Formula I

I had to read it many times over, just to comprehend, and believe it. Amazing stuff. And many of us thought Narain Karthikeyan was a lousy loser. Raju, a friend of mine, sent this to me.
01. F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!
02. Formula 1 cars have over a kilometre of cable, linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.
03. F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOURseconds!!!!!!!
04. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last usfor a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO….thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform…
05. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!
06. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just onerace due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)
07. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.
08. In F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm,(the piston travelling up and down 300 times a second!!) wheres cars like the palio, maruti 800,indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times slower.
09. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approx 1000 degrees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn…that is why they r not made of steelbut of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wearand tear and most of all has a higher melting point.
10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would empty in just over a second
11. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replacedregularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high degreesof stress.
12. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must be removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latchbehind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles forchanging gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick! The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gearpaddles.
13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design andadded downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.
14. Without aerodynamic downforce, high-performance racing cars havesufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.
15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front andrear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car istravelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it’s own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!
16. In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the downforce provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!
17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank ofan average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigsused on US military helicopters today
18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point ( no.17).
19. Race car tyres don’t have air in them like normal car tyres. Most racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has amore consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typicallycontains varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects itsexpansion and contraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure unpredictable
20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5kg in weight due to wear.
21. Normal tyres last 60 000 – 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 – 120 km (That’s Khandala and back from Mumbai).
22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (bestgrip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Waterboils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times asecond

7 thoughts on “Formula I

  1. dakaltiz says:

    yebba…ivlo matter iruka intha F1 la…thx for the post kav.. got to know something new…stumbled here from balaji S rajan’s blogOspot…

  2. There are a few errors and unchecked statements here. During the last season, the engine and tyres are made to last for 2 race weekends, so the engine actually lasts for more than 2 hours. The mechanical errors should be attributed to engine damage.

    You can change the tyres and refuel in 3 seconds. Thats a miracle. For a normal stop of 6 seconds, the tyres can be changed and a maximum fuel for about 20 laps can be fueled. For the car to be fully fueled it would take about 10 to 15 seconds.

    The laws of physics says no car can travel upside down, it can never rotate in a tunnel, all the F-1 reference is theortical and wrong.

    Even the monaco analogy is wrong, and the F1 car actually weights about 700kg.

    And yes, Narain is a lousy driver, but they should have given him more chance to fit in. He could not cope with his neck tension, hence he can race properly. And he was in a lousy team and did not have good sponsors.

  3. Knowing all these facts and then going thru the live action on TV would make it much more exciting.

  4. Kavi says:

    GP: Apologies if there are any errors. What you are sayig holds logic too, and yes the post is unchecked, and posted from information sourced from a friend. I havent followed F-1 that keenly, but even otherwise, the information even if 80 % true is incredible for me to believe & comprehend. To me it was another car race. Well, a faster car race (!) This material changed my impressions.
    I couldnt help agree more with you on Narain Karthikeyan. One can only wish him more luck !

  5. ashok says:

    i love cars and i love driving…but somehow i never like to watch car racing 🙁 have never followed F1 🙁

  6. indianangel says:

    I’ve read this article too, and I liked your post on Civil services! Nice post keep continuing!

  7. dont apologize kavi…alot of people dont know this, but surely intuitive minds will analyze it further. Ive been watching F1 for 15 years now.

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