FORMULA 1 PERFORMANCE

Grand Prix cars and the cutting edge technology that constitute them produce an unprecedented combination of outright speed and quickness for the drivers. Every F1 car on the grid is capable of going from nought to 160km/h (100 mph) and back to nought in less than five seconds. During a demonstration at the Silverstone circuit in Britain, an F1 McLaren car driven by David Coulthard gave a pair of Mercedes-Benz street cars a head start of seventy seconds, and was able to beat the cars to the finish line from a standing start.

Despite F1 cars being fast in a straight line, they also have incredible cornering ability. Grand Prix can negotiate corners at much higher speeds than other types racing car because of the intense levels of grip and downforce. Cornering speed is so high that Formula One drivers have strength training routines just for the neck muscles. Juan Pablo Montoya claims to be able to perform 300 reps of 50 pounds with his neck.

The combination of light weight (440 kg dry), power (950 bhp with the 3.0 L V10, 750 bhp with the 2006 regulation 2.4 L V8), aerodynamics, and ultra-high performance tyres is what gives the F1 car its performance figures. The principle consideration for F1 designers is acceleration, and not simply top speed. Acceleration is not just linear forward acceleration, but three types of acceleration can be considered for an F1 car's, and all cars' in general, performance:

Linear forward acceleration
Linear deceleration (braking)
Turning acceleration (centripetal acceleration)
Unless a car is to be raced solely on high-speed ovals (where only top speed matters), all three accelerations should be maximised. The way these three accelerations are obtained and their values are:

Forward acceleration
The 2006 F1 cars have a power-to-weight ratio of 1250 hp/tonne (930 W/kg). Theoretically this would allow the car to reach 100 km/h in less than 1 second. However the massive power cannot be converted to motion at low speeds due to traction loss, and the usual figure is 2 seconds to reach 100 km/h. After about 130 km/h traction loss is minimal due to the combined effect of the car moving faster and the downforce, hence the car continues accelerating at a very high rate. The figures are (for the 2005 Renault R25):

0 to 100 km/h: 1.9 seconds
0 to 200 km/h: 3.9 seconds
0 to 300 km/h: 8.4 seconds, may be slightly more or less depending on the aerodynamic setup.
The acceleration figure is usually 1.4 g (14 m/s²) up to 200 km/h, which means the driver is pushed back in the seat with 1.4 times his bodyweight.

Deceleration
The carbon brakes in combination with the aerodynamics produces truly remarkable braking forces. The deceleration force under braking is usually 4 g (40 m/s²), and can be as high as 5 g when braking from extreme speeds, for instance at the Gilles Villenueve circuit. Here the aerodynamic drag actually helps, and can contribute as much as 1.0 g of braking force, which is the equivalent of the brakes on most sports cars. In other words, if the throttle is let go, the F1 car will slow down under drag at the same rate as most sports cars do with braking, at least at speeds above 150 km/h. The drivers also utilise 'engine braking' by downshifting rapidly.

As a result of these high braking forces, an F1 car can come to a complete stop from 300 km/h in less than 4 seconds.

Turning acceleration
As mentioned above, the car can accelerate to 300 km/h very quickly, however the top speeds are not much higher than 330 km/h at most circuits, being highest at Monza (365 km/h in 2004), Indianapolis and Gilles-Villenueve (about 350 km/h at both). This is because the top speeds are sacrificed for the turning speeds. An F1 car is designed principally for high-speed cornering, thus the aerodynamic elements can produce as much as three times the car's weight in downforce, at the expense of drag. In fact, at a speed of just 130 km/h, the downforce equals the weight of the car. As the speed of the car rises, the downforce increases. The turning force at low speeds (below 70 to about 100 km/h) mostly comes from the so-called 'mechanical grip' of the tyres themselves. At such low speeds the car can turn at 2.0 g. At 200 km/h already the turning acceleration is 3.0 g, as evidenced by the famous Turn 8 at the Istanbul Park circuit. This contrasts with the 1.3 g of the Ferrari Enzo, one of the best racing sports cars.

These turning accelerative forces allow an F1 car to corner at amazing speeds, seeming to defy the laws of physics. As an example of the extreme cornering speeds, the Blanchimont and Eau Rouge corners at Spa-Francorchamps are taken flat-out at above 300 km/h, whereas the race-spec GT cars in the ETCC can only do so at 150–160 km/h.

Top Speeds
As of April 2006. the top speeds of Formula 1 cars are a little over 300 km/h at high-downforce tracks such as Albert Park, Australia and Sepang, Malaysia. These speeds are down by some 10 km/h from the 2005 speeds, and 15 km/h from the 2004 speeds, due to the recent performance restrictions (see below). On the low-downforce circuits such as Gilles-Villeneuve(Canada) and Indianapolis (USA), the speeds were 335~350 km/h in 2005, and at Monza (Italy) 365 km/h. However the true top speed in a straight line of a modern Formula 1 car in can be measured when its downforce is modified accordingly for straight-line running. With minimal downforce wing settings, BAR Honda managed to run their FIA race-spec F1 car at 413.205 km/h on 6 Nov, 2005 during a shakedown leading to their 'Bonneville 400' attempt.

Recent FIA performance restrictions
In an effort to reduce speeds and increase driver safety, the FIA has continuously introduced new rules for F1 constructors in the 1990s. These rules have included restrictions on engine computer technology, as well as the introduction of grooved tyres. Yet despite these changes, constructors continue to extract performance gains by increasing power and aerodynamic efficiency. As a result, the pole position speed at many circuits in comparable weather conditions dropped between 1.5 and 3 seconds in 2004 over the prior year's times. In 2006 the engine power was reduced from 950 bhp to 750 bhp (710 to 560 kW) by going from the 3.0 L V10's used for over a decade to 2.4 L V8's. This is carried over into 2006 the aerodynamic restrictions introduced in 2005 meant to reduce downforce by about 30%. However most teams were able to successfully reduce this to a mere 5 to 10% downforce loss.

(partly from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_car)