Formula 1

While F1’s 20 competitors prepare for the first race of the 2018 season in Australia this weekend, the stakes are considerably higher off the track. Negotiations over Formula One’s next engine formula, due to arrive in 2021, will play a critical and significant role in shaping the future of the sport. With television audiences dropping due to the fact that the sport has become dull, and manufacturers extensively looking elsewhere, F1 cannot afford to get this wrong. As FIA president Jean Todt explained to the media very recently, much is expected from the new formula. The new power units must be simpler and cheaper, yet also rev higher and sound louder. All that while retaining the hybrid format will be very challenging and impressive to extract out of the engine manufacturers, but it doesn’t stop there. The fuel flow limit is to be higher and limits on fuel use unrestricted, allowing drivers to push flat out from the start lights to the chequered flag. All this must be put toge...

                   KEY CHANGES IN F1 FOR THE 2018 SEASON So soon, The first generation of the new turbo V6 engines are done and dusted. After just4 years, the sport needed a change. Yes, they came with extra power and torque, were challenging and more importantly efficient and quite reliable too. But, these cars lacked the drama, the aura which was necessary to show the world that F1 is still the Ultimate Motor Sport. The fan base started reducing, the TV viewership came lower. But, still the hard core enthusiasts hung on hoping for a change.                         That’s exactly what seems to be in stock for all of us. First one with a bang, Bernie Ecclestone, The FOM (Formula One Manager) has retired and sold the entire sport and rights to Liberty Media. After so much criticism in the way F1 is being covered,...

Aside from the glitz and glamour of multi-millionaire race drivers and champagne, Formula 1 is a competitive sport consumed by data. And it is making sense of that data that is critical for F1 teams to thrive.1 Analytics is a key fundamental into understanding how a Formula 1 car behaves. An F1 car travelling at  3 00 +k ph puts heavy pressure on the car, and not least, the driver, and knowledge of those characteristics can lead to the correct decisions being made in order to win. And so F1 is very much a numbers game based around off-season and in-season car development. As F1 is widely seen as the pinnacle of motorsport, the chance for a team to cement their legacy in the sport is something they cannot refuse. The rewards are high too – Formula 1 generated $1.7   bn in revenue and made $500   m illion  profit in 2013, the majority of which goes to the teams competing, and this is even excluding other sources of revenue such as merchandising and sponso...

THE IMPROVEMENTS MADE AFTER 2016 IN THE                                  1.6 TURBO V6 ERA.                                                                                                                                          -VISHAL ARAVIND.S The year 2016... What does it translate in terms of Formula1? What’s gonna be all that different? So, for starters, The F1 cars are gonna be a bit quicker...

            HIGHLIGHTS OF THE V6 ERA (2015)           So, The 5 season has come to an end with Mercedes-Benz and their lead driver Lewis Hamilton again dominating the championship. They were on a roll from the re-start of turbo V6 era in 2014 and the flow continued in 2015 where they just improved the car slightly in areas like reliability and high speed cornering.                      While teams like Ferrari had to completely re-design their car from start as they got it wrong in-terms of aerodynamics and the power unit itself was a disaster. The car couldn't simply provide enough boost from its ERS unit and the positioning of the unit itself was weak. Totally the engine was downby atleast 70 horsepower and hence this year, Ferrari had made a brilliant comeback by making things m...