When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Love these old stories. Modern F1 is just too bloated.
QFT, modern F1 is very bloated staff wise. Also love these old stories retold again recently. One I found amusing is the attention to detail of getting the MP4/4 design with respect to the flowing "shoulders" of the monocoque bodywork to look good in the dialog and how the draftsman executed.
“Steven and I think along similar lines – literally, in some respects – in terms of what looks good and what doesn’t, the sense of proportion of things.
“The narrow nose came about because the drivers [in their seating position] went backwards in effect, relative to the front of the car.
“Steve was keen to have a sort of flowing shape, or two rather – the angle of the cam covers and the fuel tank, and the drivers shoulders, which sort of follow through in the body work at a sort pleasing sort of angle.
“Once that was drawn up, Colin Smith, a design draughtsman, would then meticulously create the bodywork, first producing a wooden buck – essentially a full-scale model – section by section.
“With a full-size car appearing before your eyes, you can see if it looks a bit weird or whatever – this is how we adjusted the nose.”
Pic of the MP4/4 and it's slight "shoulders" that flow continously from front to back
A new Netflix miniseries on three-time Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna is coming – and ahead of its release, Netflix have announced who will take on the lead role in Senna.
The six-episode miniseries, produced with the blessing and participation of the Senna family, will chart the Brazilian racer’s rise from his early move to England to compete in Formula Ford all the way through to his tragic death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Brazilian actor Gabriel Leone has been given the nod to portray Senna, saying of his selection: “It is a huge responsibility and also a great honour to be able to represent an icon who inspired so many people throughout his life, showing the world Brazilian sporting talent.
“Knowing that we will bring this story to millions of people in so many countries, through Netflix, inspires me to see this as one of the great roles of my career.”
This feature is currently not available because you need to provide consent to functional cookies. Please update your cookie preferences
Speaking of Leone’s casting, Senna’s sister – and mother of former HRT, Lotus and Williams racer Bruno – Viviane added: “He has the ability to faithfully portray Ayrton's unique personality, especially the Ayrton that we as a family knew, off the track.”
The miniseries promises to delve not only into Senna’s on-track prowess – which saw him crowned world champion three times, in 1988, 1990 and 1991, a period which saw him embroiled in a high-profile rivalry with Alain Prost – but also his off-track life and personal relationships.
The project – originally announced back in 2020 – will be produced by Gullane, and co-directed by Brazilian filmmakers Vicente Amorim and Julia Rezende.
Really interesting the new owners has the design rights to this BAR F1 car, skip to 5:20 to see the BAR F1 car. Very informative and great closeup's of the many components on the car.
Too bad Honda got the original V10 back but at least Cosworth made them a purpose built V10 for this car.
Racing legend A.J. Foyt looks back on life and career
Quick 2 minute AP Wire video on AJ and his career, thought it was interesting that he initially wanted to stay in Texas to mourn the recent lost of his wife but then decided going to Indy would help work through his grief.
Some friends of mine met AJ on a rental car bus (his motor blew in the race and he was wanted to get back to Texas) at Detroit airport in the late 80's, spent maybe 15 minutes chatting with them and said he's quite a character, unfortunately they didn't get a photo with him but he signed each of their Michigan 500 tickets for them
I forget which road it is, but one of the larger intersecting roads off US290 in NW Houston is AJ Foyt Pkwy. I think it's FM1488 but it doesn't pull up that way on Google Maps
Formula 1 fans have always adored V8, V10, and V12 engines mainly because of the sound - the biblical noise produced as these engines rev sky-high. But even among these high-revolution monsters, only a few have achieved more than 20,000 rpm. One example is the powertrain the Williams F1 team used during the 2006 season.
The YouTube channel 337 Speed posted a deep-dive into the Cosworth CA2006, the first F1 engine to reach 20,000 rpm. While modern hybrid V6 engines can easily do the same, they are capped at 15,000 rpm by regulations.
Cosworth's unit produced 755 horsepower at 19,250 rpm and 214 lb-ft of torque at 17,000 rpm. While the power output is impressive, the engine had a lot of reliability issues. Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber battled hard that season, but the best they could do was one fastest lap.
The highest-revving engine in a production car these days is also made by... Cosworth. It's the 3.9-liter V12 in the Gordon Murray T.50. It revs to 12,100 rpm and produces 701 hp in the Niki Lauda edition. Don't tell us ICE hasn't evolved in over 100 years...
During the 2006 F1 season, the technical regulations for V8 engines were a maximum displacement of 2.4 liters and a maximum bore of 3.85 inches, implying 1.57 inches of stroke at the maximum bore. With this in mind, pushing the engine up to 20,000 rpm was relatively easy for the engineers at Cosworth.
While increasing torque was difficult due to the limited displacement, enabling the engine to rev higher was the key to getting more power.
Titanium alloys were used to make the connecting rods, while forged 2618 aluminum was used for the pistons. This lightweight yet strong material allowed the pistons to run at higher rpm, eventually damaging other engine components.
One challenge in running a high-revving engine is valve float, which occurs when the valves don't close in optimum running conditions due to fast engine speeds. As a result, engines will have power loss. To combat the valve float, the Cosworth CA2006 used stiffer spring rate valve springs, lighter vales, and more aggressive crankshaft profiles.
The Cosworth engine came with very short intake runners, ideal for producing more power at higher revolutions. It was matched by a large plenum volume for the best air distribution per cylinder. Moreover, engineers developed the engine to produce exhaust velocity suited to higher revolutions, despite compromising low-end speeds.
Today, we don't get to see 20,000-rpm-revving engines anymore as F1 is favoring more sustainable powertrains in the form of a 1.6-liter turbocharged hybrid V6 engine. By 2026, new engine regulations will be implemented in a bid to make the sport greener.
Not sure if the crashed Leyton House is the one in this article. But someone spent 10 years restoring one example of this car, which was completed in 2022.
A painstaking ten-year journey has seen Swedish rocker Pär Lindstedt restore the Leyton House CG901B – legendary designer Adrian Newey's breakthrough F1 car
It's great to see true friendships in F1. I was in the Seneca Lodge in May sitting in the bar ALL the F1 drivers went to after the USGP. There's pics of them all sitting around smoking, drinking, laughing and enjoying each other's company. It's too bad that doesn't exist as much today.
Mario Illien: Powering F1 Champions | F1 Beyond The Grid Podcast
Mario Illien along with the late Paul Morgan founded Ilmore Engineering which eventually evolved into what is Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains today. Brilliant engineer/founder who along with Morgan once worked at Cosworth where they acquired their experience and background.
Neil Oatley: Designing World Championships With McLaren | F1 Beyond The Grid Podcast
Not a big technical star but Oakley was highly instrumental to McLaren's success in the 80's and late 90's. Oatley still works for McLaren today and has been in F1 for 40+ years.
I like his top-3 drivers he's worked with Senna, Prost, Mika.
FLOP OR FATE? Opinions on David Coulthard's F1 Legacy
Good review of DC and his competitiveness. DC is still a very good F1 driver and used his cars well, still a #2 but knew his limits as well. 13 wins still shows his capability.
Back in the day, I labeled him a flop. Present day? Still a flop.
Some drivers just fill the "second driver" role, and Coulthard is one of them.
That's both fair and unfair at the same time. The one thing I liked about the video is it pointed out Coulthard knew his limits both in the car and in the team, something that Irvine/Barrichello/Perez/Bottas have never learned. David Brown (Williams/McLaren race engineer) said Head would browbeat Coulthard before race starts fairly hard.
In terms of being a flop, DC (13) is #2 to Stirling Moss (16) as Driver with the most wins and no WDC. Pretty impressive company to be with, also add in DC was #3 in WDC four times and #2 once and it shows he was competitive but just not enough to make the top rung.
His greatest contribution to current racing is he convinced RBR/Horner to hire Adrian Newey which was a huge stretch at the time for both since it had been awhile since Newey had designed a great F1 car and RBR was just starting out.
I always do my driver ratings also combining the relative quality of the cars. Coulthard was in a top car for most of his career. If he was in a mid-tier car, he might've been just another random driver.
I always do my driver ratings also combining the relative quality of the cars. Coulthard was in a top car for some of his career. If he was in a mid-tier car, he might've been just another random driver.
FIFY, looking at DC's years in F1 he was not in the top car for most of his career. Good cars mostly, but not top car most of the time. Watch the video, very fair subjective review of DC's career. If anything DC suffered from not having that killer edge that Mika had which sorta cemented his relationship with Ron Dennis BUT McLaren kept DC as a driver for 9 straight years as well. Kinda complicated but DC was a very good driver just not a great driver.
In case you wanted a Mansell helmet or something else racing related. Not surrpised he lives in Florida now, his wife and kids were big fans of living there when he was in CART/Champ racing in the states.
03-20-2023, 10:54 AM
QFT, modern F1 is very bloated staff wise. Also love these old stories retold again recently. One I found amusing is the attention to detail of getting the MP4/4 design with respect to the flowing "shoulders" of the monocoque bodywork to look good in the dialog and how the draftsman executed.
