unmatched

Summarising the main trends from F4 to F1:

- Cars get way bigger (Width 1750mm➡️2000mm, Wheelbase 2750mm➡️3600mm).

Therefore, the aerodynamics surfaces grow in area➡️More Downforce and Aero Efficiency.

- Better materials mitigate the weight increase.

- Engines get more complex and advanced➡️More power➡️Drag penalty is reduced➡️Possible to produce even more downforce through more loaded wings!

Notice that we started with 1.4-2.0l (Formula 4) and ended with 1.6l (Formula 1)

The displacement is similar, but:
- Much higher turbo pressure and combustions temps -Energy recovery (both kinetic and thermal)
- Higher Fuel flow rates
make F1 engines over 6 times more powerful! 🤯

📚 I’m sure that you now have a much clearer picture of the differences between these open-wheel racecars (And why the performance difference is so big!)

I’m a Mechanical Engineer and Vehicle Dynamics Researcher: follow my page @FDataAnalysis to understand Formula 1 better! 🏎🤩

In #IndyCar, aero setup gets even crazier than in #F1!🛠

Top: Low-Drag Spec (speedways)
Bottom: High-Downforce (road courses)

In the second case, rules allow ~100hp more: despite that, the terminal speed gets SEVENTY km/h lower!

Drag doubles: (675/575)(390/320)^3 = 210%!

These are the 2015-2017 Honda Aerokits, that’s why the aeroscreen is missing.

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Formula 2 cars now have a Super Formula-inspired DRS plane

Which series is quicker, though?

- Formula 2 have a larger engine➡️70hp more, but cars are also 60kg heavier
- Dimensions are almost equal

Overall, @SUPER_FORMULA is quite a bit faster due to its superior downforce!

Pirelli C0: the compound we never saw in 2023

Pirelli chose 3 compounds based on track characteristics, from C1 (Hardest) to C5 (Softest)
But did you know that an even harder C0 compound existed?

It was never used: the C1 was deemed durable enough even for tracks like Suzuka.

On pure pace, the 2014 Mercedes W05 was FAR more dominant than the RB19!

Bahrain, SC restart: HAM on hards pulled a 7.1s gap to PER in 2 laps... while battling with ROS!

- Excellent chassis/aero.
- Godly engine (7 Mercedes engines in top 9), despite de-tuning to hide performance!

Vettel's last F1 win - Singapore 2019

It's incredible that Ferrari's only 1-2 finish that year was at a track that shouldn't have suited their car at all!

[📸 @MSI_Images ]

This could be our first look at a 2024 #F1 car!😏

Haas renders are often almost definitive: you can see the 2024 one here!👀

Most evident changes:
🟡Cutout upper-plane tip
🟣Tighter engine cover
🔵RedBull-Style Beam Wing

What's your opinion: is this it?🤔
[📸 @HaasF1Team, AMuS]

Kudos to @scuderiabrandon for the idea of analysing the render and to @TheNicing for suggesting to remove the colors from the image (I also changed the other image properties to make details more evident).

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https://linktr.ee/fdataanalysis

F1 cars have gained over 1.2 meter of length since 2004, and over 200kg since 1990! (the 1990 500kg minimum weight did NOT include the driver)

That's an average of 6.5kg (since 1994) and 64mm (since 2004) PER YEAR! 😳

The 2026 rule change aims at producing shorter and narrower cars, around 50kg lighter
Will it succeed?🤔

Famous technical journalist @ScarbsTech is teaching a workshop on F1 Systems! (e.g. the Power Unit)

The 8h course is organised by United Motorsport Academy (UMA): you can get more info and book your presence through this link👇

https://unitedmotorsportsacademy.graphy.com/courses/The-ScarbsTech-F1-Systems-Workshop-65b09e33e4b0906fc3b977de?affCode=NBUQBO

Can you solve this riddle?🤔

A Formula 1 car reaches a top speed of 330km/h (way before the braking point)
The next lap, a 20km/h headwind starts: what's the new top speed?
It's harder than it looks!🔥

Comment discussing your answer: I will reveal the solution tomorrow!😏

The solution to yesterday's riddle was... 316.8km/h!

Here is the explanation:

-Engine power remains the same
-Power=Force*Speed
-Drag Force depends on the car-air relative speed (squared)

The calculations lead to v2 = 316.8km/h
Drag coefficient, frontal area etc were not needed!
Harder than it looked😏

Remember the SF-23 showing a high-speed nose dimple in winter testing? 🤔

The problem was non-structural and solved through a thicker carbon layer

Similarly, passing the crash test on the first attempt means the team could have reduced the mass a bit more! 👀

Fascinating!

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