Archive for Formula 1

F1 cars might switch to turbocharged 2.2 liter V6 engines in 2011, if FIA president Max Mosley gets his way. And these engines might just use biofuel, and drivetrains might use all-wheel drive. Also suggested are power boost buttons much like the A1GP style, which should be achievable by upping the turbocharger boost.

These changes are an effort to make the F1 sport more cost-efficient, road relevant and environmentally friendly. Part of the environmentally-friendly strategy is to use a single engine for at least 5 GP races, instead of the current 1 engine to 2 race ratio.

Currently F1 cars are 2.4 liter V8s, having dropped from 3.0 liter V10s in 2006. The last use of a turbocharger in F1 was in 1988, with a ban being imposed the next year. These turbocharged engines were limited to 1.5 liter turbo engines, and 3.5 liter normally aspirated engines were also allowed. You had to pick either one.

The turbo engines usually made more power than the normally aspirated ones – 685 horsepower from a Honda RA168E turbo V6 limited to 2.5 bars of boost compared to Ford’s DFR 3.5 liter V8 making 585 horsepower.

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I bet you didn’t know the Renault Formula 1 car’s engine has a fuel consumption of 70 liters per 100km. I don’t think this is the latest V8 engine, as the video’s dated back to 2004. Nevertheless I think it’s a good watch. Check out the colour of the exhaust manifold.

Click here to read the rest of Renault F1 Engine Test

Companies are taking blogs seriously as a communication medium. GM has it’s Fast Lane blog. If you love Formula 1 and especially if you are a fan of the Renault F1 team, do check out Renault’s F1 Team weblog.

It has information on the team’s progress as well as stuff like chat interviews with key team members, complete with photos in a nice weblog format. BTW, congrats to Renault for taking the top two spots on the podium. I suppose the Lion Dance the night before helped bring luck. Some of you might know what I mean.

Am still recuperating from an awesome Renault F1 Pit Party. Anyone went?

This is something really amusing. As most of you should know, Renault’s F1 team won the 2005 Formula 1 championship. To celebrate their victory, Renault put one of their RS25 V10 Formula 1 engines on the dyno machine and programmed the engine management to make the engine sing!

Different RPMs produce different engine tones. Listen to the RS25 V10 engine’s rendition of Queen’s We Are The Champions.

Download: renault_v10_song.mp3

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Here’s an interview with Toyota’s technical director of engines on the 2006 V8 engine which the team tested recently.

The engine is expected to produce about 730-760 horsepower which is about 80% of the best V10 engines of the 2005 series. The engine will rev higher than the V10s currently.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota V8 Power!

Formula One will switch to 2.4 liter V8 engines in 2006. Cosworth has already begun dyno testing it’s V8 engine. The engine revs all the way up to 20,000rpm where the electronic rev limiter kicks in.

Click here for a video of the Cosworth V8 undergoing dyno testing.

cosworthv8.mpg

Currently Formula One engines use 3.0 V10 naturally aspirated engines. Some of the teams will be allowed to continue using 3.0 V10 engines with rev limiters temporarily as cost-cutting measures while they develop new V8 engines. The V10 engines normally rev up to 19,000rpm currently, about 1000rpm lower than the Cosworth V8.

But I wonder who is going to use the engines though. Jordan (known as Midland next season) is now using Toyota engines. Red Bull Racing has decided to switch to Ferrari engines and even Minardi is expected to go for a rev-limited V10 engine instead of the Cosworth V8.

A potential candidate could be Williams.

FIA recently announced the results of the biggest F1 survey ever done. Something interesting which I noticed in the results of the survey. Apparently most Formula 1 fans dislike the Sepang track. Other tracks which are disliked are the Magny-Cours in France and Hungaroring in Hungary. I wonder why though. I don’t watch F1 much on TV. Anyone have their own opinions?

Read the full report on the survey here.

First it was the rally scene, now it looks like the Malaysia will some of lose it’s exposure in the Formula 1 scene too. Good thing we are still hosting 1 of the races so it isn’t too bad.

Petronas is considering transferring it’s Sauber sponsorship to BMW, which recently bought over the Swiss team. Petronas has been involved in Formula 1 for the 10th year now.

The Sauber Formula 1 car’s current paintjob.

It’s just too bad. I think the Petronas green looks really nice on the car. At least I can still see it on the BTCC Proton Waja and the Petronas FP1 superbike too.

But we have to view this piece of news in both a “half-full, half-empty glass” point of view. It could mean Petronas will transfer sponsorship to the new team, or terminate sponsorship.

Half Empty: Reuters via Yahoo! News

Half Full: PitPass via SportsNetwork

Michelin shares dropped as much as 3.1 percent and fell 75 euro cents, or 1.5 percent, to 50.75 euros at 4:15 p.m. in Paris after the US Grand Prix where only 6 cars raced, from 3 teams that were not using Michelin tyres.

All that were left on the track was Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan. I suppose because none of the other good teams competed, this helped Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher get his first win this season. But he wasn’t very thrilled about it, he did not even spray the customary victory champagne at the podium.

Read more for the full story.

Click here to read the rest of Michelin Shares Take A Drop After Indianapolis