F1technical.net

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what an accurate value might be for the frontal area of an F1 car and its wingless drag coefficient?!

And also, does anybody have a figure, possibly that I could reference, for the horsepower available at the flywheel? How much to deduct for inefficiencies?

I am trying to do some calculations for the downforce required by a front wing!

any help would be appreciated!!

ublu32 wrote:Hi,

Can anyone tell me what an accurate value might be for the frontal area of an F1 car and its wingless drag coefficient?!

And also, does anybody have a figure, possibly that I could reference, for the horsepower available at the flywheel? How much to deduct for inefficiencies?

I am trying to do some calculations for the downforce required by a front wing!

any help would be appreciated!!

You got to remember, it changes for every track, so the requirements for downforce and the drag coefficient changes with different setups and new developments

Yes I understand that, but the frontal area surely wont change, at least, without a wing?! As well as the available horsepower?

ublu32 wrote:Yes I understand that, but the frontal area surely wont change, at least, without a wing?! As well as the available horsepower?

Ill try work out a value from my model for you

but the horsepower isn't my speciality

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... qwTN2GBryA

750BHP - 600BHP

I think drag for a current F1 car is around SCx=1.2m^2, with wings.
maybe 0,9 without wings, but I am not so sure

Gabriel Tredozi from Minardi says CD is close to 1.

5. What is drag coefficient of F1 car? Is the deflector in front of rear wheel is used to deflect the air coming towards rear wheel, and hence reduce drag?
A. It depends which wind tunnel has been used in calculating the drag coefficient. In general, it is close to 1, and clearly, both the deflector, and more generally, all aerodynamic components in a F1 car, are designed with the aim of reducing drag and improving the car’s efficiency.
http://www.f1technical.net/features/148

That was 2007, Don't know how much has it changed.

I remember reading somewhere that an F1 generates its own weight in downforce at about 100km/h and at 160km/h they had 1g braking due to aerodynamics.

As others are inferring; you can't just take drag from a wingless F1 car, and add the drag of the front wing, one affects the other, positively or negatively depending on the design of the wings and body....

However, some numbers for reference (based on coefficients in Racecar Engineering, with my estimate of frontal area):-

Formula Ford (no wings): CdA ~0.8m^2

10 year old F1 Monza (with wings): CdA ~1.1m^2

10 year old F1 Monaco (with wings): CdA~ 1.7m^2

Shell used ~800 horsepower @ 19,000rpm for the Ferrari V8 in their PR, so probably a bit less
http://www.shell.com/home/content/motor ... ed/engine/

Mercedes say >750PS @ 18,000rpm in 2009
http://www.mercedes-amg-hpp.com/v/about ... ine_facts/

Renault say >750bhp @ 18,000rpm in 2012
http://www.renaultsportf1.com/RS27-2011,61.html?lang=fr

I think 750 is a solid round number to use, no one is going to tell you any better than that.