Throwback to when I reverse-engineered Brembo’s ‘braking power’ calculation! 🤩

F1 brakes do indeed generate well over 2000kW of power… over 3000hp! 😳

(Enough to light up over 100 THOUSANDS LED light bulbs)

Power = Force*Speed

The peak power is generated at the beginning of the braking phase when speed AND deceleration (due to downforce) are highest. 🔥

4.5g of deceleration, but ‘only’ 3.5g of that is due to the brakes: drag (and engine brake) alone account for 1g!

Yes: lifting the throttle off an F1 car can produce a deceleration stronger than the one you’d experience smashing your car's brake pedal! 😳

Follow @FDataAnalysis to have nightmares about high-school physics every night! 😜

(The specific power value obtained depends on the data used: Brembo’s stated value is slightly lower probably because they used a lower speed value.)

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Tyre Blistering and Graining - Explanation, Causes and Solutions

Tyre Blistering and Graining - you’ve probably heard about these terms before, but what do they mean?

What causes them, how can they be avoided, and which are their consequences on car performance?

First, a quick overview of tyre adhesion: A car changes its state of motion (speed, orientation…) through the forces generated by tyre-ground contact The grip level depends on the interaction between the tyre and the microstructure of the road surface (roughness).

A hot tyre will deform more easily (the rubber becomes ‘softer’ and fits better into the asphalt roughness). Especially for harder compounds, reaching the correct operating temperature is crucial… but reaching it in the correct way and on all 4 tyres is difficult! Leading to…

Graining

When tyre grip is insufficient, and the driver does not decrease the pace accordingly, the tyre will slide sideways towards the outside of the corner This produces these small lumps towards the inside of the corner that harm the tyre-road friction.

Blistering

A too high inflation pressure or heating up the tyre too quickly both produce an overheating of the zone right below the tyre surface Air bubbles appear below the surface, making it detach, creating craters. The contact area reduces and gets uneven, harming grip!

So, graining is mainly caused by aggressive driving with cold tyres (e.g. when doing an undercut), while blistering can be due to an inappropriate inflation pressure or heat-up procedure. Pirelli mitigated blistering by reducing the thread width, making its temperature more even.

And that’s it! Did you enjoy the explanation? Let me know in the comments!

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If you follow my page you certainly love 3 things: fast racing cars, aerodynamics, and talking about tech!

This episode of the @BrakingBiasPod covers all these topics: can’t miss it! 🔥

Great job @dr_obbs 👊

https://x.com/BrakingBiasPod/status/1879537338789073178

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What is ‘Dirty Downforce’?

How is it related to aerodynamic efficiency and car performance?

I explain it in this thread using real examples! Read on!

F1 cars, when moving through the air, produce both drag (the aero resistance force, which slows the car down) and downforce (that pushes the car down, increasing grip.

Downforce is desired; drag, of course, is not.

Both forces grow with the square of speed: if the speed doubles, the forces quadruples.

Each one is linked to speed through a coefficient: the drag coefficient Cd and the downforce coefficient Cl. Ideally, we want low Cd and high Cl! Their ratio e=Cl/Cd is called ‘aero efficiency’.

Engineers can get more downforce at the expense of higher drag.

You can achieve so in different ways, like increasing the angle of attack of the wings.

Doing so, the ‘car’ will move over the blue line, towards the upper-right corner.

The slope of the black straight line, that passes through the origin and is tangent to the blue line, is the maximum efficiency the car can achieve!

Notice that, initially, you’re gaining downforce (Cl grows) with minimum increase in drag (Cd grows minimally).

The more downforce you require, though, the more additional drag you get… until the gained downforce is not worth it anymore! (All low-hanging fruits were taken!)

However, in tracks like Monaco, the teams try to extract all the downforce they can anyway!

The very short straight makes the added drag not much impactful.

You will notice many crazy solutions, like this ‘nosecone wing’ of Verstappen’s (father) Arrows!

Other examples:

‘86 Jordan extra wing

‘97 Tyrrell crazy ‘X-Wings’

‘01 Jordan nosecone wing

For a wing, the increase in drag coefficient Cd is proportional to the SQUARE of the lift coefficient Cl.

So the efficiency e=Cl/Cd decreases rapidly over medium lift coefficient values… but in Monaco it might be worth it for achieving ultimate downforce!

And that’s it! 👍

Did you enjoy the explanation?

Let me know in the comments, and check out the last few posts on my profile (@FDataAnalysis ) for similar content on our beloved sport! 🏎🛠

How does the 'Inerter' (J-Damper) work?

FIA banned the 'Inerter' (also called 'J-Damper') in 2022... but WHAT is that? And HOW does it work? 🤔

I will give you the answers in this thread... and explain how it could have mitigated porpoising!

Read on, and get ready to learn! 👇

Car suspensions have two components:

- Spring: applies a force proportional to its deflection➡️'Transfers' the energy of the bump to the car body.
- Damper: force proportional to HOW QUICKLY it deflects➡️Dissipates such energy.

F1 cars also had the Inerter... but what is it for?