View Full Version : So just what exactly goes into an Formula 1 Race Team? You'd be suprised...


Kevlar
10-10-2004, 05:05 PM
Team:
On a Grand Prix weekend, the racing team is around 100 personnel strong - 70 come from WilliamsF1, 20 from BMW and about 10 others look after subsidiaryfunctions such as catering.

The test team numbers around 60 people for two cars (40 from WilliamsF1, up to 15 BMW staff, five people for catering).

- 22 people are involved in a pitstop during a race:
- twelve mechanics (three for each wheel) change the wheels,
- one operates the car jack at the front,
- one operates the car jack at the rear,
- one stands at the ready with a special lever, in case the car comes into the pitstop with a damaged nose,
- two people check the compressed air for the pneumatic valve and replenish as necessary,
- three refuel the car,
- one person stands at the ready with a fire extinguisher,
- the lollipop man gives signals to the driver, "apply brakes", "put in gear", "Go".

- WilliamsF1 travels to each Grand Prix with around 25 tons of material. This includes spare parts, tools, wheels and pit equipment. Then there are at least three chassis, in exceptional cases the team is even equipped to build a fourth racing car. The cargo is transported to European races in two transporters and two trucks which are parked in the drivers' paddock, as well as a mobile home.

- BMW packs up around six tons of gear for a Grand Prix. In 2004, this will include six engines for races taking place overseas, and five engines for European races. These are also all the tools and spare parts. BMW has a transporter, a truck for the engineers and a mobile home.

- The team uses 16 big HP computers, 26 HP notebooks and 100 walkie-talkie sets with headphones at a racing track.

- 500 metres (1,640 feet) of data lines and 300 metres (980 feet) of power cable are laid by the BMW WilliamsF1 Team at a race.

- A team uses up to 1,200 litres (318 gallons) of petrol, between 60 and 80 litres (16 to 21 gallons) of engine oil and up to 30 litres (8 gallons) of gearbox oil on a race weekend.

- If races are hosted at a warm venue, the team drinks up to 3,300 litres (872 gallons) of mineral water and soft drinks.

- 40 dry tyres and 28 wet tyres are held ready for each vehicle and weekend. The use of tyres for extreme weather conditions has to be explicitly approved by the race management.


Chassis:

- 250,000 working hours are needed from design to manufacture.

- Approximately 4,000 drawings have been generated in the design of the FW26.

- WilliamsF1 produces around 200,000 components each year.

- The vehicles are completely dismanted and subjected to more than 200 diagnostic checks between two races.


Engine:

- Around 200 engines left the BMW Formula One factory each year in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

- The BMW engine comprises around 5,000 spare parts, and 1,000 of those are different parts.

- It takes around 80 working hours to assemble the BMW engine.

- 1,388 development measurements were undertaken on the BMW P83 engine during its lifetime.

- 1,950 CAD drawings were produced for the BMW P83 engine. If they were printed out and put in line, they would stretch for 1.3 kilometres.

- The BMW P83 engine weighed less than 90 kilograms (198 pounds).

- The BMW P83 engine is most powerful engine produced to date at the Munich Formula One factory. It packed more than 900 bhp in 2003 and achieved a top engine speed of 19,200 rpm. The engine speed was limited to 19,000 rpm in the race. The idling speed was 4,000 rpm.

- The interval for rebuilding the BMW P83 engines has been 500 kilometres (310 miles).

- The maximum piston acceleration in the P83 is 10,000 g. Peak piston speed was 40 metres per second (89 miles per hour).

- When the speed of the BMW engine is 19,000 rpm, 316.7 revolutions and 1583.3 ignitions take place within the space of a single second. Engine speed is recorded 9,500 times, the pistons cover a distance of 25 metres (82 feet) and 550 litres (33,563 cubic inches) of air are drawn in.

- A temperature of up to 950 degrees is reached at the exhaust, and the maximum air temperature in the pneumatic system rises to 250 degrees.

- In a Grand Prix, the BMW engine has around eight million ignitions (800,000 ignitions for each cylinder) during an average race distance of 300 kilometres.

- Pilots change gear an average of 2,600 times during a Grand Prix. They change gear 3,100 times in Monaco.

- If the car returns to the pit during training or qualifying, oil samples are taken and X-rayed in the pit. They are also subjected to spectrometer analysis. Metallic traces in the oil provide important information on the status of the engine.

- The super fast 130R bend at the Suzuka track exerts the most exacting demands on the oil circulation system with transerve acceleration exerting forces of 4 g.

- The engines must be able to withstand being driven at full throttle for 73 percent of each lap in Monza.


Drivers:

- A Formula One driver burns approximately 600 calories in each Grand Prix and loses an average of two kilograms in weight.

- If a race takes place under hot conditions, a driver easily loses 1.5 litres of body fluid.

- The cockpit temperature is an average of 50 °C (122 °F).

- The pulse rate of the pilots reaches an average of 190 beats per minute during a race.


Vehicle:

- A Formula One vehicle can accelerate from 0 to 200 km/h (124mph) and come to rest again in less than seven seconds.

- A Formula One racing car can go from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) within the space of around 2.5 seconds.

- Acceleration from 0 to 200 km/h (124mph) takes an Formula One car less than five seconds, equivalent to 140 metres (984 feet).

- If the pilot slams on the brakes at 200 km/h (124mph), an Formula One car comes to a halt after 55 metres (180 feet) within 1.9 seconds. The driver is subject to decelleration of up to 5 g. This means that a driver with a body weight of 75 kilograms (165 pounds) is pressed into his seat belt with 375 kilograms (826 pounds).

- The carbon brake disks heat up to 600 °C (1,112 °F) within one second when the brakes are applied.

- The Fomula One tyres heat up to around 100 °C (212 °F).

http://undergrad.nova.edu/kevin/qp002751.jpg

Coutesy of BMW NA

potomac
10-10-2004, 05:11 PM
:eyecrazy
Incredibly demanding use of resources...

Preppy
10-10-2004, 07:02 PM
wow thats pretty bad ass information, thanks Kev :)

bugkiller
10-10-2004, 07:59 PM
Awesome info! thanks for that

BMW#1Enthusiast
10-10-2004, 08:24 PM
thats some great info, thanks Kev

salvia.D
10-10-2004, 08:36 PM
:eyecrazy
Incredibly demanding use of resources...

yeah i'll say. :eek:

///MEric
10-10-2004, 10:15 PM
Sweet info kev. But it doenst even come close to expereanceing a F1 racee from the pits. Its amzing how compex the cars are and speed at which the teams are able to take them apart and fix everythign. I was able to experence and F1 race at Indy fromn the pits two years ago. It was simply amzing watching qualifying from the pits or watching the mechanics fixs DC cars after he hit the wall

DiScoTeknix
10-10-2004, 11:09 PM
Intense info, thank you.
If the pilot slams on the brakes at 200 km/h (124mph), an Formula One car comes to a halt after 55 metres (180 feet) within 1.9 seconds. The driver is subject to decelleration of up to 5 g. This means that a driver with a body weight of 75 kilograms (165 pounds) is pressed into his seat belt with 375 kilograms (826 pounds).
I want to drive it.

bayerische
10-10-2004, 11:30 PM
Speechless...

punknamedjimmy
10-11-2004, 12:49 AM
cool. i sent that to one the leaders in our formula sae team.

brianc
10-11-2004, 12:56 AM
yeah, I enjoy formula one. It's just insane. Caught the Japanese grand prix today - Brazil is in a couple weeks. I also saw the Rolex Series race from Alabama this morning (BMW PTG won GT again). It's always intense when you watch a few DP/GT/STC races and then you watch a formula one race. You just can't help but laugh. F1 cars are just nuts...so fast, so accurate, so intense. I couldn't imagine driving F1 for two hours - I'd have a heart attack.

NickM3
10-11-2004, 01:22 AM
900hp...198lbs...holy hell

brianc
10-11-2004, 01:35 AM
900hp...198lbs...holy hell
yeah the honda engines doing just under 1000HP

Daved
10-11-2004, 06:17 AM
900hp...198lbs...holy hell
yeah the honda engines doing just under 1000HP
So the BMW engine is not the most powerful anymore? :(

Kevlar
10-11-2004, 11:05 AM
A whole lot goes into make a F1 team work... I never realized how much until I read that.

323I Junkie
10-11-2004, 05:41 PM
So the BMW engine is not the most powerful anymore? :(



Well, I doubt we'll see dyno readings of the car, but if BMW follows in typical fashion, their power curve will roast the hondas'...honds loves HP, not torque

BimwadM42
10-12-2004, 03:17 AM
The list is missing the most important figure -- the piles of money to pay for it all!

Dwayne
10-12-2004, 09:50 AM
The list is missing the most important figure -- the piles of money to pay for it all!

I read an article not too long ago about the costs per season for a Formula One team. It's insane. Teams such as Ferrari will spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars per season on their teams. This includes travel costs, R&D, everthing. I think the funniest part of the article was when it said that for the cost of one race for a good Formula One team you can sponsor a full Nascar team for an entire season. F1 is amazing, I wish it would catch on quicker here in the US, I loved it in Germany (although watching Schumacher win 12/13 races got a bit old).

Kevlar
10-12-2004, 10:12 AM
Last I heard ... Ferrari spends over 300 million dollars a year on their F1 team. Other teams also spend 300 million dollars, but normally that's only during production of a new chassis. Money spent trickles down afterwards until the next chassis redevelopment.

bugkiller
10-12-2004, 10:36 AM
Last I heard ... Ferrari spends over 300 million dollars a year on their F1 team. Other teams also spend 300 million dollars, but normally that's only during production of a new chassis. Money spent trickles down afterwards until the next chassis redevelopment.


Im not into F1 enough to know how much $$$ is at stake for winning the races...but how is 300 million a year justified?? :eyecrazy

Halon
10-12-2004, 11:30 AM
Drivers:

- A Formula One driver burns approximately 600 calories in each Grand Prix and loses an average of two kilograms in weight.

- If a race takes place under hot conditions, a driver easily loses 1.5 litres of body fluid.

- The cockpit temperature is an average of 50 °C (122 °F).

- The pulse rate of the pilots reaches an average of 190 beats per minute during a race.



The perfect diet! :D

liquidtiger720
10-12-2004, 11:46 AM
thats a great post.