The first time aerodynamics was used in Formula One as a way of making the cars faster, was in the late 1960's by Lotus, Ferrari and Brabham. Since those simple days of slight modifications, the aerodynamic parts of a formula one car has been greatly improved. It is a one way to get an edge over competition and claim a place in the winners books, just like Brawn GP likes to do.
The main aim of the Formula One aerodynamic parts is to reduce drag and increase downforce. Drag is friction on the of the parts on a car caused by air flowing over it and getting disturbed by bumps, creases or any other distorted shape that prohibits air flow. This slows the car down and makes accelerating and achieving a high top speed very difficult.
Downforce is the force that pushes the car down on to the road surface, thereby creating more grip allowing better traction, and therefore better cornering abilities. This achieved by one of two methods:
Wings or Ground Effect Aerodynamics. Wings are located at the front and rear of each car, forming downforce by pushing air upwards and effectively creating a downward type of thrust.
Ground Effect Aerodynamics are very complicated and use the method of creating a vortices on the underbelly of the car. As the pressure of the vortices is lower than the atmospheric pressure, the atmosphere effectively pushes the car down onto the road.
Drag slows the car down in the straights and downforce speeds the car up in corners, but the act of wings displacing air to create downforce causes drag, which in turn slows down the straight line speed of the car. Therefore the balance between drag and downforce has to be adjusted at each track, for example at Monza the setting will be less downfoce but also less drag, so the speed of the car will be increased for this high speed track.
Another example is Monaco, where the need for downforce is much greater than the need for straight line speed as there is many sharp and bending corners and not very high top speeds are reached on this track. Therefore the downforce will be great, but drag will also be high.
For the time being, Brawn GP has found the perfect balance between drag and downforce on each track, resulting in high finishing positions.
Brawn GP is the latest F1 Team to hit the tarmac, and is taking the world by storm! Follow Brawn GP on their path to victory, and check the stats, cars, drivers and more! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Omeshan_Naidoo |
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