Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Racecar Engineering

In the interest of fairness and accuracy I want to correct a comment I expressed in last month’s column. This referred to F1 race director Michael Masi having considerable influence on penalty decisions awarded by the race stewards. A chat with my extremely knowledgeable colleague, Dieter Rencken, has assured me that the stewards do operate fully independently. I am grateful that he could assure me of this. My other comments stand, however! Having watched a couple of entertaining NTT IndyCar Series races recently (12 different race leaders during the Indianapolis Road Course event) I was interested to see how drivers recently departed from F1 have been able to race for podiums and wins in IndyCar, something largely denied them since their junior racing careers due to the far-from-level F1 playing…

When the FIA allowed us to slip from the 8MJ category to the 2MJ category (we had to run in a hybrid class as a manufacturer per regulation, even though we weren’t actually using a hybrid system at all other than as ballast), the fuel allocation went up slightly as did the power from the engine. In the 8MJ class we had 89kg/h petrol, which meant our engine produced 550bhp (410kW) with this fuel flow. For the 2MJ class, that increased to 94kg/h, 580bhp (433kW), an increase of 30bhp, or a 5.6 per cent increase in power, although we would then have the penalty of shorter stints if we used all that power. There were seven specific zones for ERS harvesting. Each zone started about 50 metres before the corner,…

Extreme E, the electric motorsport series designed to raise climate change awareness, and Enel Foundation, the energy transition think tank, have confirmed their first joint science research project to take place in the purpose-built science laboratory onboard the series’ floating HQ, the St Helena. Extreme E has been working with the Enel Foundation since its inception, and last year the two organisations collaborated to launch the championship’s open call for research named ‘Racing for the Planet.’ The call invited international scientific researchers to apply to join the ship to conduct research to advance the knowledge of the consequences of climate change and/or adaptation and mitigation strategies on the world’s oceans and the planet. This project, led by 24-year-old Belgian Alexander Vanhaelen, is centred around investigating changes to marine life due…

Clear red lines were drawn throughout the endurance racing paddock at Le Mans, and the reaction was actually one of surprise. Big companies used whatever influence they had to create a favourable position for themselves, while the ACO and FIA sat in the middle forced into making decisions. They had a choice to cave in to manufacturer pressure, of which there was plenty, or to stand firm. They stood firm. The first issue was that Cadillac cancelled its planned press conference on Thursday night. At the conference, it was expected to confirm a prototype programme for a GM brand, and a Corvette GT3 programme that would race at Le Mans. However, IMSA in the US decided to make the only difference in class separation between pro and am through the…

The LMP2 class at Le Mans has taken huge strides in the last two years as the top teams seek a lucrative LMDh project. At Le Mans this year the category had pretty much sole chassis supply with the ORECA, the engines are all prepared by Gibson, gearboxes by Xtrac and tyres from Goodyear. The difference is the drivers, and the teams, and with the latter it has turned into a spending war. And teams are making extra efforts to find an edge. For instance, this year the JOTA team arrived with a new AI software partnership with Monolith, designed to increase the speed of data analysis for their two cars. It signed up with Monolith at the start of the year, and is continuing to evolve how to use…

Q What is your opinion of pull-down rigs? And how do they compare with K&C and seven-post rigs? THE CONSULTANT A Pull-down rigs are mainly to be seen in oval racing. They were first used in lower division pavement classes where ground clearance and body template rules required the car to sit higher statically than people wanted it to run on the track. Where legal, people work these rules by running soft springs and hold-down shocks, while they try to have the car run on bump rubbers or small bump springs, at least at the front and sometimes at the rear as well, once it gets up to speed. This makes it desirable to have a way to set up the car in the shop that replicates those running ride…

One of the biggest criticisms levelled at lap time simulation packages is that handling is a total afterthought, and that they can even come up with set-ups that are undriveable. I will admit that I have fallen into this trap on many occasions, and about two years ago I wrote an article that discussed this in depth. Then, upon rereading it recently, I saw there were a couple of key themes that should not only be reviewed, but also explored in greater depth. The reason this situation exists is that we in the business have done an appalling job of defining racecar stability, primarily because what drives it is very poorly understood. But the good news is, once we address this, then a lot of things fall into place. So,…

French company TotalEnergies has announced that it will bring a new fuel to the grid of the Le Mans 24 hours next year, which will be based on wine residues from the French agricultural industry. The fuel, which will also be introduced into truck racing, is 100 per cent renewable and offers an immediate reduction of at least 65 per cent of the racing cars’ CO2 emissions. Excellium Racing 100, as the product is known, will be produced on a bio-ethanol basis, and will power the entire grid. ‘Our ambition is to be a major player in the energy transition and to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050,’ says Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies. ‘TotalEnergies is supporting its customers and partners in their evolutions by thus…

‘Everyone wants to win Le Mans but it took me time to do it, and when you do win you realise how special it is’ The LMP2 field at Le Mans in 2021 was one of the most competitive in recent years. With 25 cars lining up at the start of the event, all of them bar one an ORECA chassis, on the same Goodyear tyres and with highly professional drivers, this was a category to watch. And one of the stand-out teams in LMP2 is Inter Europol, which perhaps has more to do with a lairy colour scheme than results to date, though its ORECA did show well at Le Mans, coming home fifth in class and 10th overall. This result might partly be attributed to the arrival of…

There are already quite a few alternative energy solutions at play in the wider motorsport world, including of course Formula E. Scepticism abounded when in 2011 the FIA conceived of this, its first alternative energy championship. Yet the series has gone from strength to strength, this year holding world championship status and boasting seven manufacturers – three more than Formula 1 although Audi, BMW and Mercedes have all cancelled their FE programmes recently. There’s even Extreme E, a rally series for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, from this year F1’s support Porsche Supercup series and the European Truck Racing Championship have switched to petrol and diesel biofuels respectively, with Porsche reporting the former required only software updates to co-optimise engine and fuel performance, with output of the GT3 remaining unaffected. The 2022…

I remember doing a few laps of a track with a race driver instructor who showed me something: ‘Look, I can make the car understeer or oversteer, it’s just about where in the corner entry I start to turn the steering wheel, and by how much.’The demonstration was convincing, but not surprising. After all, without being too metaphysical, so many things in our life are decided by education and parenting, those early ‘inputs’. Why should vehicle dynamics be any different? If it is true that a big part of car’s performance is defined by the reaction to the driver’s steering (and if required, braking) inputs at the corner entry, then we must carefully understand transient load transfers in the first metres of a corner. Cutting corners In last month’s article…

Brabham Automotive has confirmed that it will build a GT2 car to compete in the Fanatec GT2 European series in 2022, and will debut the GT63 model at the Paul Ricard circuit on October 3 this year. Brabham joins Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini and KTM in producing a car for the category. Homologation has yet to be confirmed. The ACO and IMSA have renewed their agreement to work together, binding the two organisations for the next 10 years. IMSA has launched a new Diverse Driver Development annual scholarship programme worth more than a quarter of a million dollars each year to promote and empower drivers from a variety of backgrounds to participate in IMSA-sanctioned events. To be eligible, candidates from diverse lifestyles or backgrounds must have a strong desire to compete…

Porsche has produced a 700bhp 911 GT2 RS Clubsport to celebrate its 25 years of racing with Olaf Manthey’s team. Just 30 of these cars will be made. Best Water Technology (BWT) has expanded its strategic partnership with F1 to become the Official Water Technology partner for the series. The plan is to eliminate single use plastic in the Formula 1 paddock. Extreme E has confirmed that it will hold a round of its off-road series in Sardinia in October, 2021. The move follows the series’ decision to postpone its originally planned events in Brazil and Argentina. McLaren Applied, the electronics and data arm of the company, has announced that it is to provide technical support to leading Formula Student teams Joanneum Racing and TU Graz.…

The government has freed us to get on with our working lives across Motorsport Valley UK, at last. It’s been a long time coming. The negative effect on businesses during the pandemic is hard to estimate, but is certainly substantial. Now we urgently need to re-engage and again meet face-to-face with our customers, suppliers and potential new business partners. Zoom, whilst being a life-saver, is no substitute for personal interaction in business. On October 13 at Silverstone, the MIA is hosting a new, free-to attend event to help that vital re-engagement to take place. The MIA’s Conference and Technology Showcase 2021 is the ideal opportunity for you to meet and talk with old friends and new. On the same day, alongside the Showcase, you can drop in, at no extra…