Red Bull Motorsports
F1
What are the effects of wind on an F1 car? F1 Technical
Although Formula 1 cars seem to rush ahead no matter what, they are actually sensitive to gusts of wind. Let's check why that is.
The fastest garbage trucks in the world
F1 Action
A Formula 1 car is a very complex structure, not only mechanically, but also aerodynamically. Tens of thousands of parts are packed as tightly as possible so that the engineers responsible for the car's skin can shape them in such a way that the air flows around them as best as possible. In this way, it is supposed to create the greatest possible aerodynamic downforce, and at the same time cause the least increase in drag.
Design of an F1 car
© GramaFilm/RBMH
Despite these treatments, the cars of the queen of motor sports have a frontal resistance coefficient comparable to that of a garbage truck, and when braking, just releasing the accelerator pedal causes a deceleration as high as in an ordinary sports car when you press the brake pedal to the floor. As a result, when the wind blows, the acceleration and braking parameters are significantly different from those that the driver has to deal with when driving in silence. Physics and mathematics tell us that the resistance generated by the wind is directly proportional to the square of the speed at which it is blowing. Each change in wind speed forces drivers to recalculate e.g. braking points or safe speed at which they can move around corners.
Wind from front and back
If the wind is blowing from the front, the accelerating car will have a harder time, because it will be forced to overcome a greater momentum of air in the opposite direction, in other words, aerodynamic drag will increase. This will increase the load on the engine and decrease not only the acceleration speed, but also the maximum speed. An additional problem is the increasing fuel consumption in this situation, resulting from the fact that the engine has to work harder to overcome excess resistance.
3 min
Red Bull Racing: The Life of a Bolt
See how a front suspension bolt is created before it makes it onto the Red Bull Racing RB12.
However, these conditions are not always a nightmare, because once the straight is taken, the headwind starts to be an ally. The mass of air rushing in front of us brakes the car, which makes it decelerate faster and more efficiently. This allows you to start braking a bit later, and to apply the brake pedal with slightly less force. So you can not only push a little more on corner entry, but you can also reduce brake wear. An additional advantage is the more effective DRS, which makes overtaking even easier. With high drag, the reduction is more noticeable than with low drag, so the difference in speed between the car with the rear wing open and the car with the rear wing closed will be greater in this situation than in the absence of wind.
In a situation where the wind is blowing from behind, to put it simply, all of the above considerations turn 180 degrees. The gusts of air will push the accelerating car, giving it even more speed in even less time. This will reduce fuel consumption, achieve higher speed on a straight line, but at the cost of increased brake wear and the need to start braking earlier at the end of a straight line. You will also have to drive a bit slower and more carefully in the corner, so as not to suddenly lose downforce and end up driving on the rival's car, roadside or wall. The DRS system will also be less effective, because the speed advantage over the car we are overtaking with the rear wing closed will not be so great. We will save fuel because when the car has to deal with less resistance, it will use less to overcome it
Side wind
When the wind blows from the side, the car starts to yaw and becomes more unstable, especially in corners. Its front moves from right to left, making it difficult for the driver to maintain the correct driving line and speed. It is necessary to correct the position of the car, and in extreme cases, to set up spectacular counter-attacks, sometimes ending in even more spectacular sideways driving. The most dangerous are sudden gusts, because then the driver suddenly loses stability and it is much more difficult for him to react. Much also depends on the characteristics of the car and its set-up for a particular track, as well as on the facility itself.
British Summer Time
© Clive Mason/Getty Images for Red Bull Racing
The problems of competitors with the wind are perfectly illustrated by, for example, Silverstone in Great Britain, and from the newer facilities - Jeddach Corniche Ciurcuit in Saudi Arabia. Both of these tracks are located in places where there are few natural obstacles, the air has a lot of space to accelerate, and the wind gusts are strong and difficult to predict. Many times during the races held there, there were situations in which drivers turned around or ended up driving in gravel or on a wall in seemingly safe places. This was because an unexpected gust, usually from the side, caused completely unpredictable reactions of the car. As a result, behaviors that in normal situations would allow you to control the car turned out to be ineffective in the face of a side wind.
Engineers come to help
3 min
Gone in 2 seconds
What can Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen do in the time it takes to make an F1 pit stop?
More F1 Action
How much a car's behavior depends on gusts of wind depends on its aerodynamic efficiency. If the car behaves well with variable resistance and is able to neutralize unfavorable gusts of air, it will drive better than one that works properly only in a narrow window of conditions. The solution to the problems related to the sensitivity of the car lies with the engineers, who can try to improve its behavior by adding additional elements, such as the blades of the planes, or changing the shape of its skin. However, this is not always possible, so it happens that a given team struggles with this problem throughout the season and no corrections introduced during the season are able to change this unfavorable situation.
We hope that favorable winds will blow for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the tracks around the world.
Want more motorsport? Be sure to follow Red Bull Motorsports and Red Bull Australia on Instagram. You can also follow Red Bull Motorsports and Red Bull Australia on Tik Tok.
