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EXCLUSIVE July 2017 • Vol 27 No 7 • www.racecar-engineering.com • UK £5.95 • US $14.50

Porsche at Le Mans

9 770961 109104
• Technology transfer in the spotlight

07
• Insight into R&D facility at Weissach

DTM tech focus Race track firsts Haas Formula 1

We reveal how BMW and How Le Mans became a test GP team’s unique approach
Merc deal with 2017 regs bed for future innovation to chassis development
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CONTENTS – JULY 2017 – Volume 27 Number 7

After an impressive debut in 2016 many

expected Haas to suffer from second
season syndrome this year. But with its
VF-17 the US squad has produced another
solid car. Turn to page 26 to find out more

COVER STORY TECHNICAL

8 Porsche technology transfer 55 The Consultant
How the German car maker uses its LMP1-H The suspension mysteries of Late Model stock cars
Le Mans racer as a 200mph-plus laboratory
59 Aerobytes
Part two of our Nissan GT-R aero study
COLUMNS
63 Slip Angle
5 Ricardo Divila OptimumG’s sideways look at oversteer
Is F1’s new owner in the game for the right reasons? 68 Trackside support
7 Mike Blanchet Motor racing’s unsung heroes
Whatever happened to good-looking racecars? 78 Battery management systems
Controlling motorsport batteries
FEATURES 87 Danny Nowlan
18 Porsche 919 Hybrid Why chassis simulation is vital in racing
We visit Weissach to uncover the 919’s development secrets
26 Haas VF-17 BUSINESS & PEOPLE
The US team’s unique approach to building Formula 1 cars 92 Business people
34 DTM 2017 Hitech boss Oliver Oakes talks Formula 3
How BMW and Merc’ are getting to grips with new tech rules 97 Products
44 Le Mans retrospective Shiny new stuff for pit and paddock
The part the 24 Hours has played in automotive development 98 Bump Stop

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JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 3

STRAIGHT TALK – RICARDO DIVILA

Stature of Liberty
What should Formula 1 expect from its new global media giant owner?

T
he 21st century has been a rather ho- Media will expect its investment to pay off in five reactions in several directions aided and abetted
hum century so far. Not much good news years, 10 if we consider them to be reasonable and by the mahouts of Max and Bernie, nudging the
anywhere; the wholesale crumbling of not the carnivore American companies tend to be. elephant with off-the-cuff solutions.
institutions, the probable runaway change in the The manufacturers will expect their returns to Treaded tyres, then frangible tyres, DRS, diverse
world’s environment leading to a wholesale die- also be on the monetary side, not only in kudos. engine formulas that see-saw between concepts,
off of entire species, possibly even our own. The What of the governing body? It was once led by trying to please the manufacturers, the bankers, the
collapse of democracy is not entirely impossible and Max Mosley, probably the most intelligent man I’ve media and the spectators, and eventually pleasing
the bright hope of the Enlightenment is dimming. met in motor racing. He had a vision and did have none, with the consequent loss of spectators, and
Theocracy is raising its head and so are rabble long-range planning nous. Unfortunately the FIA is incidentally teams from lack of sponsors or money.
rousers everywhere. One is even president of the now gelded by the actions of this very same man.
most powerful nation on Earth. The sale of the commercial rights of the FIA for Escalating quickly
But against all this we can see a small bright a laughable sum for a century and more has The main victims of the direction Formula 1 has
hope, at least in motorsport, for racing is now under relegated it to a supervisory and regulatory role been headed in the last decades has been the
new management at its highest level. and singularly absent from managing the sport teams and race organisers, shackled to a profit
Hooray! We shall have a new, modern, social adequately and having a strategic vision. driven model that brings race contracts with a built-
media aware management that shall bring Then we have the teams. To expect them to in escalator clause of 10 per cent.
motorsports to new heights, having wrested it away agree on anything without being beaten senseless Basic understanding of the power of this
from Bernie Ecclestone, a dinosaur from the growth is simple but it eludes most
black lagoon, who manipulated the sport people. Ten per cent a year growth
against the fans wishes and cowed teams responds directly to the rule of 70, which
into submission, all while stealing soiled states that the doubling time for whatever
bank notes from their ragged pockets. percentage growth (or percentage
A new era, then, the dawn of exciting decline) is the number 70 divided by
racing and sporting behaviour, where the percentage. Ten per cent implies a
superheroes will make the crowds gasp at doubling period every seven years.
their derring-do and behave like principled This is exponential growth, and
men, true examples to our youth... considering the revenue sources it means
that organisers have to double their
Profit or loss? income by doubling spectators, charging
An idyllic view, very Panglossian, but double, or getting more income from TV
XPB

reality does tend to impose itself. The hard and media, all unattainable logically in the
facts are that the price paid for the entire F1’s new era has got off to a good start with some fine racing in 2017 first two cases, and in the third because
F1 circus was an investment by a media but the core financial problems that plague it have still to be addressed the TV rights belong to FOM.
company, whose modus operandi is to view The result is that putting a grand
it as a financial transaction, giving a return on the with a baseball bat is delusion right up there with prix on is well nigh impossible without some
investment in a fixed time-frame. believing that when certain rites are performed, government funding, which is anathema in
There are synergistic effects in providing content bread turns into human flesh after it is swallowed. today’s political and financial climate.
for the media company by having a sport to display, Improving the spectacle, arguably, does not
but the profit element will still be there. Obviously, Brawn again seem to be the result of all the changes for 2017
the teams will want to get more of a return than Having Ross Brawn included in the management so far, so we will have to see if new management
what has been offered previously, so there will be of Formula 1 has still to show what a proven track- has the self-control and vision to have a long-range
some horse-trading backstage, some blood will record participant can bring to the structuring of plan to bring spectators back, give teams a viable
flow, it just depends on what side. the hardest to understand and administer part of business model outside manufacture funding,
The public may, and this is a very hypothetical the whole shebang, the technical side. Also, will he and likewise make race organisers survive without
presumption, get more entertainment for the cost be able to provide a long-range plan and a genuine depending on governments to pick up the bill.
expended, but there we also have to factor in the strategic group of independent, experienced racers, Grassroots motorsport and a realistically priced
vested interests of the manufacturers who invest in uncoupled from any team vested interest? ladder for the future racers are an integral part of
the sport to publicise their technical prowess, and Cost containment must be part of this strategic the planning also, and if these not implemented
incidentally win races, as being a backmarker does model, too, if only to allow fresh blood in. The well then the supply of race drivers will be starved
not enhance your image, and the cruel reality is that aborted cost cap brought new teams in on the out by the sheer costs to get there.
there is only one winner in a race. expected benefits, but they are mostly gone by now But who knows, maybe those flying pigs flying
So how does the beautiful view of the future for obvious, predictable reasons. The strategic group in formations are not a hallucination and the
square with the facts? The hard facts are that Liberty track record so far has given us mainly knee-jerk moon really is made of green cheese!

Liberty Media will expect its investment to pay off in five years
JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 5
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Beauty and the beasts

Would more aesthetically pleasing racecars attract new fans to F1 and the WEC?

T
elevision aerials and coat hangers are just a have led to function far outweighing form, and any importance of the wow factor in attracting a new
couple of the uncomplimentary descriptions semblance of clean lines and balanced proportions audience, and having mucked about endlessly
applied to this year’s crop of new and – the two elements that most matter in car styling – with regulation changes, the series’ rule-makers
wobbly F1 aero appendages. It’s not surprising that almost completely disappearing. For similar reasons have commissioned design studies to arrive at far
the comments are so derogatory. Equally numerous the same can be said for modern combat aircraft more racy bodywork for its Dallara chassis. Not
are the complaints regarding the shark fins that like the Typhoon or Lockheed-Martin F-35a. They hard, on the face of it. As well as being a one-make
have sprouted on the engine-covers. As they are are mightily impressive in their capabilities, but formula, thus negating complicated negotiations,
so unpopular, make the cars more sensitive to side any idea of flowing lines probably ended with the the current cars look as though someone had
winds and are not a structural part, it wouldn’t Hawker Hunter fighter jet of over 60 years ago. messed about with plasticine and Meccano after
require much effort of will among all concerned to supping a few jars. Weird is a kind description; F1
just agree to get rid of them, immediately. Bad air day cars are swans compared to these ugly ducklings.
Partly due to the above, and the return of I had hoped when the new PUs were introduced But let’s hope that they get it right, for on the
complicated bargeboards which, together with in 2014 that the adoption of turbochargers would superspeedways such as Indianapolis, aero over-
Christmas-tree front wing assemblies, make it look negate the need for airboxes. They came into sensitivity is always a big crash waiting to happen.
as though the cars have had a shunt even before use to produce ram effect for the atmospheric IC Not all contemporary single-seater cars are
they are rolled out of the garages, there has been a engine but are not relevant to forced-induction ugly. The exclusively-used Dallara F3, for instance,
deal of focus recently on the aesthetics of F1 cars. of this kind and do nothing for aesthetics. Clearly is a little jewel of a racer, even if its droop-snoot
This season’s bigger tyres and wider rear wings I had underestimated the total amount of cooling breaks its lines somewhat and is a little reminiscent
together with some more colourful liveries have required for all the hybrid elements and the of Concorde in landing mode. It has a visible air-
contributed markedly to an improvement in this airbox remaining as the most efficient means of restrictor plenum, but it’s discreet, on the side.
respect in all the 2017 designs, but still
these cars remain far from pretty. Le monsters
Of course, it’s not just open-wheel
Pretty quick cars that can cause controversy.
Form should follow function, it is true, One can separate the lovely classic
in an activity as competitive as motor post-war front-engine sportscars,
racing, but going back over time it is typified perhaps by the Aston Martin
often also true that the best cars are DBR1, from later mid-engine closed
among the most pleasing to the eye. prototypes with the advent of Eric
Whether your fancy lies with a pre-war Broadley’s ground-breaking Lola GT,
Mercedes W154, 1950s Maserati 250F, itself the inspiration for the Ford GT40.
1500cc-era Lotus 25, the Lotus 72 and These two may not be stunningly
Ferrari 312B, or the McLaren MP4/4 of good-looking in the way that the
the Senna/Prost era, it would be hard glorious P4 Ferrari and much-coveted
XPB

to admit otherwise, although these are Lola T70 coupe were, but they had a
just a handful of examples. To be fair Jordan’s 191 was one of the most beautiful cars to grace Formula 1 but purposeful, compact and muscular
not many would put the bulky late- the pursuit of aero performance has cluttered up more modern F1 machines presence that still attracts attention
1950s Vanwalls on this list, despite their and defies age. As did the Porsche 917.
successes, or even the great Fangio/Moss Mercedes contributing to this. Shame, because the previous- Conversely, Le Mans Prototypes from Porsche,
W196 (except in its beautiful but soon-abandoned generation turbo F1 cars looked much sleeker Toyota and before this year Audi, have developed
enclosed wheels version), but exceptions often (see Brabham BT54) without these scoops above into exciting, brutal-looking but big and hardly
prove the rule. Likewise, some of the best-looking the drivers’ heads. Therefore, should technical stylish machines. Most of this is a ruthless drive
cars – Dan Gurney’s Eagle and the Jordan 191, for regulations take much more account of aesthetics for maximum aerodynamic efficiency coupled
example – were not overly successful, although rather than just fishing around the edges if F1 with the direction forced on the designers by the
limited resources played a part in both cases. wants to attract more followers? I for one would regulations. Admittedly, they would look a whole
As remarked upon by Ricardo Divila in love to see a grid full of the futuristic concept racers lot better without the awful slab-like engine-
last month’s Racecar Engineering (V27N6), the (but with open-cockpits) revealed by Ferrari and cover fins – a better solution to help prevent
increasing dominance of aero through the 1980s Red Bull last year. Over to you, Ross Brawn and co. take-off while spinning should be possible in this
to present times (and additionally some ill-thought Supporting this view are the latest plans technically sophisticated age.
safety regulations, which surely promoted the by IndyCar to re-invent the appearance of its But funny, isn’t it, that shark fins are mandated
nadir of F1 aesthetics in the ‘snout’ year of 2014) high-speed machines. Finally acknowledging the in LMP, yet marked-down for removal in F1?

Form should follow function in racing, it’s true, but going back over time it is
often also true that the best racecars are among the most pleasing to the eye
JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 7
LMP1 – TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Street smart
When Porsche made the decision to return to Le Mans in 2014
it was never just about adding to its impressive tally of wins –
there was road car technology to develop too
By ANDREW COTTON

T
o those outside endurance racing, There are a few responses to this argument. redundant, and is actually a thing of the past,
and particularly those involved in One is that Le Mans is a special race, and the Porsche’s 919 Le Mans programme can trace a
Formula 1, Porsche’s involvement in fact that it is just once a year gives it the kudos clearer path between the racing and road car
the World Endurance Championship that demands such a big investment. The other development than ever before.
makes little sense. Why would you spend a is that there is a large cross-over of technology While rumours circulate about Porsche’s
Formula 1 budget, an estimated €150m, to between production car development and continued involvement in the LMP category
compete in the WEC, which has just one race sportscar racing, and that actually the racing beyond the 2017 season, pay a visit to the
that really returns value on investment, the Le programme can accelerate learning, and save Weissach Research and Development centre,
Mans 24 hours, while Formula 1 delivers that money, for the manufacturer overall. While where production and racecars are developed
same investment more than 20 times per year? many might argue that the latter point is now on the very same campus, and it is actually

8 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 If a technology wins
at Le Mans, at Porsche
there are no more
questions asked
about its viability

Porsche is looking for three wins in a row at

Le Mans this year and its 19th overall victory.
Beyond the glory, some of the technology used will
possibly find its way into future Porsche road cars

more difficult to imagine that this racing the ‘Casino’, more commonly known around the ‘I started my diploma work here in advanced
programme will stop any time soon. world as a lunch hall, the building and others powertrain development working on the
The real key is in the development of hybrid like it provide a clear link between the two concept of the Cayenne hybrid module. After
systems, a new technology that does not have programmes as all the 5000 employees on the that I did some prototypes and during that time
experts in either field. With the arrival of the campus are encouraged to socialise together. in advance development I heavily investigated
Mission E, an electric car in the brand line up, electrical machines and gearbox structures such
and the LMP1 programme in full development Social network as multi-mode gearboxes as well as axle drives.
mode, the crossovers are now clear to see, and ‘I am a good example of how things can go,’ ‘One of these projects led to a sportscar
it starts with the personnel. Porsche’s end of says Martin Fuechtner, head of hybrid systems prototype, which is not public, but the
season motorsport party is traditionally held in development within the LMP1 programme. derivatives of it were the 918 Spyder and the

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 9

LMP1 – TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Hybrid motor from the Porsche 918. Racing

has helped the company to accumulate
much-needed expertise in hybrid systems

the 919 hybrid). The second version of the car

had shed 50kg from its base weight and with
the greater electrical power, fuel consumption
also improved. However, it was still a very early
attempt at a hybrid racing car and there was still
a lot of development to be done in the future.
‘We did the first studies into storage
systems that have a high rate capability with
comparably low capacity,’ says Fuechtner. ‘They
were lightweight with the potential of almost
an infinite number of high power cycles – for
a sportscar this is what you are looking for. We
ended up with a kinetic energy storage with
this because in those days the battery cells were
not as good as they are now.
‘The next question was how to integrate the
electric traction drive into the comparably small
The development of Porsche’s 918 was headed by Frank-Steffen Walliser, now the head of Porsche Motorsport GT. It has a body of a sportscar. We developed our ideas and
4.6-litre V6 engine developing 447kW, and two electric motors producing 205kW. The whole car develops 887 horsepower came up with a design of an axle drive unit that
incorporated a low centre of gravity and a high

The LMP1 programme

911 GT3 R Hybrid.’ The GT3 R Hybrid, based on speed machine with individual final drives and
the 997 model, was Porsche’s first attempt at short driveshafts for each wheel – the inverted

allowed engineers to start

a hybrid car and, although it did race at the portal axle. That led to a patent forming the
Nurburgring 24 Hours – and nearly won the technical base for the 911 R Hybrid front axle
race – and also in the USA at the Petit Le Mans, which suits the 911 perfectly.
with a fresh sheet of paper it did not go on to have the race programme
that might have been hoped for. Charging ahead
and a whole new budget The car used a flywheel storage system,
an earlier version of the technology used in
‘This was one project, the other was the 918,’
Fuechtner adds. ‘Within the 918 road car
Audi’s hybrid Le Mans cars, and the second development I was responsible for the electrical
version of the car, that raced in 2011 at the drive systems which was the next step in
24h Nurburgring, produced 75kW from each learning. It was not only one machine, or electric
of the electric motors mounted on the front axle, but two machines which could be used
axle (up from 60kW in the first version and this for electric all-wheel-drive and many different
was worth up to 200bhp; with batteries the driving strategies. From that, when the thing
system now produces more than 450bhp in was driving properly, looking properly, you

10 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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LMP1 – TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

The hybrid layout on the GT3 R Hybrid, based on

the 997 model of the 911. The front axle layout was
patented and perfectly suits the model in terms
of weight distribution. It was the first attempt at a
hybrid racecar and it raced with moderate success

and saying “Okay, I want this machine with

this inverter”, and integrate it in the best way
possible. Then, obviously you are not happy with
what is available and you start to ask questions,
and we had many questions early on. With the
918 we made a big positive step, but there was
still room for improvement.’
The LMP1 programme allowed the engineers
to start with a fresh sheet of paper and a whole
new budget. It gave them the opportunity to
create a facility that was cutting edge in terms
of hybrid system development and while the
learning was painful, with a lot of destructive
testing, the racing mindset and ability to build
as well as test quickly in a working prototype
The Porsche Mission E has been developed with input from the 919 racing programme with the test bench developed for accelerated learning to new levels.
LMP1 helping enormously. When it goes for its fast lap at the Nurburgring it’s likely to use race-derived power strategies
Crossover tech
finally could have the benefit of driving a super One of the key crossovers is in the ‘In motorsport you can gather knowledge
sportscar at the weekend. I left because I was electronics and software of these hybrid quickly, and this knowledge can be transferred
asked to do the LMP1. Of course, you don’t think cars. Dealing with large voltages and with very easily to, for example, 800V systems of the
twice as a proper engineer if you are asked to fast-rotating machines, managing power and new electric car that we are developing because
participate in Porsche’s return to Le Mans.’ delivering it safely is a primary concern across they had the same issues,’ says Fuechtner. ‘We
both disciplines and the knowledge of how to are not where I want to be in terms of exchange,
Transfer window do that efficiently is both rare and critical to the there is still room for further action, but one of
While the 918 programme, Porsche’s hybrid success of both programmes. the points where we did the exchange was
hypercar, was headed by Frank-Steffen Walliser, ‘Before, everyone had the same background,’ with the test benches. We started with the first
who is now the head of Porsche Motorsport says Fuechtner. ‘There were guys in the road car 800V structure and in the whole company –
GT, Fuechtner moved to the LMP1 project, a department who could build engines, and there not even in the Volkswagen Group – there
move from road to race that is becoming more were guys in the racecar department who could was no such infrastructure.
common within Porsche’s Weissach facility, as build engines, and both had different demands ‘On the dynos, the battery simulation
is race to road. ‘You have people leaving the although each was a specialist. infrastructure starts with the whole electrical
motorsport department and taking jobs in the ‘In the electric drive story, there is no such net, and it was not meant to deliver 500kW
road car development and the social network big wealth of knowledge of how to do high so we had to develop that.’
and links are still there,’ explains Fuechtner. ‘By performance drives. The complexity of the The company also developed a four-wheel-
having lunch together, you discuss things and technology is quite high and when you start drive test rig to simulate driving cycles and to
exchange ideas which is positive for the same that up, even though it was some years ago, help perfect its traction control systems with
sort of problems that you are having.’ you could only begin with going to suppliers a live battery in it. There is still some work to

One of the key crossovers is in the electronics of these hybrid cars

12 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
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LMP1 – TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Porsche is not shy about showing off race to road success when it comes to hybrid technology. Pictured is 918, 919, and 997 GT3 Hybrid (left to right) with Panamera Hybrid behind

be done on this, but the intention is to keep the control assembly is the same. This had a transferred. We managed to double the constant
up the development on it. tremendous effect on development speed.’ power output of these drives with a different
‘We learned from series car development, The battery used in the 2014 919 Hybrid cooling approach, which is tremendous. We
how to do the testing and develop reliability, was actually over-speced for the 8MJ maximum showed that it is not that difficult.
but we took it to the next level,’ says Fuechtner. delivery that can be used at Le Mans, so for
‘Giving back, how do you handle certain types the 2015 season it was reduced in size and Race-honed
of fuses and live battery systems in a test bench weight by a quarter, which was a significant ‘Generally, in road car development you have to
environment? An 800V system is a different performance boost for the 2015 car that went think and evaluate a lot before you take steps
story to the formerly known systems. For on to win at Le Mans that year. What the racing because they quickly get expensive,’ Fuechtner
example, we had to do a lot of partly destructive team has discovered is that, thanks to Porsche’s says. ‘So it is beneficial to have a racing
tests to see what type of fuses is cutting successful racing history, if a technology wins programme where you can push boundaries for
multiple thousand amps safely and how to at Le Mans, there are no more questions asked new technologies. Development speed in racing
handle the voltages and thermodynamics about the technology’s viability! is quite high which means it takes us usually two
within our electrical machines.’ ‘What is happening at the moment is to five years from pre-development of a very
that having learned to handle drives and new technology such as power semiconductors
Mission possible batteries and inverters that can do track on a laboratory level to a racing application. If
Fuechtner adds: ‘We now have the situation racing with very high duty cycles, we can also the technology is performing well you have also
where when it was decided to do the Mission E transfer approaches like cooling to road car answered some fundamental questions for the
car they already had the test bench ready, where development,’ says Fuechtner. ‘Basically we are road car development. In road car department a
they could test the whole drive system, and the facing problems that have solutions that are lot less questions are asked if you win races with
approach of how you could put a battery in the not racing specific. You have materials that you this bits of new technology.’
test bench; what do you have to do? For safety cannot use in road car development because of Some of the parts that are developed for
containment, their choice is to not to do it full cost restrictions, but the cooling approach and the racecar are not far away from a possible
scale, but the dyno structure is the same, and the principle of machine design – this can be integration into production cars; others need

‘In road car development you have to think quite a lot

before you make steps, because they quickly get expensive’
14 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
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Porsche has traditionally run a customer programme with its prototypes, even with its 917s, but the complexity and IP of the 919 means that’s no longer possible

more work, although the majority of that is could help to quickly determine the bottleneck technology in that car. But both cars will quite
around materials and reducing costs for the for overall performance in order to set the certainly have the ideas of the LMP1 in there,
mass market rather than in concept. Another development priorities correctly. That is an if there is a car like that!’ says Fuechtner.
area of crossover, although the delineation example of the knowledge that we can transfer.’ The whole LMP1 programme is different
between the two is blurred, is how to make to Porsche’s traditional values. From the 917
the Mission E car lap the Nurburgring Electric hyper car? onwards customer versions of the cars have
Nordschleife as quickly as possible. Being The next stage could see the Mission E been made available, but it is clear that this
a Porsche, the Mission E has to go to the development programme working with the 919 programme carries a complexity and such
Nurburgring. There is no question about race team to develop batteries, inverters and restricted intellectual property that a customer
that. The target lap time has already been set machines in much more detail, although the racing programme is not likely.
(although this has not yet been revealed). relationship between the two has ‘decoupled The level of development also clearly shows
‘To achieve the maximum performance a little bit’, but the engineers are now keen why Porsche, and Toyota, are pushing to retain
over several laps or with a given energy you to extend the product line and produce an the very high level of technology in LMP1 as
can directly transfer the driving strategies updated 918. Following the time-line of new the WEC organisers look for ways to reduce
developed for the 919 Hybrid because the key cars, from the 959 to the Carerra GT and the 918, the cost of competing in order to attract a new
question of how to use the available energy in there are a few years before the next hypercar manufacturer for the 2020 season under a
the most effective way in order to maximise the is due. However, the rate of development for new set of LMP1 regulations. And, as far as
performance is quite similar,’ says Fuechtner. new technologies is now so accelerated that Formula 1 is concerned, it is clear why Porsche
‘What you could put into the driving modes the schedule could change. ‘The questions that elected to go to Le Mans. The learning that has
is the knowledge learned from LMP1, where to are pressing are: is it an electrical hypercar or a been developed from racing to production
use the energy, how to use it, how to handle hypercar that is still combining a combustion cars, and back again, is a clear indication of
the electrical components in order not to engine and electrical drives? If it is the second, the value of this programme, so even without
have thermal deratings. On the other side, the then the electrification will be with more a customer racing programme, customers
methodology developed in the 919 programme power. If it is the first, then we will see racing will likely still drive the technology.

‘You have people leaving the motorsport department and taking jobs in
road car development and the social network and links are still there’
16 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
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LMP1 – PORSCHE 919 HYBRID

The theory of
evolution
18 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
 P
orsche may not have won either of the two
opening rounds of the World Endurance
Championship, but the team goes to the
Le Mans 24 Hours in confident mood having
run only its low downforce kit at Silverstone and Spa,
and yet still gained a podium at both races as well as a
wealth of experience with its Le Mans package.
New regulations this year have forced
manufacturers to reduce the number of kits to two for
the season, low downforce intended for Le Mans and
high for other tracks in the WEC. However, Porsche took
the decision to concentrate on its Le Mans kit despite
Silverstone being suited to a high downforce package
and to delay its ‘kit two’ until after June’s 24-hour race.
The headline change to the LMP1-H regulations at
the start of the year was one that was designed to slow
the cars at Le Mans by up to two seconds. A raised front
splitter, reduced width rear diffuser and a reduction
in the number of tyres available to the teams were all
supposed to reduce performance. But what the change
in regulation has actually done is force both Porsche
and Toyota into a programme to claw back that lost
downforce – and now the cars are faster than ever.

Counter revolution
Aero work has of course contributed heavily to the
improvement in performance, with much of the
work between the front wheels and from the nose to
midship taking priority and providing huge gains in
performance. However, the aero team also points to
other departments when it comes to taking credit for
the improvement that has seen the 919 Hybrid drop
only a few points to Toyota’s high-downforce cars at
Silverstone in April and Spa Francorchamps in May.
The engine and drivetrain engineers say that they
have made huge gains in performance this year, with
a higher compression ratio than ever before, and with
more fuel efficiency and power. Reliability has
also been a key development area.
Porsche approached this year with an evolutionary
method rather than the revolution applied by Toyota.
While Toyota has gone for a new aero concept and
directed more air through the car, Porsche considered
that to be of less importance and has stuck to its
original concept of flow over the bodywork of the car.

Car concept
Porsche team principal Andreas Seidl says of the overall
aerodynamic concept: ‘Compared to Toyota, at the
rear our step looks less extreme but we were mainly
focussing on the front and towards the middle of the
car. Most of this was the new fenders at the front, which
are quite wide, and the channelling of the air from the
front to the mid-section of the car, to the radiator inlets
and so on. That came together with the basic cooling
Its 919 Hybrid has found buckets of lap time concept. The arrangement of the radiators is different,
and the position is obviously different, plus the way that
this year compared to 2016, yet Porsche insists we were guiding the air through simply to need less
to do more cooling. In general we didn’t have an issue
this is purely down to evolution rather than so we could cope with the ambient temperatures, but

wholesale change. Racecar went to Weissach the less cooling, the less drag. The loss of downforce
by the regulations was the biggest target; to get the
to unlock the secrets of this car’s development downforce back without increasing the drag too much.’
Christos Pashias, leader of LMP1 aerodynamics
By ANDREW COTTON at Porsche added: ‘There was a huge downforce loss

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 19

LMP1 – PORSCHE 919 HYBRID

New regulations have seen the front splitter raised in the centre to reduce downforce, The low-downforce ‘kit one’ rear wing is ready for Le Mans. Porsche has experience of
but Porsche and Toyota have both developed this area heavily to regain performance adjusting it for different track conditions and temperatures after Silverstone and Spa

Mirrors are embedded in the wheel arch. Toyota challenged this, on whether it could Porsche has introduced an F1-style wheel nut retention system that is supposed to
affect driver visibility, but Porsche says this has improved thanks to reduced vibration increase speed and accuracy of its wheel changes. It’s a risk with new tyre limits this year

due to the regulations front and rear and also done with the aim of helping the rear, as was a rubber build up in the front wheel arch
there was no getting around it. We started well as details next to the wheels, where small that upset the balance of it, which the team
[the development cycle] with a hybrid of our changes make a big difference.’ appears to have fixed in the 2017 version.
high downforce package [of 2016] on the low As Pashias says, the sidepods are radically ‘Having the confidence of the previous cars,
downforce kit. The front was much closer to the different to those of previous years, not least we could push harder in the areas that we were
sprint package than the Le Mans kit to get the due to a regulation change that calls for a confident in and go even more extreme, and
loads back. We spent a lot of time working to get channel between the cockpit and the wheel back off in some areas where we thought we
the car to work as a good package, and make arch that helps to increase the take off speed pushed too hard,’ says Pashias. ‘It is more the
sure the front is behaving in a suitable way.’ for the cars in the event of an accident. A lot of front and the middle [of the car] which is where
work has also gone into the radiators and the all the big gains come from. At the rear there is
Rear view air that is expelled from them, and around the a standard diffuser. You can do a lot under the
Pashias continues: ‘At the rear it is more wheels to reduce the wake signature of the wheel arches with small details, which have a
challenging. As with all racecars, it is difficult to car, and improve efficiency. One key difference big effect, but the front is where, if you get it
break the lift to drag ratio that is inherent in to previous designs is that the sidepods now right, the car behaviour is good [when the
the rear. It is more challenging to find the house the mirrors. While they are tucked away, driver is] pushing to the limit.’
downforce for free. We had to recover helping to reduce the drag, their location had an
downforce from other areas. We did quite a bit unexpected benefit. ‘We worked hard to do that, Pitch perfect?
of work on the front area between the wheels and we are happy with the result,’ says Pashias. Pashias was particularly coy when talking about
to maximise the clean flow to the rear, and the ‘It is a small drag gain, but a side-effect is that the pitch sensitivity and weight distribution
sidepod is substantially different which was the mirrors vibrate a lot less now, so you can of the 2017 model. Clearly a lot of work has
actually see through them!’ been done to improve the balance of the car,

‘We have achieved all of While Pashias acknowledges the potential

advantages of the ‘through-flow’ concept,
particularly to accommodate the new tyre
regulations that have seen a reduction to four

the goals that we have he was put off by the potential drawbacks,
including changes to cooling. Porsche has
sets, plus two joker tyres, for qualifying and race.
This is designed to encourage double stinting

set for ourselves in

instead developed last year’s concept and and reflect the endurance element of the sport,
worked particularly hard on the underfloor, and has been particularly relevant to Porsche’s

terms of development’
between the front wheels and the mid-floor low-downforce approach at the opening two
section. One of the weak points of the 2016 car races. ‘We worked on the pitch sensitivity, but

20 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 AER would like to wish a successful 2017 season to all its Competitors

P63 Indy Lights Mazda P60 AER V6 WEC P91 Mazda DPi
LMP1 – PORSCHE 919 HYBRID

Sidepods have been revised to improve air flow to the rear and a new channel has A great deal of detail work has been undertaken to reduce the wake signature of the
been opened up between the cockpit and wheel arch to improve safety at high speed racecar and clean up airflow to the rear, particularly around the front wheel arches

Braking systems in hybrid cars have been developed to prevent a driver from noticing The manufacturers agreed to retain their monocoques until 2019, although Porsche says
when the system is in recovery or not; this system can also be adjusted by the driver it could have saved a lot of weight had it changed it. It introduced current chassis in 2015

what we did I cannot talk about,’ says Pashias. MGU side of it is almost at saturation. From our this we also worked on for quite a while,’ says
‘When you change the regulations, the first step engine side we had two main points to tackle. Moser. ‘We never really talked so much about it
looks like a disaster and it was a big hit, four to One was reliability because we had some areas because what you read in the newspapers, that
five seconds at Le Mans, but with the work that last year where we didn’t feel 100 per cent safe it was developed in F1, actually this technology
you do you recover a lot of it. If you divide so we worked on that. It was affecting basic is around for almost 20 years in gas engines, and
how many months by wind tunnel sessions, parts of the engine, and on the other hand, the technique is nothing new. It is just applied
if you gain five seconds and divide it by the we saw from the development testing on the to race engines now and this is important.
number of sessions, say 10 sessions for the dynos that we could manage a big step in terms We could talk about improving efficiency and
development a year, every session is worth half of performance and efficiency coming from higher pressure but all of these phrases are out
a second. If I have an extra session and that’s various areas of the engine. We could reduce the already. The important thing is durability, and in
half a second, it’s a game changer.’ friction side of the engine, working on things 24-hour races that becomes a big issue.’
Porsche has introduced a Formula 1 style like bearing friction, oil system and so on. We
retained wheel nut system this year in a bid to could make a good step on the gas exchange Durable parts
speed up wheel changes. It is a risk, particularly and on the combustion side we made quite a Moser’s colleague, Thomas Kramer, leader of
with the new tyre rules that also encourage good step and that increases the efficiency of LMP1 engine design, says: ‘We just took the
sets to be kept together for a second stint, and the engine even with the given fuel flow. That is parts and applied them to the engine. That
a cross threaded nut would be particularly also a reason why we can make these steps.’ was the easy bit. The most difficult bit was the
problematic, but Porsche believed that this was Porsche has rather underplayed the durability and for doing this for 24 hours, for
the right time to introduce it. introduction of ‘jet ignition’, though, and is coy 6000 to 7000km, that’s the most challenging
about when the team started to use it, and [task] we had in the last few years or months.
ICE sage while Stefan Moser, leader of LMP1 engine ‘There are some components in the engine,
One of the major achievements of the race testing says ‘we have made the biggest step when you look at the conrod bearings they are
engine department is the development of ever this year,’ he didn’t provide too many details the first ones to suffer from the higher pressure,’
the exhaust heat recovery system. But the ICE as to what they have improved. ‘Obviously we Kramer adds. ‘The usual methods to solve these
has, by the team’s own admission, been the worked on combustion, as did everyone, and things don’t apply anymore. Diesel engines in
area of the most development. Seidl says: ‘The there was a lot of talk about ‘jet ignition’, and the past had higher pressure but with the revs

The sidepods are radically different to those of previous years

22 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
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LMP1 – PORSCHE 919 HYBRID

The engine team is particularly proud of the fact that the 919’s
intake is so small, and they can’t work out why it isn’t smaller
like a gasoline engine, and to combine these needs of the engine. ‘Formula 1 can develop
things, it was completely different. Therefore we their own blends,’ Kramer says. ‘We had to
had to work in new ways, and find out the hard find a compromise. Of course, because of the
way to get these things to work.’ knocking it is a different thing. You have more
freedom if you can do your own blend. From
Lean machine a design point of view, for us it is a maximum
Like the car itself the engine development is an load which occurs, and in the V4 the cylinder
evolutionary process, with higher compression pressure and load is very high. If you can spread
ratio, lean burn (which has been a feature of this on more cylinders it is easier.’
the engine since 2014 when a major step was Moser adds: ‘In terms of fuel, in Formula 1
taken that brought it close to the limit of the they have the fuel flow meter and can develop
window in which the engine can work without their fuel and they try to get more energy from
major redesign) and driving efficiency all at the every kilo, and this we couldn’t do. The MJ
centre of the development programme. ‘The per kilo is fixed but then we tried to optimise
lean burn is nothing new,’ says Moser. ‘We are the engine best for that fuel, so injector,
talking low numbers of per cent improvement, compression ratio and combustion chamber.’
but still you can optimise that level of how lean
the engine is with the BSFC [brake specific fuel Lag reduction
consumption]. We have been running lean since One other difference is that Formula 1 uses the
2014, and in 2014 we had changed this quite hybrid power to reduce turbo lag, but Porsche’s
dramatically and it took some time, but then we solution to the lag problem is a special design
have been at the level where we run as lean as for the compressor layout, which is very light
is most efficient and we couldn’t change much. and able to be made extremely small. The
That has not changed since jet ignition. We have turbo sits between the bank of cylinders while
been looking at this for a long time now. You the hot exhaust flows around the side of
always have to change the entire engine around the engine, and so is not the ‘hot side inside’
Much of the development has been focussed on the tiny V4 it. You cannot just put one thing up. You have to concept that was favoured by Audi.
internal combustion unit that sits at the heart of the 919, change the intake ports and exhaust otherwise An element of the design of which the
Porsche working on its reliability, performance and efficiency it doesn’t bring a benefit.’ engine department is particularly proud is the
development of the exhaust heat recovery
TECH SPEC Breathe easy system, which is all done in-house. ‘The heat
One of the key visual features of the car is the exchanger is done at Porsche from the
small air intake above the cockpit, particularly drawings to building it,’ says Kramer. ‘The
Porsche 919 Hybrid
when compared to that of Toyota. The engine whole process of building these, the balancing
Category: LMP1-H competing in the World Endurance Championship,
team is particularly proud of the fact that the of the shafts because this thing is turning at
including the Le Mans 24 Hour race
intake is so small and can’t work out why it isn’t high speed, and to bring this to a 24 hour race
Monocoque: Composite material structure consisting of
carbon fibre with an aluminium honeycomb core. smaller. The engine design work started in 2011, and be durable was a separate big challenge,
The cockpit is closed. before the regulations were fixed, and so it was but it was done in-house and it is something
Combustion engine: V4 engine (90-degree cylinder bank angle), originally designed for an air-restricted engine. that we are proud of. We did the turbine, the
turbocharged; 4 valves per cylinder; DOHC; one Garrett turbocharger; However, once the rules were finalised in 2012, housing, the electrical elements. It is all done
direct petrol injection; fully load-bearing aluminium cylinder
it was clear that there would be a fuel flow and developed here, and we test it, and do the
crankcase; dry sump lubrication. Displacement: 2-litre. Max revs:
9000rpm. Power 500bhp at rear axle. limit instead, and that meant the air was free balancing, so it is quite demanding. It has quite
Engine management: Bosch MS5 … which then led to a far larger turbo. Clever a high power output and from a weight point
Hybrid system: KERS with a motor generator unit (MGU) mounted design has reduced the size of the turbines, of view it is nothing. We are quite proud of this
on the front axle; ERS for recuperation of energy from exhaust which helps to reduce turbo lag. ‘For us, this and the whole team, from the mechanics to the
gases. Energy storage in a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery is efficient, no question,’ says Kramer. ‘For the guys building it, it is a nice chain.’
(with cells from A123 Systems). MGU power: 400 PS, front axle
bigger turbo, we had the AER, the exhaust heat When Porsche first returned to Le Mans in
Drive system: Rear-wheel-drive; traction control (ASR); temporary
recovery system. To package this in the rear is a 2014 there was a power struggle between the
all-wheel drive at the front axle via the electric motor when boosted;
hydraulically operated sequential 7-speed racing gearbox bit challenging. Christos [Pashias] wants a tight two VW brands competing. Porsche and Audi
Chassis: Independent front and rear wheel suspension; engine cover that tails off early in the line, so we were vying for overall technical development
pushrod system with adjustable dampers had to package everything [tightly]. The bigger rights for the group and while Audi bought
Brake system: Hydraulic dual-circuit brake system; monoblock turbo because of the change to the fuel flow in much of its technology other than the
light alloy brake calipers; ventilated carbon fibre brake discs meter did not make a big difference.’ diesel engine, Porsche was clearly geared up
(front and rear), infinitely variable control of the braking force
Another change that is coming to the to providing much more expertise in-house.
distribution by the driver
regulations involves the fuel supplier. Shell Perhaps this is why it is still in the WEC?
Wheels and tyres: Forged magnesium wheel rims from BBS;
Michelin Radial tyres, front and rear: 310/710-18 has supplied the fuel to the WEC as the sole As for Porsche’s own thoughts on its 2017
Dimensions: Length, 4650mm; Width, 1900mm; Height, 1050mm supplier, with fuel that is close to pump values, car, Seidl has the last word: ‘I am happy that
Weight: Minimum 875kg which has rather limited the power that can be we have achieved what we set out to achieve.
Fuel tank capacity: 62.3 litres developed compared to, say, Formula 1, where Whether that is enough, we will only find
the fuel blend can be adapted to the particular out on Sunday afternoon at Le Mans.’

24 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 FUELING
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9129 RCE magazine - half page 2017.pdf 3 17/05/2017 3:34:00 p.m.

1237-AutoSport-FuelingInno_190x135-HP.indd 1 3/21/17 9:42 AM

FORMULA 1 – HAAS VF-17

Haas will be reflecting on a decent start to its

Classy
second season, where it has built on its first year
form to cement its position in the F1 midfield

Chaassis
While its links with Ferrari are well known
Haas relies on another Italian motorsport
W
hen Gene Haas announced
that he was going to enter F1
it was immediately clear that
the machine tool entrepreneur
was going to do things differently. Eschewing
the traditional route of building all but engine
and transmission, Haas and his team principal
Guenther Steiner decided to take advantage

legend to help it shape its chassis – of a discrete change in the rules, and build the
minimum amount of bespoke components
Racecar examines the unique approach allowed, namely monocoque, front crash
structure and bodywork. Everything else would
Haas and Dallara have taken with the come from Ferrari and would be largely identical
to that used on its own racecars.
very capable VF-17’s monocoque Yet even those bespoke Haas parts were
outsourced somewhat with the team forming
By SAM COLLINS
a partnership with Dallara in order to help
manufacture and design them. A technical team
headed by former Red Bull Racing man Rob
Taylor was set up with operations in Kannapolis,

26 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 TECH SPEC

Haas VF-17
Chassis: carbon fibre and honeycomb composite structure.
Carbon fibre bodywork.
Engine: Ferrari 062, turbocharged 1.6 litre V6; max revs 15,000rpm
Suspension: Independent suspension, push-rod activated torsion
springs front and rear. Sachs dampers.
Transmission: Ferrari servo-controlled hydraulic limited-slip differential
with semi-automatic sequential and electronically-controlled gearbox,
quick shift (eight gears, plus reverse).
Clutch: AP Racing.
Steering: Ferrari.
Brakes: carbon-fibre disc brakes, pads and 6-piston calipers
Cockpit: instrumentation, Ferrari; seatbelts, Sabelt;
steering wheel, Ferrari.
Wheels: OZ Racing
Tyres: Pirelli P Zero
Fuel cell: ATL
Full and lubricants: Shell
Weight: 782kg (including driver)

In F1 there is the temptation to be the arch

conservative as you don’t want to mess up a
monocoque. It is on the time-line and if you get
it wrong you are in a world of pain, but Dallara
are doing things which when you first see you
think are really risky, but they have done it
hundreds of times and have total confidence.

‘You go to Dallara They have evolved from a completely different

place, a different mentality to what is normal

and there are rows and I find it really enlightening at times. Some of
the techniques they use are really cutting edge

of chassis, they and extremely good. But they have come at that
from making chassis for the last 50 years, their

stand them on end, ability and confidence level, which might seem
marginal to a typical F1 team, is really high.’

like the guards at Haas you like it

Despite the unique set up of the Haas team with
Buckingham Palace’ some staff working in the USA, others in England
and Italy, it is clear Taylor values the input and
face to face time he has with some of the Dallara
engineers. ‘It is how design works. I can walk in
USA, Banbury, UK, and at Ferrari and Dallara’s different way of working. ‘Our chassis don’t to see Luca Pignacca (Dallara’s chief designer)
factories in Italy. In terms of the design of the get stacked like those spec series racecars do, and chat to him, and we can exchange ideas.
chassis it is very much a joint effort between the we have our own special area of the factory. That is the Holy Grail really of factory design, you
Haas engineers and those at Dallara. We have our own assembly area and stores. have the aero guys sitting with the structures
‘Dallara does all the chassis manufacturing,’ It would be too difficult to work through the guys and the suspension team or whatever, and
Taylor explains. ‘Of course, every one knows it is main Dallara stores, as you can imagine there they can all chat to one another,’ Taylor says.
a big organisation, but it makes loads of chassis, is just loads of stuff in there, so our parts are ‘There are things that Dallara does on other cars
I mean loads. For me it is really alien walking channelled separately,’ Taylor says. which we can learn from, that’s the core of it. I
into the factory, I don’t think I’ve ever worked But this does not mean that Dallara’s wealth don’t mean we just go and nick the design of
anywhere which has made more than five of knowledge in constructing competition the Super Formula bulkhead, or whatever, but
chassis, or at least that being the plan before cars cannot be applied to the Haas F1 project. the concepts, the principles, the spark of an
drivers shunted some and wrote them off. It’s Indeed according to Taylor it allows the team idea, that all feeds in. It is an interactive process,
come down in recent years, too, without testing; to use some manufacturing techniques that and good design engineers have a catalogue of
now we only make three. But you go to Dallara its rivals would probably not even consider. good ideas in their heads and when they all sit
and there are rows of them, they stand them ‘The way our tub is laid up is similar to Dallara’s together they can exchange those ideas. Dallara
on end, like the guards at Buckingham Palace: normal process, similar but at the same time has a wealth of those ideas.’
GP3, GP2, Super Formula, LMP, F3, IndyCar, Indy different. The real eye-opener for me was This approach worked reasonably well in
Lights, Formula E, it is astonishing.’ that Dallara have come at manufacturing 2016 with the team scoring points on its race
While Dallara is used to mass producing monocoques from a completely different debut and ultimately ending up eighth in the
tubs for spec series Formula 1 requires a rather perspective than anything I have done before. constructors’ championship. However, the new

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 27

FORMULA 1 – HAAS VF-17

The Haas VF-17 is packed with Ferrari parts including the gearbox. This reliance on The real ace up the Haas team’s sleeve is its 2017 spec Ferrari power unit based around
Ferrari ties the hands of the Haas design team early in the process, to a certain extent the V6 ICE, a very potent package this year. The PU is seen here in the Scuderia’s SF70H

Brakes have been the headline issue for Haas thus far this season. The team has Haas chassis is made by Dallara. The famed Italian concern is well-known for its one-make
experimented with different suppliers but the problem has yet to be fully resolved lower formula racecars but Haas has found its experience and nous to be invaluable in F1

season would be a very different challenge for track running but more for how it crashes. look to see where you can make improvements.
to that debut year, not least because of new By that I mean you design your monocoque for The drive in the past was to always make
technical regulations which increased both the strength component and you throw in the everything ever-stiffer, but that was the less
aerodynamic and mechanical grip. This meant stiffness where you think you have a problem. informed way of doing things. Techniques
that the loads going through the chassis would There are certain pickup points which are quite and materials were getting better and better
be significantly increased in turn, but the sensitive to stiffness, but most of them are so you could increase stiffness and efficiency,
trouble was nobody was quite certain exactly strength derived. You need to make sure that too. But we don’t have a historical database
what those loads would be. Tyre manufacturer if you have an accident the suspension arms to refer back to, so we have to rely a bit on
Pirelli was unable to test its 2017 tyres on cannot punch through, you need to make sure experience floating around in your head, and
representative cars in 2016, so its tyre data was that the chassis is stronger than the wishbone other cars that Dallara are doing.
really an estimation at best. It meant that every and that is a strength derived thing, not stiffness’
F1 team faced the choice of designing parts to Taylor feels that some engineers in Forza habit
deal with the highest possible load cases, and motorsport, especially some of the younger Designing a chassis to uncertain loads was not
risk being overweight if the loads were lower ones, misunderstand the difference between the only challenge for Haas, for its approach
than expected. Or designing to a lower set of strength and stiffness. ‘So here is the thing, of utilising a substantial amount of parts from
loads, but run the risk of mechanical failure. strength and stiffness are two different things Ferrari means that its engineers do not have full
and a lot of engineers glaze over at this. Lots control over all elements of the car’s design. ‘In
Strong or stiff? of people say make it stronger and what they lots of ways, working with Ferrari is just more of
‘From our perspective it was quite difficult to mean is make it stiffer. The vehicle dynamics the same, every customer team has some black
calculate things for this year,’ Taylor says. ‘We guys may say that if you make the chassis this box design to a greater or lesser extent,’ Taylor
had some idea of the suspension loads but it stiff then you can use this or that type of spring says. ‘The engine, transmission, driveshaft has
wasn’t entirely clear. What you find though is as it is a spring-series system. But it is a historical been common for at least a decade. Going back
that you are designing your monocoque not data thing, you look at previous designs and further people would just buy in a Hewland, or

‘Good design engineers have a catalogue of good ideas in their

heads, and when they all sit together they can exchange those ideas’
28 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
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FORMULA 1 – HAAS VF-17

Front wishbone is just one of the Ferrari-supplied components. VF-17 features Haas has a machined aluminium front bulkhead which carries some of the inboard front
pushrod-activated torsion springs front and rear. Damping comes courtesy of Sachs suspension, although the torsion bars are mounted above and behind the main bulkhead

Haas has carried over its 2016 roll hoop but the charge cooling layout has changed, The power unit installation in the VF-17. The way Haas has worked with Ferrari has been
with now just a single duct within the hoop. Lower duct behind it cools electrical parts an undoubted success, to the extent that other teams are looking at using this approach

a bit later get Xtrac to bespoke it. Now we get impacts the pattern work for the chassis,’ Taylor layout at the rear. Ferrari’s V6 power unit is fully
the suspension, the steering and some fiddly adds. ‘If you want to move a suspension pickup stressed and drives the rear wheels via the
bits around the edges that nobody ever talks point on the tub you will be typically talking Italian team’s transmission, which features a
about, like the electronic boxes. Strangely, they about a millimetre here or there, but the fuel composite casing. The cooling system is largely
are the most challenging thing to deal with. The system really does have a big impact. The a carry over from the VF-16 with a distinctive
suspension, for example, is not so difficult, you chassis guys and fuel system guys in Maranello V shape arrangement of heat exchangers in
could think of it this way; that our suspension are working together, but for us at Dallara we the sidepod, something that is also a feature of
designers are down in Maranello and not here only get to see it with some latency, so we have Ferrari’s 2016 and 2017 designs.
with us, but there is feedback from us to them to commit at some point. That is a risk we have ‘The cooling system is different to 2016 but
and they do change bits to suit our needs. It’s to take. That said, fitting the fuel system is a still reasonably similar, the charge air cooling
a bit less than you would get in a normal team whole lot easier now than it used to be as we layout has changed a bit, for example,’ Taylor
set-up, but we can request small things and now have a big opening in the bottom of the says. ‘I think we have what Ben Agethangelou
sometimes they say yes, other times no. tub to put the battery in. But in the past I think [head of aerodynamics] would call a reasonably
‘Fixings for the steering rack, for example, we some teams used to try to install the fuel tank coherent solution. I think this year we are
can influence them,’ Taylor continues. ‘In terms through the filler opening!’ working on what our prediction was, but the
of the lead times we do take a bit more of a risk information we had changed a bit after testing.
as we start off manufacturing the monocoque Smart Haas With the tyres performance differing a bit to
at the very same time as they do, pretty much, The result of all the work rolled out for the first what we expected the engine performance is
but we are working to information that we are time at Barcelona just before the start of winter different too, so that effects your lap average
aware could change subtly. testing. The VF-17 was at first glance a fairly and end of straight temperatures.’
‘Having the chassis guys talking to the conventional design with pushrod actuated The VF-17 is not all Ferrari derived though,
fuel cell guys is a big one for us, as that greatly torsion bar suspension at the front and a pullrod and it has some interesting features of its own.

‘Dallara have come at manufacturing monocoques from a completely

different perspective to anything I have seen before in Formula 1’
30 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
FORMULA 1 – HAAS VF-17

The Haas VF-17 has slavishly followed Formula 1’s fashion for 2017 with a shark fin, The cooling system is largely a carry-over from the VF-16 with a distinctive V shape
while it has also topped this off with one of the controversial, and wobbly, T-bars arrangement of heat exchangers in the sidepod; a feature of Ferrari’s 2017 car, too

‘Also, we found that the wear was very high.

We looked into it to see if we could survive a
race, but we realised we could not. Therefore,
the decision was taken to go back onto the
Brembo material. Romain Grosjean was pretty
happy with the latest iteration of Brembo
material. Kevin Magnussen liked the Carbon
Industrie better, because the bite is better. He
just has a better feeling with that material.
Everybody needs to understand that this is a
very sophisticated brake system and it is not
easy to fix. The obvious question, and rightly
people ask, is that it cannot be this difficult to fix
a brake. It actually is. It isn’t easy. This is because
they’re highly complicated technologies.’
Taylor adds: ‘Trouble, issues or problems
are generic terms, what is the actual trouble,
how do you know? Because the drivers are
Haas uses Ferrari wind tunnel and not its own Windshear facility (as advertised on endplate) as full scale testing is banned complaining. The brakes are very high up on
the list of things affecting the drivers’ mental
As was the case with the VF-16 the car is fitted if we wanted a particular component to end well-being, so it is important to get things
with a machined aluminium front bulkhead. This up with effect No.64 you have to do this, the working as they want, but there is a 24 week
carries some of the inboard front suspension information we get tells us that – what it lead-time on brake material. Your choices are
components, though the torsion bars are does not tell us is why we might want or not very limited in that area.’
mounted in a composite section above and want to do it. That is down to us to work out.’ ‘I think it is important to say that the
behind the main bulkhead. brakes are not exactly the same as Ferrari, and
In terms of suspension components most Haasta la vista the process that goes into bringing them to
of them are supplied by Ferrari and the Haas One area where Haas has begun to deviate the car is different,’ Taylor says. ‘Some of the
engineers have to make the best use of what slightly from the Ferrari SF70H parts is with the part numbers are obviously the same, but
they are given. ‘The front suspension is 90 per brake material. During the 2016 season the Haas the understanding of the parts, the ability to
cent the same as the Ferrari SF70H, but the way drivers complained about brake performance tune them around and the base knowledge is
it mounts to the chassis is different, some of and that was something that continued into different between the two teams.’
the interfaces are different and we make some 2017. Curiously, it is not something that seems Despite the brake issues Haas has started
of our own bits. Some of the internal parts we to have troubled the Ferrari drivers. At the the 2017 season reasonably well and scored
fiddle around with for adjustability purposes Russian GP Haas found itself swapping between points in three out of the first five races. But
to get what we want out of them too,’ Taylor friction material suppliers to try to improve this. perhaps a greater measure of its success is that
says. ‘In terms of hardware and the catalogue ‘We started off with Carbone Industrie the establishment of Haas F1 as a solid midfield
of settings and the way the part reacts to those brakes in Sochi but we weren’t getting enough runner has resulted in speculation that another
settings, yes we get that information from cooling for them, and if you don’t cool them existing, or even new, team, is poised to adopt
Ferrari. But what we don’t get is why would we enough, you overheat the brake itself and the the same approach to Formula1 car build
want to set it in this way or that. For example, pedal gets long,’ Guenther Steiner explains. as the American-owned outfit.

‘Everybody needs to understand that this is a very sophisticated

braking system and it is not an easy thing for us to fix’
32 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017
DTM – TECHNICAL INSIGHT

Playing by

The DTM has drafted new regulations to help

reduce the budgets and spice up the action

S
uperficially, the DTM has been in a to help reduce budgets and spice up the action. it has also worked at closing loopholes in other
good place in recent years. In BMW, Meanwhile, the three manufacturers have, for areas. The series has also adopted ‘aggressive
Mercedes and Audi, it’s had three their part, also looked to cut costs, and have aerodynamic stylings’, while reducing
prestigious manufacturers involved, opted to drop from running eight cars each to downforce and increasing the power output in
while it’s enjoyed championship battles that, six, reducing the car count to 18 – its lowest order to create a greater spectacle.
more often than not, gone down to the wire, since 2011, when only Audi and Mercedes All in all this has created a whole new set
producing tense conclusions. were involved. There have been changes to of issues for its manufacturers to respond to in
Yet, despite all of the above, criticisms the sporting regulations, too. Both races over a 2017. We looked in detail at Audi’s new RS5 DTM
regarding the on-track product and also that weekend now last for 55 minutes plus one lap. challenger in May’s issue of Racercar (V27N5),
familiar motorsport bugbear of rising costs, have Controversially, the DTM has also introduced but in this feature we will investigate how its
forced the series to draft updated regulations several control parts into the regulations while rivals have also met the challenge of DTM 2017.

34 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

the rules
Racecar takes an in-depth look at how
the manufacturers in the DTM have risen
to the challenge of the new regulations in
Europe’s fastest tin top series
By LEIGH O’GORMAN

BMW M4 ‘The BMW M4 DTM now generates over 500bhp specific and quite extreme. Therefore, carry-
Since 2014, the basis of the BMW DTM has been of engine power, while the aerodynamics have over on component level is rather limited.
the M4, and it remains the base car this year. also been subject to extensive modifications. The main synergies we generate these days
Rudolf Dittrich, general manager of racecar Innovative technology was used when between road car and racecar development
development at BMW, explained the rule manufacturing components. The diffuser is now are methodologies, tools and advanced
changes: ‘The DTM regulations were updated shorter and the plank height has been increased development areas; where we can take
with the aim of creating more action on track in line with regulations,’ Dittrich tells us. more risks, exploit limits, and feedback our
and focusing the attention even more around The nature of the new regulations means findings to partnering departments within
the driver. In light of the new regulations, the very little has been carried over from the road the BMW Group,’ says Dittrich.
BMW M4 DTM has been given a work-over and going car, but some concepts do cross over. Although DTM is, to all-intents-and-
undergone significant development,’ he says. ‘The requirements for the racecar are very purposes, silhouette touring car racing, its

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 35

DTM – TECHNICAL INSIGHT

‘There is a very precisely defined trade-off between engine coolant

temperature, engine power and external aero with this racecar’
aggressive stance with regards to aerodynamic another car, for example by raising the car with a the splitter to integrate the resulting flow
regulations ensure manufacturers can go 5mm increase of plank thickness.’ structure in the overall car concept. ‘These
beyond the standard touring car profile, The regulations have also introduced a strakes can also be used to influence the pitch
creating striking cars that create large amounts number of control parts to the series in order to sensitivity of the racecar,’ he says.
of downforce – although this has the more reduce R&D costs. However, there is still some The new regulations also reduce the effect
negative knock-on effect of stifling overtaking. small room for manoeuvre. ‘The front splitter of the side mirrors somewhat – an element
‘With aero being so apparent and almost became a standard part, so not only is the basic of development that many in DTM felt had
the dominant aspect, the development rate shape defined by the regulations, but they become excessive in recent years – by creating a
and resulting implications need to be carefully are produced by the same supplier for all cars. common housing and glass for the mirror.
monitored,’ says Dittrich. ’To allow overtaking, Even the splitter fixation has become common
despite the severe aero levels, changes were to avoid teams benefiting from advantageous Rear aero
made to the latest iteration of the regulations deflections,’ Dittrich says, adding that As well as the wooden plank now being
to address the implications when following manufacturers can still add flat elements to thicker, other components of the floor have
also become standard parts. Meanwhile, the
rear diffuser has a completely new shape and
is shorter and flatter than that of the previous
M4 DTM racecar. Dittrich also confirms that the
rear diffuser is one of the big contributors to
reducing overall downforce, while also nullifying
the amount of dirty air that pours from the rear
of the machine. He tells us: ‘As the rear diffuser
has changed, the rear wheel arches were
adapted to the resulting flow structure and the
revised aero targets for the vehicle. This resulted
in us opening the rear wheel arch venting duct
for the first time since 2012.’
The new rear wing has been designed with
DRS as an in-built concept. This differs from
the original DRS on the DTM cars, which was
effectively designed into an already existing
The new DTM regulations have resulted in slightly heavier suspension systems. Pictured here is the BMW M4 on the test rig rear wing. This makes the work at the rear of the

The front splitter is now a standard part in DTM. Other aerodynamic changes include a 5mm increase in plank thickness plus more control components on the floor area of the car

36 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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DTM – TECHNICAL INSIGHT

car one of the most recognisable changes to the

2017 racers, a single element wing having been
replaced by a double element rear wing, which
features a more powerful DRS as the upper
element now rotates by up to 40 degrees. The
wing also features a generally wider adjustment
range and, unlike before, the end plates no
longer rotate with the wing on DRS activation.
While Dittrich acknowledges that a large
portion of the downforce has been lost from the
M4 DTM because of the changes, he was not
willing to tell us the percentage of that loss.

Power hike
The engine powering the M4 DTM remains the
same 4.0-litre V8 unit that has been present
in the DTM for many years, but the two air
restrictors have been widened from 28mm
to 29mm, increasing the power output to
BMWs old and new. The new, to the rear of the picture, is supposed to be more aggressive looking. Among the changes to approximately 500bhp. But while the output
the regulations is a common wing mirror housing after aero development in this area got a bit out of hand in recent seasons is greater, Dittrich is not overly worried about
any extra stresses on the unit. ‘The base engine
is robust enough that it didn’t require updates.
The power increase also comes with increased
revs, so the internal stress remains unchanged, it
just occurs more often, which is not necessarily
increasing the mechanical stress on the engine.
Apart from the adaptation for the revised gas
exchange, only the head gasket was updated.’
As the engine requires slightly more
cooling, the air intakes towards the front of
the racecar were modified and the dimension
and packaging was adapted to the new
requirements. ‘There is a very precisely defined
trade-off between engine coolant temperature,
engine power and external aero,’ Dittrich says.
‘After establishing the respective sensitivities,
targets could be derived for each of the
parameters and then they could be optimised.’
No updates were necessary for the
gearbox, as the original book of requirements
included scope for a power increase when this
was developed, but the driveshaft has been
modified to compensate for new uprights.
Mercedes initially homologated its C63 for DTM last year and so did not design from a new base car as did Audi and BMW The brake materials have been updated, and
the DTM manufacturers have now adopted the
material specification from the Japanese firms
The engine remains TECH SPEC competing in the GT500 class of Super GT –
these brakes are manufactured by AP Racing.

the same 4-litre V8 BMW M4 DTM

Chassis: Carbon-fibre monocoque. Mercedes C63
unit that has been Engine: BMW Power P66 4.0-litre (244 cu. Inch) V8, 90-degree
naturally aspirated, front-engined, longitudinally mounted.
Unlike Audi and BMW, Mercedes initially
homologated the C63 coupe for the 2016
Power: 500bhp (approx).
present in the DTM Transmission: Hewland 6-speed sequential semi-automatic gearbox
season, meaning its machine could only be
updated, rather than reintroduced, as Herbert
Suspension: Pushrod with double wishbones
for many years coupled with Sachs dampers
Brakes: AP Racing carbon brakes
Hugle, head of Racecar Development at
Mercedes AMG, explains. ‘Our base car is the
C-Coupe, which is called the C205. The baseline
Fuel: Aral Ultimate 102 ROM
for this car was given in 2016, so we have to
Lubricants: Shell Helix
work around the given shape – we are just
Tyres: Hankook Ventus
allowed to scale the general shape, because the
Wheels: ATS forged aluminium wheels.
goal of the DTM regulations is that the frontal
Dimensions: Length, 4775mm; Width, 1950mm;
area, length, width and height is the same.’
Height, 1200mm; Wheelbase, 2750mm
So, while Hugle and his team scaled the
Weight: 1120kg (including driver)
C63, they were unable to influence the base

38 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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DTM – TECHNICAL INSIGHT

The clutch is also a control part and teams are

limited to three clutches per driver per season

DTM now has an F1-style DRS system and the rear wing is a single element device rather than the double element wing of previous seasons. The diffuser is now shorter and flatter

car; however the Mercedes-man says the C205 5mm of more ride height.’ Hugle says, adding
was already a good base for the C63. The design that another goal was to avoid damage to the
line – a sector split by an imaginary line that underfloor when runing over kerbs. ‘The 5mm
runs along the top of the wheel arches and ride height gives you at least 50 per cent less
approximately halfway of door’s height that wear on the parts under the car, and these are
regulates the areas that can receive ‘additional the most expensive and sensitive parts.’
development’ – is the same as in previous years.
The overall level of aerodynamic Aero balance
development has continued to rise, though, The C63 also has a shallower rear diffuser in an
with Hugle citing the intricate louvres in the attempt to control the aero balance along the
front ‘mudguards’ as a good example of this, car. Hugle confirms that this was a reaction to
while he adds that this development has the loss of downforce at the front of the car,
also improved the aesthetics of the car. ‘That prompting an adjustment of rear downforce to
Drivers have more power to play with this season following a aero development, especially the amount of keep the balance within a certain percentage.
decision to increase the size of the two air restrictors from CFD we have now put in, is growing more and When the previous set of technical
28mm to 29mm. This brings power levels up to about 500bhp more, and that’s why the car looks fantastic and regulations were introduced in 2012, the rear
a bit aggressive,’ he tells us. wing was not designed with DRS in mind, so
As mentioned, the control parts are when added a year later, the concept was rather
common designs agreed by all three of the makeshift. ‘Last year when we used the DRS,
manufacturers. With a new DRS system as the whole wing was turning. It was not as
well, Hugle says ‘the aero balance has changed effective and not as nice from a visual point
completely from last year’s car.’ of view,’ says Hugle. ‘We decided for the new
DTM to have a fixed main wing and we use
TECH SPEC Fenced off DRS simply on the [top] flap, so it is close to the
Although the front splitter itself is a control part, Formula 1 design. There is more efficiency in the
Mercedes C63 DTM there is room for development around the area, DRS now and this was the goal.’
Chassis: Carbon-fibre monocoque/. although it is still relatively limited. Hugle says Hugle admits that areas, such as around
Engine: Mercedes-Benz AMG 4.0-litre (244 cu. Inch) V8, that fences are allowed on certain areas and and inside the rear wheel arches, remain very
90-degree naturally aspirated, front-engined, that the number of fences is not regulated, but sensitive, but he did tell Racecar that: ‘The air
longitudinally-mounted, Power: 500bhp (approx). adds: ‘The area where you can put them and the which is entering the rear wheelarch is led by a
Transmission: Hewland 6-speed sequential semi-automatic gearbox total amount of surface is regulated and, as well, ‘diffuserino’, as we call it, and the goal is to bleed
Suspension: Double wishbones with H&R spring/damper there is an area on the outer side of the front the rear wheelarch as much as possible.’
units to front and rear axles, actuated by pushrods.
diffuser where we are allowed to put on some
Brakes: AP Racing carbon brakes with 6-piston calipers and pads.
Fuel: Aral Ultimate 102 ROM.
geometry, but if you move the geometry, you Bigger restrictors
must still see the shape of the control part.’ One of the biggest changes for Mercedes has
Lubricants: Petronas Syntium 700.
As mentioned earlier, the underfloor has been the decision by the DTM to increase the
Tyres: Hankook Ventus.
been raised by 5mm in the regulations, with two air restrictors from 28mm to 29mm, and
Wheels: ATS forged aluminium. the C63 using a spacer underneath the wooden while this alteration sounds minor, Hugle claims
Dimensions: Length, 5010mm; Width, 1950mm; plank. ‘The goal of this was to reduce the aero it will prove significant. ‘The goal was to give
Height, 1210mm; Wheelbase, 2750mm.
downforce by about 25 per cent overall and the drivers more power. This 1mm more in
Weight: 1120kg (including driver).
the big amount of aero loss is through this diameter gives you about 25 to 30bhp more, so

40 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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DTM – TECHNICAL INSIGHT

‘The aero balance has changed completely from last year’s car’
the latest version of the DTM engine is around far as putting that power down on to the track is and while there remains some variability in
500bhp.’ Hugle also reveals that his design team concerned, there are no changes to the gearbox terms of set-up, the new suspension also comes
was allowed to modify parts of the air intake or differential, although the propshaft has been with disadvantages, Hugle tells us. ‘On our
and adapt the rest of the engine to the higher modified slightly. The clutch is also a control side, it is no secret this is a disadvantage from
output. ‘This was the main focus of the winter component and teams are now limited to three a weight point of view, so the weight of the
to develop the cooling and get the maximum clutches per driver per season. suspension increased just a bit. This is normal
cooling with the minimum aero influence.’ when you design for three manufacturers
Unfortunately, Hugle is unable to tell us the Suspension control some control parts, and you have to consider
torque numbers, except to say the revs are ‘a There are also new regulations regarding all the needs from all the manufacturers, it
little bit higher, so the torque is also increasing suspension systems in the DTM. At one stage, normally turns out to be a bigger part and
a bit’. Despite the increase in power output, like the suspension was one of the very few it is normally a heavier part, too.’
Dittrich at BMW, Hugle is also confident there is completely open areas in the regulations, but Hugle tells us that one of the goals for
no issue with the reliability of the 4-litre V8. As this now falls under the banner of control parts the suspension was that it is should survive
25,000km of running – that’s approximately
Blanket coverage three seasons – whereas previous concepts
were designed for 5000km.
Control tyre supplier Hankook has produced a new soft compound race tyre for the
DTM in 2017. The championship has also stopped using tyre blankets this season Set-up freedoms
Of the set-up options, Hugle points out that,
‘there is still a big level of variability, because
from the kinematic point-of-view, we have a lot
of options to move the wishbone points, the
rocker points and the casters. There are a lot of
opportunities, especially with the new common
third element at the front of the car, it gives you
a lot of ways to set up [the suspension].’
As mentioned above the brakes are control
parts. ‘We had to improve these parts, because
the speed is higher,’ Hugle says. ‘When we have
a look at the lap times at [the last pre-season]
test in Hockenheim, we talk about two seconds
[quicker] per lap – and this is quite a lot. The
brake material itself is the same, so there were
no big modifications there.
‘The air for the brakes is completely from
the sidepod area. It is not allowed to have it
channelled from underneath the car to the
brakes, [so] the brake air and the hub air is from
the sidepod area,’ Hugle says.

O
ne of the biggest changes to the 2017 DTM the qualifying session also will make a bigger impact Testing of the 2017 C63 DTM car went very
season is the reworked tyre compounds from on the performance in the race than it did in the past.’ well for Mercedes, with its updated machine
Hankook. After multi-compound weekends Audi’s DTM Project Leader Stefan Gugger explains completing some 19,000km over its three-
were dropped at the end of 2015, the South Korean how things have now changed for the drivers and winter tests. Hugle also believes there are many
manufacturer delivered a hard compound for 2016, engineers. ‘The focus [in testing] was to understand positives on the horizon, thanks to this intensive
which, while generally allowing drivers to push the new tyre, because it is completely different. We are testing: ‘I think we never tested as many
through stints, also ensured races where tyre wear was running without blankets and therefore the peak grip kilometres as we did this winter season. This
less of an issue and track position became king. is quite high in the first two or three laps and then you was one of the goals of the development
This year Hankook has produced a soft compound have to manage the drop.’ Degradation of the tyre is set during the winter season, to get as much
tyre for each weekend in an attempt to increase to be quite high and will force teams to find a suitable data as possible around the tyres.
strategy options and create dynamics of variable set-up compromise between qualifying and the race. ‘The conclusion is I think we improved a lot
wear throughout races. Of the two races over a DTM Gugger continues: ‘Driving style is a very important our reliability of the whole racecar,’ Hugle adds.
weekend, both are now scheduled to last 55 minutes thing. The driver has to feel [the grip], maybe more ‘So we have fewer safety critical failures in
plus one lap, with one mandatory stop in each. than with the old tyre, but still he has to go for the the car and as well, we collected a lot of data
Hankook’s DTM race engineer, Thomas Baltes, says: maximum, and this will be very difficult this year.’ around the tyre and this was the main goal of
‘Despite the unchanged dimensions the new DTM Herbert Hugle at Mercedes says that the this big amount of testing.’
dry-weather tyres are a complete redevelopment. The withdrawal of blankets will play a large role. ‘It is the At the first event of the DTM season at
drivers and engineers who are particularly good when first time that we will not use tyre blankets in the DTM, Hockenheim both races had cars from all three
it comes to running the tyre in to get it to its optimum so this is a big challenge for all the engineering team manufacturers on the podium. Which seems
temperature area as fast as possible without a too and also for the driver. Maybe more for the driver to suggest, that when it comes to the racing at
aggressive approach will have a clear advantage in the because he is the one who has to take care of the tyres, least, the DTM might be on the right track
2017 season. And the way the tyres are dealt with in especially when they are cold and low pressure.’ with these new regulations.

42 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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RETROSPECTIVE – LE MANS TECHNOLOGY

Proving ground
It’s not just about finishing first at Le Mans, sometimes it’s about being
the first too. Racecar looks back at some of the emerging technologies
that have been tested in the 24-Hour classic over the years
By SERGE VANBOCKRYCK

The 4-cylinder 1.1-litre Tracta-SCAP was the first front-wheel-drive car to race at Le Mans in 1927. It finished in seventh overall, 40 laps down on the winning Bentley (ACO Archive)

B
ack in 1923, almost a century ago, the Nissan unique had already been tried and this time equipped with 1-litre engines packing
Le Mans had been conceived first tested many times before at Le Mans. Indeed, Cozette superchargers, the first time blown
and foremost as a 24-hour challenge all pre-war competitors and many post-war engines ran at Le Mans. The Tractas weren’t the
for automobile manufacturers to vehicles, were front-engined. The first front- only ones to look for extra horses in 1929. So,
showcase their products and put them to the wheel-drive car to enter Le Mans, however, was too, did the American Stutz company – which
ultimate test. Now, 84 editions later, this still is Jean-Albert Gregoire’s Tracta in 1927. With its supercharged the big 8-cylinder, 5.3-litre engine
very much the case, and in that respect Nissan’s 1100cc, 4-cylinder engine made by the Societe of its Stutz DV32 – and British car maker Alvis,
much-publicised 2015 campaign, though de Construction Automobile Parisienne, or adding a supercharger to the 1.5-litre engine of
ultimately flawed, was spot-on: front-engined, SCAP, Gregoire and Lucien Lemesle finished a its 12/75. Guy Boriat and Philippe de Rothschild
front-wheel-drive cars were what they sold competitive seventh overall with the car, albeit brought their Stutz home in fifth overall behind
most, while hybrid power was the future. 40 laps down on the winning Bentley. four Bentleys, while the first Tracta finished
Though never in combination with each Two years later, Pierre Fenaille – Gregoire’s in ninth and the sole Alvis retired. The first
other, all three of the features which made business partner at Tracta – entered four cars, supercharged Le Mans victory was inked in

44 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 The Delettrez brothers’
entry had power provided
by a 4.4-litre straight-six
91bhp diesel engine from
a US Army GMC truck

Left: In 1952 the Mercedes 300SL was the first

closed-cockpit car to win Le Mans. The gullwing
featured sleek aluminium bodywork and a
lightweight aluminium spaceframe (ACO Archive)

The Mazda rotary engine made its Le Mans debut in the back of a Chevron in 1970 but it was later seen in the first Japanese racecar at La Sarthe, the Sigma (above), in 1973 (DPPI)

the books just two years later when Lord Howe for prototypes for the first time. Despite the fact brothers hoped to compensate for the racecar’s
and Sir Henry Birkin beat a similarly-engined that economically Europe was still very much lack of power and speed with some fabulous fuel
Mercedes-Benz SSK in their privately-run Alfa in ruins and supplies were short, the race still economy, but they had to retire after some 20
Romeo 8C 2300 Tipo Le Mans. attracted 49 cars. Some were brand-new, such hours of racing … when they ran out of fuel.
as the winning Ferrari 149 MM. Some were That same year another concept – and make
Out of the ashes adapted pre-war concoctions showing the – made its debut when Camille Hardy entered
The rest of the pre-war period saw few technical creativity of the entrants, such as the car of the his personal Renault 4CV, the French version of
innovations, but following a 10-year break Delettrez brothers, Jean and Jacques. They used the German Volkswagen concept. Renault tried
because of the Second World War and its a pre-war Unic chassis in combination with hard to prevent the entry, arguing the Le Mans
aftermath, the 24 Hours was run again in 1949. Delahaye 145 bodywork of the same vintage 24 Hours was too grueling an exercise for the tiny
The ACO, in an attempt to attract as many teams and had power provided by a 4.4-litre, straight- sedan with its signature suicide doors, rear-wheel-
as possible, had done away with production six, 91bhp diesel engine from a US army GMC drive and small 747cc, 4-cylinder, air-cooled
quota for the cars, thus opening up the race truck, the first time a diesel raced at Le Mans. The engine mounted at the rear, but to no avail.

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 45

 RETROSPECTIVE – LE MANS TECHNOLOGY

Come the mid to late 1960s aerodynamics was the new buzzword, and
few had embraced it as wholeheartedly as Chaparral’s Jim Hall
Despite running a 4-speed gearbox instead of earlier. The small sportscar won its class first performance if the XK 120 S was turned into a
the standard 3-speed version, the little Renault time out and a Le Mans legend was born. proper racecar. Thus the 1951 C-types featured
blew its engine after seven hours of racing. The year Porsche made its debut, the a more powerful engine; a streamlined body
However, another manufacturer would soon race was won by the Jaguar XK 120 C – more made of aluminium instead of pressed-steel
make the rear-engined concept its trademark: commonly known as the C-type – driven by and, for the first time, a steel spaceframe chassis,
in 1951, a small family-owned German make by Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead. Jaguar which was stiffer than a conventional chassis.
the name of Porsche entered the race. Like the boss William Lyons had been buoyed by the The spaceframe concept had already been
Renault 4CV, its nimble 1.1-litre Type 365 coupe performance of a trio of near-standard looked into by the aeronautical world at the turn
was also based on the Volkswagen concept, XK 120 S roadsters he had entered in 1950 of the century, but it was Ferdinand Porsche
which the company had developed 15 years and figured he could seriously improve their who had first used it in racing when he designed
the Cisitalia F1 car for an Italian customer in
1947. But the car never raced, so it was left
to Jaguar to prove the theory four years later.
Lyons’ strategy worked to perfection and it beat
a pair of Aston Martins and a couple of Talbot-
Lagos by between nine and 11 laps.
The following year Mercedes entered
the legendary gullwing 300SL with a sleek
aluminium bodywork and a lightweight
aluminium spaceframe. It won, at the same time
scoring the first win for a closed cockpit car.

Disc drive
Defeated by Mercedes as much as by a lack of
reliability, Jaguar returned with a vengeance
in 1953 and with the next big thing in racing:
the three C-types were now equipped with
disc brakes, developed by Dunlop and tested
earlier at the Mille Miglia. The Jags’ speed and
reliability, combined with the new superior
stopping power, secured a 1-2-victory for the
Coventry make and sent drum brakes to the
Thierry Perrier’s Porsche 911SC ran on a 52/48 mixture of petrol and beetroot ethanol in 1980. The car qualified dead last history books double quick. Confident about
but it did win its class. The following year Perrier’s similarly-powered 934 repeated the feat (Porsche Historical Archives) their technical prowess, the engineers at Jaguar
prepared another novelty for the following year,
when their new D-Types were equipped with
monocoque chassis. Like so many motorsports
‘inventions’ the monocoque had its roots in
aviation. Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt came
close to repeating the previous year’s success,
but in the end lost by just a lap to a Ferrari 375.
The next big technical innovation on Le
Mans racecars was in 1963. BRM entered a car
equipped with a 150bhp, 2-litre Rover turbine
for Graham Hill and Richie Ginther. Since the
car lacked a heat exchanger, and also because
it ran kerosene numbers way outside the fuel
restrictions the ACO imposed, BRM-boss Alfred
Owen had asked and received permission from
the organisers to race his car outside of the
official competition, hence it wore the racing
number 00. For safety reasons, the Rover-BRM
had had to start 30 seconds after the other
competitors, but Hill and Ginther had an almost
trouble free – and very silent – run which
allowed them to cover 310 laps and which
would have placed them in seventh overall.
Lola-Cosworth T600 was the first car to run ground effects at Le Mans in 1981. Since the Group 6 category only catered for Come the mid to late ’60s aerodynamics was
open-top cars, an inelegant hole had to be cut in the roof of what was actually an IMSA GTP machine (Jean-Marc Teissedre) the new buzzword and few had embraced it

46 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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RETROSPECTIVE – LE MANS TECHNOLOGY

The GreenGT H2 would have been the most complex technological

innovation to have ever competed at the Le Mans 24 Hours
as wholeheartedly as Chaparral’s Jim Hall. With though, since the second fastest qualifying Deprez and Julien Vernaeve decided to enter a
the CanAm race-winning Chevrolet-engined times at Daytona and Sebring were followed by Chevron B16 prototype with a 982cc, type 10A,
Chaparral 2E, Hall had not only introduced an three consecutive pole positions. At Le Mans, 200bhp, twin-rotor Mazda engine in the back. It
even better aerodynamic body than on his too, the Chaparral started from the front row, was the first time a Japanese engine raced in Le
previous cars, but also introduced the adjustable but once again the net result for the two cars Mans, and a wankel engine at that. German Felix
aerofoil, soon to be known as a rear wing. The was two DNFs. Despite the poor results, the Wankel had patented the concept for a piston-
device sat over the rear axle and by adjusting trend was set and the following year the works less engine in the late ’20s but it wasn’t until he
the inclination an amount of downward Porsche 908/8s all sported adjustable rear worked for NSU that he got a first prototype
pressure could be achieved. wings. In 1972 Henri Pescarolo and Graham running 30 years later. Apart from NSU, few
While the Chaparral 2E had been an Hill in their Matra-Simca MS670 scored the first manufacturers produced road going cars with
occasional race winner in the USA the year overall win for a car equipped with a rear wing. wankel engines, but Mazda would become the
before, the new 2F model, entered in the entire After 1967 it was rather quiet on the concept’s staunchest defender. The Belgians’ race
1967 WCM, arrived in Le Mans with exactly zero technical innovation front for a while, until in didn’t last long, but their choice of powerplant
finishes on its score card. It didn’t lack speed, 1970 a pair of Belgians by the names of Yves had served as a wakeup call in Japan.
In 1973, the Japanese Sigma Automotive
team ticked another few ‘first’ boxes for Japan.
With its home-built, Mazda-equipped Sigma
MC73 (this time a 250bhp type 12A twin-rotor)
driven by Tetsu Ikuzawa and Hiroshi Fushida, Le
Mans witnessed the arrival of the first Japanese
team, car and drivers. They only made it to the
halfway mark, but returned the following year to
finish what they had started, even if they weren’t
classified at the finish. Sigma turned to Toyota
power for 1975 (another first for the team’s last
appearance in Le Mans), but by then Mazda had
taken the bait and started sending works teams
to France from 1979 onwards, always running
rotary engines. In 1991, Mazda became the first
and so far only Japanese manufacturer to win
Le Mans, with its trademark powerplant (by then
a 700bhp, type R26B, quadri-rotor), the only ever
win for a piston-less engine.

Turbo boost
In 1974 Porsche decided to give its serial
Porsche adapted its 959 supercar for the 24 Hours in 1986, thus entering the first ever 4WD racecar at La Sarthe. The class-winning Carrera a steroid treatment and
car finished seventh overall but the following year a botched gearshift wrecked the engine (Porsche Historical Archives) enter it in the prototype class. The factory
wasn’t interested in fighting their many Carrera
customers for GT class wins, and with new
regulations coming up for 1976, Porsche figured
it could already prepare for the future by taking
the Carrera RSR to the next level. For that, the
Porsche engineers decided to add an exhaust
gas turbocharger. The principle of turbocharging
to increase engine power had been patented in
1905, and the idea was not new to motor racing
either; Porsche itself had already used it to good
effect on its CanAm 917/10s and 917/30s in 1972
and 1973. However, now turbo power was to run
down the Hunaudieres Straight for the first time.
With the 3-litre engine rule for prototypes, the
Porsche engineers used a 2.1-litre flat-6 with a
single KKK turbocharger; turbocharged engines
needing to multiply their capacity by 1.4 to
calculate the normally aspirated equivalent.
With some 500bhp on tap for just 830 kilos,
the two silver Porsches looked menacing,
In 1986 Porsche also entered a 962C equipped with its PDK transmission, the first and only time a PDK-packing Porsche ran especially with their massive wheels, body
at Le Mans. It took a quarter of a century for PDK to become a feature on Porsche’s road cars (Porsche Historical Archives) extensions and huge rear wings. Porsche came

48 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 High Tech | High High
SpeedTech
| High Quality
| High Speed | High Quality

Pankl Systems Austria

PanklGmbH
Systems Austria GmbH
Engine Systems Engine Systems
A-8600 Bruck/Mur, Kaltschmidstraße 2-6 Kaltschmidstraße 2-6
A-8600 Bruck/Mur,
Phone: +43(0)3862 51 250 0 +43(0)3862 51 250 0
Phone:
Fax: +43(0)3862 51 250Fax:
290+43(0)3862 51 250 290
e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail: [email protected] www.pankl.com www.pankl.com

17_01_ins_pankl_RZ.indd 1 17_01_ins_pankl_RZ.indd 1 17_01_ins_pankl_RZ.indd 1

09.01.17 11:56 09.01.17
09.01.17 11:56 11:56

High Tech | High Speed | High Quality

Pankl Systems Austria GmbH

Engine Systems
A-8600 Bruck/Mur, Kaltschmidstraße 2-6
Phone: +43(0)3862 51 250 0
Fax: +43(0)3862 51 250 290
e-mail: [email protected] www.pankl.com

17_01_ins_pankl_RZ.indd 1 09.01.17
RETROSPECTIVE – LE MANS TECHNOLOGY

Nissan R90CP in 1990, when the company debuted carbon fibre brake discs at Le Mans, as produced by Carbone Industrie. The car also had 1100bhp on tap! (Jean-Marc Teissedre)

close to beating the four-car works Matra squad 24 hours of racing the result was the same three works Porsche 962Cs ran with a so-called
for victory. The first turbo win then came just as a year earlier: Perrier’s ‘alcoholic’ Porsche PDK gearbox, short for Porsche Doppel-Kupplung
two years later when Porsche won with its 936. again won the Group 4 class. or double clutch transmission. The idea behind
Between 1976 and 2016, turbo engines would PDK was to reduce the time shifting gears, thus
score another 32 victories at Le Mans. Ground zero reducing the time no power was transferred to
The mid-1970s were not only marked by Meanwhile, in the US the IMSA organisation had the wheels. Porsche had already looked into this
technical innovations, but also by the first global also introduced the GTP class for prototypes, in the early ’70s when it ran the 917, but while
oil crisis. The western world suddenly realised it similar in look and feel to what the ACO had the mechanical concept of the PDK was hatched
was far too dependent on oil and just as soon created in 1976 and to what the FIA’s new then, the embryonic state of electronics meant
the search for alternative fuels was on. Group C was expected to become in 1982. the idea had to be put aside for a later date.
The ACO, too, was interested in aiding the British constructors March and Lola were the
development of alternative-fuel engines and first to respond to the call from overseas; the Pretty Damn Kwick
decided to cater for this type of fuel in 1980. former with an exclusive car for the works BMW A PDK gearbox is a slightly bigger-than-normal
From 1949 onwards the club had already team, the latter with its T600 model intended gearbox, in which first, third and fifth gear are
pioneered fuel consumption limits by imposing for customers and to be used with a variety of on one shaft, and second and fourth gear on a
a minimum number of laps to be covered engines. What both cars did have In common, second shaft. Both shafts have their own clutch
between fuel and oil stops, and anything though, were the novel ground effects. and one of the two clutches is always engaged.
thought to be helping to reduce the need for When Lotus had set the world of F1 alight The actual shifting of the gears is controlled
unlimited fossil fuel consumption was good with its wing car in 1978, every engineer rushed electronically so that the transmission of power
news as far as the club was concerned. to his drawing board to add an inverted wing to the wheels is uninterrupted. The PDK thus not
to his design. Lola’s Eric Broadley had done so only improved acceleration but also allowed the
Perrier power too, and rather successfully so. The T600 – with drivers to change gears mid-corner, which with
Unfortunately, only one car running on biofuel its massive up-sweeping venturi and elegant a classic gearbox was not easily done as the kick
was entered in 1980: Thierry Perrier’s normally body with covered rear wheels designed by of the power being transferred to the wheels
aspirated Porsche 911SC. Perrier had his car’s Frenchman Max Sardou – had been created to again after the idle pause when actually shifting
engine converted to accept a 52/48 mixture service the needs of customers in both the IMSA could catch out a driver quite easily. Shifting
of petrol and beetroot ethanol. For a privateer and world championships, even though the gears with the PDK was still done with the stick
it was a risky as well as an adventurous Group C regulations hadn’t been finalised yet sitting in the same position, but now the drivers
undertaking into the unknown. in early 1981. Two of the cars were entered in just had to pull the stick towards them to go
Perrier qualified his car dead last on the grid, Le Mans in 1981, one did not qualify but the up a gear or to push away to go down one.
some 13 seconds slower than the next Group other made it to the finish in an honourable The stick was later supplemented by two push
4 Porsche, and knew that the race wouldn’t be 15th overall and third in Group 6. buttons on the steering wheel. With the buttons,
easy. Yet 24 hours later, Perrier and teammate With the arrival of Group C in 1982, extreme precursors to paddles, the drivers could keep
Roger Carmillet not only finished the race but engineering eased off a bit as manufacturers their hands on the steering wheel while shifting
also won the Group 4 class. The following year were first and foremost trying to get to grips in corners; an additional bonus.
Perrier repeated his challenge, this time entering with limited fuel consumptions and ground In 1983, Porsche again started working on
a turbocharged Porsche 934. The petrol/ethanol effects. Still, in 1986 something new was the PDK and from 1984 onwards entered a 956
mixture had been changed to 85/15, but after presented to the ACO’s scrutineers: one of the in a few shorter races to test the system. The

50 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

For three years Alain Lebrun tried to qualify the first-ever gas-powered racecar, but never quite succeeded. The project was eventually shelved in 1998 (Jean-Marc Teissedre)

many teething problems prevented any decent

results, but the tens of thousands of testing
against the BMW M1 in the Group B class, but,
in contrast to its success in rallying, Group B had
The three British racing
miles the team ran at Weissach and elsewhere
led to the PDK being deemed race-worthy
not been embraced in sportscar racing. Thus the
961 was entered in the more liberal IMSA GTX
green C-types were now
by the start of the 1986 season. A win at the
opening 360-kilometre round of the WS-PC
class; the only car in this class.
The big white car – with 1169kgs on the
equipped with disc brakes
in Monza and at the Nurburgring Supercup
sprint race validated the PDK, but a win in a
scale the heaviest of all the cars running
that year – featured the same engine as its developed by Dunlop
classic 1000kms race so far had eluded it. To prototype 962C cousins, but coupled to a
gather more data over a longer distance, the 6-speed, computer-aided, 4WD-transmission. made of carbon fibre rather than aluminium.
No.3 Rothmans 962C of Drake Olson and Vern In standard set-up the power was transferred The next items to get the carbon treatment were
Schuppan ran with the PDK; the other two cars 20/80 between the front and rear wheels, but the brake discs, developed by French company
running conventional gearboxes. Unfortunately, three other pre-defined programmes allowed Carbone Industrie and used for the first time in
at Le Mans the PDK 962C retired long before the driver to change the front/rear power Le Mans by Nissan. With a reported 1100bhp
sunset on Saturday evening when the gearbox ratio should the weather conditions require it. on tap for qualifying, the Nissans could very
broke after just some 550kms, while the No.1 car Dakar-winner Rene Metge proved Porsche’s well need the extra and longer-lasting stopping
of the works team won the race. It would take point by qualifying the car just three-tenths power, especially now the Hunaudieres Straight
another 25 years of development before the of a second slower than the Mazda prototype had been cut up by two chicanes, thus creating
PDK finally made it in to Porsche road cars, but it setting fastest time in the GTP class. In the race, two more major braking zones. In fact, with
would never be seen at La Sarthe again. Metge and Claude Ballot-Lena enjoyed a stroll in the carbon brakes only operating at their best
the park to a fabulous seventh place overall. The at a certain temperature, it would have been
Four sight following year, the 961 was back, this time with impossible to use them without the chicanes
The PDK 962C wasn’t the only novelty Porsche bigger wheels, a reworked engine, more power, for they would have cooled off too much to be
had brought to France in 1986, for in the back a wider body and bigger rear wing and decked operational arriving at Mulsanne Corner after a
of one its trucks sat an all-white, unsponsored out in full works colours. This time, though, four-mile flat-out blast down the straight. Only
GT car: the four-wheel-drive 961, the first 4WD the race ended in tears, as one of the drivers three of the five works Nissans (plus one of the
car to run at Le Mans. In the early 1980s, four- downshifted to a wrong gear, which broke the two privateer cars) ran the carbon discs.
wheel-drive had been the exclusive domain engine and set the car on fire. But Nissan’s bid for 1990 Le Mans glory
of Audi and its formidable Quattro, which started falling apart on the formation lap when
dominated the WRC, but by the mid-1980s Stopping power the first car broke its gearbox, and 24 hours later
other manufacturers had caught up. Porsche Run from 1982 till 1990, Group C was arguably a single fifth place was all Nissan could take
had developed a 911-based 4WD, called the the most spectacular period in sportscar racing. home. The following year, in 1991, compatriots
953, to win Paris-Dakar in 1984 and prepare the To master the fuel consumption limits, the Mazda not only scored the first-ever Japanese
future for the 961, the motorsports version of engine engineers had to pull out all stops, but win and the first victory for a rotary engine, but
their 959 supercar. Another Dakar win, this time the teams’ technical suppliers weren’t exactly also for carbon brakes and pads.
with the 961 four months earlier, bode well for sitting still either. By 1990 composite materials The first half of the 1990s was marked by a
its first appearance on asphalt. The car had been had slowly replaced the GRP for the bodyworks major crisis in sportscar racing. After the failure
intended as the successor to the 934 to run and some monocoques were now also being of the 3.5-litre F1-engine formula, the world

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 51

RETROSPECTIVE – LE MANS TECHNOLOGY

the cars finished the race that year, the good

doctor came back in 1998 with yet another
daring idea: one of his cars ran a hybrid electro-
fuel engine. Finished on-site and driven by
James Weaver and Perry McCarthy, ‘Sparky’, as
the car was affectionately known, unfortunately
failed to pre-qualify. By then, however, Panoz
had reached an agreement with the ACO to
create his own American Le Mans Series States-
side and Sparky would still get to race at Petit
Le Mans later that year. The hybrid Panoz never
came back to Le Mans, but a decade and a half
later the first overall victory for a hybrid car was
fact when in 2012 Audi scored its 11th win with
the hybrid-diesel R18 e-tron Quattro. From 2014
onwards, LMP1 factory teams would be required
to only run hybrid cars and in 2015 Porsche
scored a first hybrid-petrol win.
With the fast pace of car development in the
21st century the ACO come up with a specific
one-car class for experimental vehicles, called
In 1998 American entrepreneur Don Panoz entered the first hybrid in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Panoz Esperante GT1-R, Garage 56. The candidate entry did not have
which was nicknamed ‘Sparky’, didn’t qualify but raced later that year in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta (Serge Cailler) to conform to specific regulations but had to
present new ideas or technologies in racecar
championship had disappeared and with it the single-seater sportscars the ACO had allowed in development. That idea then developed, and
big-spending manufacturers. With Le Mans to swell the grid a few years earlier) equipped a manufacturer could use it to demonstrate
now run as a standalone event, the ACO had with a Peugeot engine running on liquefied a new technology that it planned to run in
opened its race for GT cars to headline again. petrol gas, or LPG. The idea was to prepare for LMP1. In 2012, the first tenant of the 56th pit
Needless to say Porsche was more often than the future by having a first green car on the box was the Nissan-engined DeltaWing. The
not the weapon of choice for those teams grid. Unfortunately, the underfunded project car didn’t feature new technology, just a new
trying their luck at Le Mans in a GT car, and both didn’t make it past the pre-qualifying session way of thinking and packaging, and it was quite
the development and production facilities at where the car was slowest by minutes. Another successful at that. A side-swipe by a faster car
Weissach were working overtime to supply the attempt the following year yielded the same prevented it from finishing in the top 10.
numerous customers with the right tools. As result, though now the deficit had been brought
such, the Porsche works team entered a one-off down to about a minute. A third attempt in 1998 Racing Green
super-911 based on the 964-generation of the ended in a third disillusion and it was the last The 2013 candidate selected by the ACO was
Stuttgart classic, the 911 Turbo S Le Mans in time an LPG-powered car was seen in Le Mans. a different beast altogether. A team of Swiss
1993. As well as featuring huge wheels and engineers had developed and built a hybrid
massive power the car was also equipped Frontal assault electric/hydrogen fuel cell racecar, dubbed the
with ABS, as was now allowed per the rules. Awareness for the environment and the GreenGT H2. The GreenGT H2 racecar was based
Unfortunately, a collision with a slower car effects of global warming and green house on a 2009 concept of an electric competition
halted the car’s remarkable progress up until gasses had sent many people thinking about vehicle powered solely by lithium-ion batteries.
that point. The development of ABS in racing solutions, though the automobile industry was When a greater autonomy was needed, the
would continue, however, and Porsche’s 16th traditionally slow in trying to set an example. engineers turned to a hydrogen fuel cell to
overall Le Mans victory came courtesy of a 911 Once again, it was left to the spirit of Le Mans provide additional energy to power the electric
GT1 98 equipped with an ABS system in 1998. and the entrepreneurship of individuals to engines. When that seemed to work, GreenGT
lead the way. One such individual was Dr Don set about developing a more powerful yet more
On the gas Panoz, an American business tycoon who had compact fuel cell and applied for the Garage
The second half of the 1990s had seen the decided to create his own make of supercars. 56 ticket for 2013. The ACO agreed, but the
rebirth of an international, FIA-sanctioned Designed by Adrian Reynard, the front-engined GreenGT H2 would only be seen in Le Mans in
GT championship and the manufacturers Panoz Esperante GT1-R made its Le Mans debut static form. Persistent overheating issues meant
returned to Le Mans, with exotic prototypes in 1997 – the first new American manufacturer the team had to throw in the towel just three
thinly disguised as road cars. At the same time, to come to France since Dodge in 1976. It had weeks before the race. The GreenGT H2 would
privateers got even more creative in their quest been nearly two decades since a front-engined have been the most complex technological
for technological diversity. In 1995, Frenchman car was last seen in Le Mans, but Panoz was a innovation to have ever raced at Le Mans, but
Alain Lebrun used a 1993-spec WR (the small firm believer of the concept. Though none of in the end it would be nothing but a photo
opportunity despite further development.

It would have been impossible to use the carbon Since then, the likes of Porsche and Toyota
have fine-tuned their hybrid technology. But

brakes without the new chicanes in place for they while it is anybody’s guess what the future of
car technology will bring, it is very doubtful the

would have cooled off too much to be operational

car makers’ technical achievements will match
in any way the human challenge of the first
quadruple amputee to race at Le Mans last
when the car arrived at Mulsanne Corner June. Yet another first for La Sarthe.

52 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – THE CONSULTANT

Suspension mods on
US Late Model racers
Why run a soft spring on the right front of a short-oval dirt car?

QUESTION
I have a question about the theories of pinning
the RF on a dirt Late Model. I stopped racing in
2006 and just being a spectator now has me
curious. I’ve asked a handful of people about
this and really have got nowhere. It appears
many guys are running a really soft RF spring
to allow the car to fall on to some form of a
bump stop (bump spring, bump rubber) and
then they have a very high rebound shock to
hold the car there. My question is (or theory,
I guess) why all the shock technology? Could
you not just lower the static ride height and
run what would be considered an overly stiff
spring to get the wheel load there without
all the movement? I feel it is the dynamic US Late Model stock cars on the dirt. Some pin the front right down with a soft spring and a very high rebound damper
ride height (where the car stops rolling) that
is important and not the movement to get in one series but gets adopted imitatively in and is just there to keep the main spring in
it there. In other words why aren’t they just another series that doesn’t have the rule. place when the car is jacked up.
setting the car up in a dynamic state of roll/hike ARCA cars use very soft springs and bump IMCA also has a new rule requiring ‘standard
and leaving/keeping it there? Or am I simply rubbers or small coil bump springs, with hold- weight aluminium or steel axle tubes only’.
misunderstanding something? down shocks, at all four corners. This I don’t see those provisions in the WoO or
(This second, related question, also about dirt used to be done in the upper NASCAR WISSOTA rules. WoO and WISSOTA do have
Late Model, comes from a different reader). divisions. The reason was to get around a ‘catch all’ rules saying anything ‘non-standard’
Lately I have been reading that many dirt ground clearance rule. NASCAR did away with or innovative in any way is to be submitted
late model and modified racers have been the ground clearance rule, so we don’t see for approval in advance. I don’t know if they
adding non-rotating weight to the left rear axle. such set-ups there anymore. ARCA still has actually check for heavy axle tubes. WoO does
For years people have been trying to the ground clearance rule so we still see soft prohibit any separate insert inside an axle tube.
get unsprung weight as light as possible, spring/bump stop set-ups there.
aluminium axle tubes and spindles and There are a number of sanctioning bodies Soft option
aluminium radius rod brackets, etc. Now there running dirt Late Model races in the US, and So, okay – why would you want to run a very
are steel axle tubes as thick as can be without they all have their own rules. Somewhat soft RF spring? Wouldn’t it do the same thing if
interfering with the spinning axle. I would like similar cars also run in Australia and New you just set the RF ride height lower? It would,
to hear your understanding of this. Zealand, also under local rules. pretty much – but you couldn’t get the car
through tech. All the sets of rules have very
THE CONSULTANT Stops stopped stringent requirements about the height of the
When you see suspension strategies that IMCA has new rules this year prohibiting any left rear corner of the body, the amount of tilt
really don’t seem to make sense by ordinary kind of suspension stops whatsoever on the in all the horizontal surfaces, the radius of the
reasoning but seem to be popular, there are front, and also requiring only one constant- edges, the amount of dish in the quarter panels
two possible explanations. rate spring per wheel. It even prohibits spring – anything that could affect the car’s ability to
The first explanation is ‘trick of the month rubbers (between the coils). There is one generate downforce and lateral force when
effect’: people are blindly copying something exception allowing a ‘take up’ spring on the running in aerodynamic yaw.
that is rumoured to be the hot set-up, without left front. In dirt Late Models such springs have From a normal suspension design
understanding. The second is that the been used with a droop stop on the shock standpoint, a lot of what’s done on dirt Late
seemingly anomalous strategy allows us to get body that makes the rate increase toward the Models is nonsensical. That is, it doesn’t help
around a regulation, or work a rule, quite often droop end of the travel, as opposed to the the wheels follow the road surface or minimise
for aerodynamic advantage. ‘tender springs’ seen on lowered production camber change or bump steer. Rather, it’s
Sometimes we see a combination of the cars in road racing, which provide a very soft about aero. It’s about having the car level
two reasons: a technique is useful due to a rule spring that is coil bound in normal operation and at legal heights when it goes through

Wouldn’t it do the same thing if you just set the RF ride height lower?
JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 55
TECHNOLOGY – THE CONSULTANT

It’s about having the car at legal height when it goes through inspection
inspection, and at the same time getting it to destruction of parts when the suspension goes The heavy axle tube makes less sense. It
run as nose-down, tail-up, sideways, and tilted to full compression. The soft RF spring also probably doesn’t hurt much if the suspension
as possible at speed, to get lateral force and makes the car gain less wedge when the LR is topped out and the entire left rear corner is
downforce out of that big slab-sided body. hikes. The car corners with the left front lower, effectively unsprung anyway, but I can’t see it
So how does a soft RF spring play into this? so less air gets under the car there. That helps helping. I don’t see any rules that restrict ballast
It makes the right front corner drop more, and overall downforce. The RF will drag the nose on location other than requiring it to be within
the right rear and left front rise less, when the the ground, but that’s dealt with by trimming the frame and not on the bumper, so a heavy
left rear hikes to full droop or close to that. the bottom edge. This could probably work axle tube doesn’t offer any advantage in terms
The bump rubber is then necessary just to without a hold-down shock. The car would just of centre of gravity location. I could maybe see
provide at least a little cushioning and prevent come up a lot at the RF on the straights. some point in hiding ballast by using heavy
tubes, and then adding phony ballast weights
made of aluminium rather than lead in wacky
locations, just to fake out the competition. But I
think I’d rather have heavy frame tubes instead
of axle tubes. Of course, adding or removing
a heavy axle tube would be easier.

CONTACT
Mark Ortiz Automotive is a chassis
consultancy service primarily serving oval
track and road racers. Here Mark answers your
chassis set-up and handling queries. If you
have a question for him, get in touch.
E: [email protected]
T: +1 704-933-8876
A: Mark Ortiz
155 Wankel Drive, Kannapolis
NC 28083-8200, USA
The right attitude for a Late Model dirt car: nose down, tail up and sideways. This generates downforce from the car body

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 TECHNOLOGY – AEROBYTES

Nailing the aero

balance on a GT-R
Our Nissan ’Ring racer study continues with tweaks fore and aft

T
he subject currently under the MIRA steps were also made at realising the front balance it brought front downforce up to just
full-scale wind tunnel spotlight is the end’s downforce generation potential too. This over 18.3 per cent front, in absolute terms,
Nissan R35 GT-R of London-based month we will we focus on some of those big from the starting point of modest front lift.
Australian Anthony Gaylard, who is targeting steps towards achieving that balance. The mechanism for this increase in downforce
a sub-seven minute lap of the Nurburgring’s at the front wheels is primarily the reduction
Nordschleife circuit. The car, which will be road Nurburg-wing in the rear wing’s downforce and hence its
legal for the attempt, has been assembled and With the initial balance so heavily rear biased, leverage from its overhung position some
developed by UK-based Litchfield Motors, and substantial steps needed to be taken to tackle way aft of the rear axle, which takes weight off
features 1000bhp, Ohlins-tuned suspension, the issue, the first of which was to reduce the the front wheels. But reducing the rear wing’s
Alcon brakes and an aerodynamics kit based wing’s flap from maximum to minimum angle. downforce contribution also proved that
on NISMO GT3 components. This was followed by reducing the overall the splitter and dive planes were generating
As a brief reminder, we established last angle of attack of the whole wing assembly downforce, just not enough to balance the
month that the baseline configuration of the to the minimum setting available in the main rear wing at maximum angle, nor yet at its
aerodynamics saw downforce heavily rear element’s adjustment range. The changes minimum angle. The next step was to move to
biased, but by the end of the session the to the coefficients and balance arising from front end modifications in the expectation of
car had a decent aero balance along with these wing changes are shown in Table 2 as adding front and total downforce again as well
respectable downforce compared to the wind ‘delta’ or ∆ values in ‘counts’ where 1 count is a as still further improving the car’s balance.
tunnel-derived data we obtained on an earlier coefficient change of 0.001. Table 3 shows the
GT3 car, the Ferrari F430 Scuderia. Table 1 car’s overall data after the rear wing changes. Keeping cool
summarises the baseline and the balanced Dropping the wing to its minimum angle The GT-R featured a large intercooler and
data. Getting to the balanced set-up initially had a substantial effect on all parameters behind that a water radiator, fed by the front
involved decreasing rear downforce but good then, and in the context of the pursuit for apertures. Initially there was no ducting

Substantial steps needed to be taken to tackle the issue, the first of

which was to reduce the wing’s flap from maximum to minimum angle

The rear wing was large, high and set well back – which made it a challenge to balance

Table 2: The effects of rear wing angle adjustments

ΔCD Δ-CL Δ-CLfront Δ-CLrear Δ%front* Δ-L/D
Flap to min angle -81 -205 +77 -282 +9.1% -155
Overall to min angle -61 -218 +71 -288 +16.0% -315
The Nurburgring-bound Nissan R35 GT-R LM1 RS being readied by the team at MIRA TOTAL ∆ -142 -423 +148 -570 +25.07% -470
*Absolute rather than relative difference in percentage front.
Table 1: Baseline and optimised coefficients
on the Nissan R35 GT-R Table 3: The GT-R’s data after the rear wing angle reductions
CD -CL -CLfront -CLrear %front -L/D CD -CL -CLfront -CLrear %front -L/D
Baseline 0.543 0.896 +0.061 0.957 -6.78% 1.651 After wing angle 0.401 0.473 0.087 0.387 18.3% 1.181
‘Optimised’ 0.426 0.561 0.241 0.320 42.91% 1.316 reductions

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 59

 TECHNOLOGY – AEROBYTES

Main front aperture was reduced in size by taping a foam board with smaller inlet over it The internal ducting inside the aperture was mocked up with tape and foam boards

Table 4: The effects of reducing the

size of the front main aperture
ΔCD Δ-CL Δ-CLfront Δ-CLrear Δ%front* Δ-L/D
Reduced aperture -8 +21 +31 -11 +5.60% +78
Ducted aperture -5 +19 +31 -11 +5.06% +65
Taped over -3 +9 +21 -13 +3.52% +34
upper aperture
TOTAL Δ, counts -16 +49 +83 -35 +14.18% +177
Total Δ, % -4.0 +10.4 +95.4 -9.0 - +15.0
*Absolute rather than relative difference in percentage front.

Table 5: The GT-R’s data after the front duct modifications

CD -CL -CLfront -CLrear %front -L/D
After front duct 0.385 0.522 0.170 0.352 32.47% 1.358
Final step was to tape over the upper aperture completely, further reducing the inlet area modifications

to channel air from the inlets through the through the coolers, and not around them in the %front value. So even though more air
coolers, but the Litchfield Motors team had and into the front compartment, then this was being channelled through both coolers,
experienced the benefits to cooling and data should eradicate that doubt. Even with which would probably improve cooling
aerodynamic performance that are achievable the array of louvred outlets in the bonnet, efficiency, perhaps some of the forward
with ducting to the coolers on its 2006 UK Time air that previously was bypassing the front bonnet louvres were now effectively being
Attack Championship-winning Subaru, and so coolers was obviously generating significant blanked off as well, which meant there wasn’t
had come equipped with materials to make drag and lift. However, each simple step a net benefit to the aerodynamic numbers.
changes to this area on the GT-R. here brought tangible benefits to drag, to Nevertheless, the overall gains from this
The first modification was simply to reduce total downforce and to efficiency (-L/D) and, phase were very valuable.
the size of the main, lower aperture by taping of most importance in this context, to front Next month we’ll focus on a range of
a foam board panel, with a smaller aperture, downforce, helping further to realise the front smaller but nonetheless important changes
over the front. Next, the internal sides, top and end’s potential to generate good downforce. to the front of the car; some rake adjustments;
bottom of this reduced aperture were ducted It’s not hard to envisage that with properly and we will fit some rear diffuser fences, all in
to the front of the intercooler with tape and manufactured inlet ducting fully sealed to the quest for more downforce while achieving
foam board. And then the upper aperture the cooler faces that even more benefit could that vital aerodynamic balance.
was taped over completely, representing a be had in reality. But 10 per cent more total Thanks to Anthony Gaylard, Iain Litchfield,
further reduction in the overall inlet area. The downforce for four per cent less drag along and all the team at Litchfield Motors.
results, as the changes for each step and as a with a very useful forwards shift in balance
cumulative change, are shown in Table 4, was a very good step forwards. And as CONTACT
with the overall data following these Litchfield Motors’ previous experience bears Simon McBeath offers aerodynamic
modifications shown in Table 5. out, ducting also makes big improvements advisory services under his own brand of
If there was ever any uncertainty about to cooling efficiency, itself of some importance SM Aerotechniques –
the benefits to the aerodynamics of ensuring when you have 1000bhp propelling a 1400+kg www.sm-aerotechniques.co.uk.
In these pages he uses data from MIRA
that air entering the front apertures goes car around a 20km lap.
to discuss common aerodynamic issues
One additional ducting trial was put faced by racecar engineers
Ten per cent more total together, which saw side panels installed that
extended from the inlet apertures right up to
Produced in association with MIRA Ltd
downforce for four per the water radiator, and tape was also applied
above the intercooler and radiator to see

cent less drag was a

what would happen when the air was more
thoroughly ducted to the radiator. In fact, this Tel: +44 (0) 24-7635 5000

very good step forwards

last duct modification saw very little change to Email: [email protected]
the aero numbers and a very slight reduction Website: www.horiba-mira.com

60 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – SLIP ANGLE

Slide rules: analysing

an oversteering car
Slip Angle provides a summary
What makes a car quick in steady state and in transient? Claude Rouelle
of OptimumG’s seminars develops his analysis of lateral acceleration and yaw moment variation

p, balance, control and stability simulations are

e of the main focuses at OptimumG.

Days of yaw: too much yaw moment at the apex and you have oversteer, too little and it’s understeer. For drifters too much yaw moment is obviously a good thing

I
n April’s RE (V27N4), we saw that right side braking forces Fx create moment. However, it is important have three causes: car side slip
there are 12 causes for the yaw a negative yaw moment. Except to notice that on practically all cars, angle ß, yaw velocity r, and steering
moment: four tyre lateral forces Fy, for some exceptional cases of very the distances a and b (that are the angle ß. As ß, r and ß evolve in a
four tyre longitudinal forces Fx; and high slip angles, tyre self-alignment leverages of the tyre lateral forces) turn so do the four slip angles,
four tyre self-alignment moments Mz. moments Mz are most often negative. are bigger than the front or rear the tyre vertical loads, cambers,
Let’s now imagine a car cornering This equation is made in the chassis half-track (that are the leverage of the temperatures and lateral forces.
and braking in a left-hand corner coordinate system, which is why the tyre longitudinal forces). In the case We will now analyse the evolution
entry, and consider this anti-clockwise cosines of the inside and outside front of a tyre friction ellipse that is a circle of both lateral acceleration and
yaw moment as positive. steer angle are used. We will consider (as much potential Fx as potential yaw moment along a turn, and to
The yaw moment equation is as any possible static front and rear toes Fy), tyre braking or acceleration simplify our thoughts here, we will
follows: (FyLF cos δLF + FyRF cos δiRF) (we could call those ‘pre-slip angles’) longitudinal forces will always have only consider the tyre lateral forces’
a- (Fy LR + Fy RR) b + FxLF Tf /2 + FxLR and any possible bump steer and a smaller effect on the yaw moment influence on the yaw moment and
Tr /2 – FxRF Tf /2 + FxRR Tr /2 - MzLF – steer by compliance as negligible. than the tyre lateral forces. the lateral acceleration.
MzRF - MzLR – MzRR = Izz (dr/dt) (7) Electronic Stability Programming Starting from point A seen on
(Figure 1). In this case, the two front (ESP), front and/or rear differential Lateral thinking Figure 2, the driver turns the steering
tyre lateral forces Fy as well as the two control or torque vectoring (especially Several factors such as slip angle, wheel and creates front tyres steering
left side braking forces Fx create a in the case of cars with four electrical dynamic vertical load, camber, speed, angle, always with some delay as even
positive yaw moment, while the two motors) are often used to control the pressure, and temperature influence the best designed and manufactured
rear tyre lateral forces Fy and the two tyres Fx and, consequently, the yaw the tyre lateral forces. Tyre slip angles cars have some steering compliance.

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 63

 TECHNOLOGY – SLIP ANGLE

A reaction force to the

front tyre lateral forces is
created at the car’s CG

Front tyre lateral forces are created,

again with some delay that we often
define with the tyre relaxation length.
A reaction force to the front tyre
lateral forces is created at the car CG.
The front tyre lateral forces are not
yet balanced by any rear tyre lateral
forces, as for a very short time there
isn’t any rear slip angle. However,
Figure 1: Equation of the yaw moment with its 12 causes there is a yaw moment. Without it,
the car wouldn’t enter the corner.
Figure 2: Yaw moment That yaw moment will make the car
vs lateral acceleration in slip (angle ß) and yaw (yaw velocity
the different turn phases r), and so are the rear slip angles and
rear tyre forces being built, again
considering some reaction time
due to the rear compliance and tyre
transient behaviour. The process will
continue until point C where the yaw
moment generated by the front
tyres will be equal to the yaw
moment generated by the rear tyres.
The yaw moment is now 0.
Let’s suppose for a moment that
the car was driven on a huge surface
without any obstacles. If at point C
the yaw moment would remain 0, the
car will put itself on a skid pad. We
need to create a ‘de-yawing’ moment
to extract the car from the corner.
The driver will reduce the steering
wheel angle. The front tyres steering
angle, front slip angles and front
lateral forces will be reduced earlier
than the rear ones and a negative
yaw moment will be created. The
From point A to B: While front tyre lateral forces continue to apex is the region of the corner where
increase, yaw velocity r and CG slip angle ß create rear slip the yaw moment is 0. If you are not
angle and rear tyre lateral forces convinced, just look at the trace of
your gyro signal. It will be flat for
Point A: Steering wheel input a short time, which means no yaw
acceleration and no yaw moment.
In a simplified way, we could look
at the apex as the place where the
racecar is close to the steady state
definition. But this is also where the
gyro slope and, therefore, the yaw
moment sign change.
Figure 3 shows the evolution
At point B, the difference between the sum of the front of both yaw moment and lateral
Right after point A: Front slip angle, tyres and the sum of the rear tyre lateral forces is the acceleration in a left-hand corner.
front tyre lateral forces, lateral biggest: the yaw moment is at its peak. At point C
acceleration, and yaw moment increase (the corner apex), the front and rear lateral tyre Apex speed
forces will reach their peak and the yaw moment Let’s now suppose that an engineer
Figure 3 (above and right): The different phases created by the front tyres will equal the yaw wants to increase his car speed at the
of tyre lateral forces and yaw moment in the corner moment from the rear tyres. The yaw moment is 0 apex. If he could increase all corners’

64 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

TECHNOLOGY – SLIP ANGLE

Some engineers say there isn’t such a thing as understeer or

oversteer – for them there is only under or over yaw moment
apex speed by 0.5 per cent, the lap
time gain would be significant. Let’s
imagine that the driver is on the
same trajectory with car B that he
was with car A so we can make an
apple-to-apple comparison. More
apex speed on the same given radius
means more lateral acceleration at an
earlier time and a necessary increase
in tyre grip (Figure 4). There are many
ways engineers could reach this goal:
better tyres; the same tyres with
more vertical load from aerodynamic
downforce; or better use of existing
Figure 4: Car B will get more apex speed earlier and, tyres with appropriate slip angle,
therefore, also earlier and more lateral acceleration pressure, camber, temperature, etc.
That is for lateral acceleration. But
what about the need of yaw moment
and yaw moment variation? More
tangential speed on the same radius
implies more yaw velocity. A bigger
yaw velocity in less time implies
a bigger yaw acceleration. Bigger
yaw acceleration for a given yaw
inertia means bigger yaw moment
(Figure 5). The yaw acceleration (or
yaw moment) vs lateral acceleration
diagram will be different (Figure 6).

Yaw the boss

Some engineers often say that there
isn’t such a thing as understeer or
oversteer – for them there is only
Figure 5: Car B will get more yaw velocity, more yaw under or over yaw moment. Going
acceleration, and more and earlier yaw moment faster is not only about getting more
tyre grip, it is also about getting the
right amount of yaw moment at
the right place in the corner.
Too much of it, and you have an
oversteering car. Too little of it, and
you have an understeering car.
Everybody understands that to
gain more speed we need better
tyres and/or better use of tyres. But
going faster is also about getting the
right amount of yaw moment and,
consequently, the right amount of
difference between front and rear
tyre lateral forces (or left and right
tyre longitudinal forces).

CONTACT
Claude Rouelle
Phone: + 1 303 752 1562
Enquiries: engineering@
optimumg.com
Figure 6: Going faster not only requires more tyre grip but also the Website: www.optimumg.com
right amount of yaw moment, which means the right difference
between front and rear tyre grip (or left and right tyre grip)

66 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

TECHNOLOGY – OPERATIONAL BACK-UP

Supporting cast
At the circuit there’s an entire network of engineers and specialists
who are not part of the team yet play an essential role during the
race weekend. Meet the unsung heroes of trackside support
By GEMMA HATTON

F1 rolls into Monaco. The principality is a challenge

for those involved in logistics while it also presents
issues for companies working in comms. Both
sectors provide crucial support to Formula 1 teams

F
ormula1 had its busiest season last their suppliers, whose role has become in the background,’ says Neal Bateman, technical
year. The 21 race calendar required increasingly important over recent years. manager at Cosworth (see case study). ‘We’re
teams to travel approximately Whether it’s radios, tyres, engines or electronics, involved with answering technical questions.
160,000km, which is almost equivalent teams have access to their own trackside No one comes to us and says ‘Can you engineer
to four times round the world. This can lead to support engineers, and this is becoming our car to go faster’, usually they want help with
logistical costs in excess of £12m for each team common throughout the tiers of motorsport. their maths channel to do something, so we will
– which is why the FIA restricts the number of These suppliers fall into two categories. get involved with helping them with that.
trackside personnel to 60 for each F1 outfit. First, there are the championship suppliers ‘Some of the teams have come from other
But, as ever, F1 teams see regulations as who usually have an agreement with the FIA championships using our stuff, others have
an opportunity to drive development in other to supply all teams with the same products come from using completely different electronic
areas; achieving their original goal, whilst and services. These include the likes of Pirelli equipment, so there’s a learning curve there
remaining legal. In this case, they have invested in F1, Cosworth electronics in LMP2 and radio for everybody, so we try and make sure we’re
heavily in communications, electronics and companies such as MRTC. In most cases, these available and we have a support forum which
data transfer, to establish their very own ‘mission manufacturers will provide each team with a we use where teams can ask questions, while in
controls’ back at their factories. trackside engineer, which will not count towards LMP2 we have an email address that everyone
Another way in which teams efficiently the team’s trackside member allocation. ‘In in our office monitors so we can give responses
spread their trackside-manpower is by utilising terms of what we do, we’re more there to assist in that way as well. So it’s not to help them go

68 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

Pirelli will have its own people at the F1 grands prix and will also have an engineer and a tyre fitter embedded Communications are vital in modern F1. Riedel is responsible for
within each team, thereby two of the 60 trackside personnel permitted by the FIA to work at a Formula 1 race much of F1’s radio traffic as well as other comms technology

One way in which teams

efficiently spread their
trackside manpower is by
utilising their suppliers
faster, it’s to help advance the tools to enable
them to do that. Everything is very similar for
these guys in the LMP2 paddock, they don’t
want to [reveal to] outsiders anything they do
which they think might give them an advantage.’
Then there are the team suppliers, who
have secured contracts with specific teams
and are therefore competing against other
manufacturers. The likes of Mercedes HPP,
Honda and Renault Sport are developing
This season’s bigger F1 tyres have not just been a challenge for teams, they have also caused headaches powertrains in open competition in Formula 1,
for those transporting them to the races, and in terms of storage at the track and space in the pit garages as well as brake suppliers Brembo and Safran
and gearbox manufacturers Xtrac and Williams.
Depending on the potential performance
gain of the product, these suppliers may
provide trackside engineers to work within
their race teams (and therefore are included in
the team’s member allocation).

Embedded personnel
Let’s take the example of a Formula 1 team.
Formula 1’s suppliers will provide each team
with one Pirelli tyre engineer and one tyre fitter,
as well as a Riedel engineer and a McLaren
Electronics engineer. Then you have the
engineers and technicians who are working
within the team from the engine and gearbox
suppliers who are in open competition.
The role of the supplier is actually very
complex. To develop the performance of their
There can be a downside to having a high profile involvement in Formula 1 as Pirelli discovered back in 2013 products, companies need data and there is no
when there was a spate of tyre failures during the British Grand Prix. Shredded rubber on TV is not good PR substitution for real world conditions, which

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 69

 TECHNOLOGY – OPERATIONAL BACK-UP

To develop the performance of their products companies need

data, and there is no substitution for real world conditions
means race data. However, this means suppliers helps it set its minimum pressure and camber for example. ‘Not all the teams use our system,’
can have access to several teams’ data which prescriptions. If Pirelli can’t access this data then says Dario Rossi, head of Motorsport Division
breaches the confidentiality teams guard so these prescriptions have to be set based on rig at Riedel (see case study). ‘We don’t have
jealously. Yet teams demand better products and track tests, but if teams co-operate then McLaren, as they have a different supplier due
from their suppliers. So there is an element of there is the possibility Pirelli will decrease the to sponsorship for the radio. They do use our
both cooperation and trust here. minimum pressures and increase the minimum intercom, but don’t have a support engineer.
In F1, for example, Pirelli is a technical cambers – which is what the teams want. We have six support engineers in the teams, the
partner and therefore the technical directives Of course, Pirelli is a very familiar suppler, but other teams do it themselves, and then we have
require teams to send specific data channels there are many others to be found at the track. seven support engineers in the FIA.’
from FP1, FP2, qualifying and the race which Riedel supplies radio equipment to teams in F1,
Radio heads
Rossi adds: ‘As teams now only have 60 people
on track and a lot at home, they need to use
an intercom, so every morning our engineers
perform a test and they have a checklist and
they go through the connection. We have a
WAN MPLS connection, which is very fast, its on
optical fibre. Remotely we can access the system
and make sure all the communication is up
and running. The team itself is normally asking
to change configurations because there are
different people every event, so sometimes they
want to connect another remote connection, or
people connected by cell phone or Skyping, and
we ensure that these are up and running before
the session. The same for the radio because
there are different people on track and so they
make sure that all the radios are configured,
reprogrammed, and performing, basically.’
There is also the issue of brand awareness.
Communications console on the pitwall. The team at the track needs to be hooked up to each and every important member Suppliers work in motorsport because it offers
of the operation, whether they are at the circuit or calculating strategies and monitoring data back at its HQ’s mission control the opportunity to push their products to the

The teams arrive at flyaway grands prix to find their equipment ready and waiting thanks to Formula 1 partner DHL. The organisational effort is immense yet it rarely goes wrong

70 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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Depending on the potential performance gain of the product, suppliers

may provide trackside engineers to work within the race teams
limit and a fast development rate. However,
if suppliers under-perform, not only are they
exposed quickly, but on a global stage they risk
damaging their reputation. Take the current
PR nightmare at McLaren Honda, or the Pirelli
tyre failures at Silverstone in 2013. Yet, if it’s not
safety related, the supplier engineers can only
advise teams on what to do; the team has the
final say, which can lead to situations where the
supplier’s reputation suffers for a team’s mistake.

Travelling support
Each F1 team transports 40 to 50 tonnes of
equipment per race, which equates to the
entire Formula 1 paddock filling up the cargo
hold of six jumbo jets. This pop-up Formula 1
circus is transported to 20 different countries
around the world within approximately eight
months and this is only possible with the help
of a logistics partner, such as DHL.
In addition to handling the overseas move of
racecars, engines, tyres and other equipment for
the teams DHL also completes the logistics for
DHL is responsible for making sure the vast paraphernalia of a grand prix is in place throughout the Formula 1 season; all the media and the broadcast equipment. Its
including media and broadcast equipment and some 600 tonnes that make up the Paddock Club. It uses 170 trucks for F1 staff has to flat pack the 600 tonnes of towering
VIP hospitality structures into 170 trucks and
Case study: Cosworth ensure that all dangerous liquids such as fuel,
oils and coolants are transported safely in
fireproof canisters, so as to withstand the range

C
osworth was selected be performance related, the teams quickly if problems arise and have of extreme global temperatures.
to supply electrical all have experienced engineers a very dedicated and passionate As soon as the race calendar is confirmed,
components for the LMP2 for this and the system is locked engineering and support team to the planning for this mammoth task begins,
category at Le Mans. Part of the down to the teams so it is an easy react fast to provide solutions.’ to ensure all the logistics and documentation
fixed price support package means system to run,’ says Bateman. ‘The One of the major things requirements for each event are mapped out.
that there is trackside support for manufacturers supply a locked with the new LMP2 system is DHL’s race weekend starts around two weeks
the teams at the start of the year, configuration for the IPS Power the teams’ ability to programme beforehand, when the first ocean freight
and the Le Mans 24 hours will also Control module and also the TC the electronics. ‘The difference begins to arrive and is unpacked throughout
be well staffed by Cosworth. and gearbox strategy is locked. The between WEC and ELMS is there the days directly before the race. During the
‘We attend the track to assist engineers all come from different is a range of abilities, a range of race weekend, the workload shifts to further
teams with using our electronics backgrounds and some haven’t funding behind them, or range planning and scheduling of route itineraries
and to provide spares to teams used our equipment so we will of set-ups, and so the questions for the next race along with all the associated
if during an incident a unit is assist them in learning Cosworth you get from the higher end LMP2 paperwork for custom clearance and border
damaged,’ says Neal Bateman, configuration and analysis teams will be completely different inspection. The second the chequered flag
technical manager at Cosworth. software packages, Toolbox, to what the other end teams are drops, team mechanics, truckies and 20 to 30
‘There isn’t much difference Caltool and Toolset.’ asking,’ says Bateman. ‘There are DHL people start disassembling the paddock.
between practice and race to teams that are new to the car, ‘With so many back-to-back races this
us. We aim to be there and Switched on new to everything, they have new year, we have to work on the operational side
available when required by the Cosworth also provides spec people involved, they struggle and of things straight after the race,’ highlights
teams but not to be in their way electronics to the BTCC, which so we end up spending more time Julian Blackman, UK motorsport manager, DHL
whilst they run the cars.’ while it has a different package with them to make sure their car is Global Forwarding. ‘We support the teams to
Cosworth has attended many shares similar software and running reliably, and making sure disassemble their equipment and package it
of the key LMP2 and DPi tests in analysis tools with LMP2. ‘We you pass on any information that up on pallets to either load it into trucks for the
preparation for the 2017 season, have testing rigs that we use to we’ve got off our experience to intraregional races, or transport it to the airports
including the first rounds of the validate our designs before they try and help them. The other end where the aircraft are waiting. Typically, by
IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar series appear at the track,’ says Bateman. of the spectrum is you don’t get Monday night all the equipment has arrived at
and the WEC. ‘Our role in LMP2 is ‘Of course there is no substitute asked so many questions, you get the next destination – we transport everything
to ensure that the cars are running for on-car track testing and this exposed to very little of the team, within 24 to 48 hours on average.’
reliably and to assist teams with can still present the unexpected, as obviously they’ve got their own This is obviously impressive, however we
any questions, these tend to not however we are able to respond electronics guys in house.’ all know that things don’t always go to plan.

72 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – OPERATIONAL BACK-UP

Each F1 team transports 40 to 50 tonnes of equipment per race, which

equates to the entire F1 paddock filling up the cargo hold of six jumbo jets
Add to that, the transportation of dangerous
liquids through international borders along with
unpredictable weather and a short time-frame,
and you begin to appreciate just some aspects
of the challenge DHL faces every week.
‘A feature of our work, especially when
operating within the fast-moving environment
of F1, is that things don’t go exactly according
to plan,’ explains Blackman. ‘Flights are regularly
delayed or teams need components more
urgently than originally agreed, so we always
have a range of contingencies that we can put
into action if something doesn’t work out.’

Streets ahead
The established races in the calendar are now
more of a routine for DHL in some respects, but
the new grands prix always present challenges
as they have to navigate through new custom
requirements and deal with specific cultural
and logistics demands. And then there are the
peculiar demands of street tracks.
‘Monaco and Baku probably differ the most
CP Autosport has developed this labour-saving laser-aligned setting up system which allows a single mechanic to complete from the other races due to their inner-city
the first set-up on a racecar in as little as 20 minutes. The Setup Wizzard is currently being developed for use in Formula E locations, which require more careful planning
for the last-mile delivery and bring more time
Case study: Riedel pressure for unpacking and packing,’ says
Blackman. ‘However, this is our bread and butter
work – as a project logistics team, we specialise

R
iedel supplies radio It’s a long way from the old The company is also using in managing the quick and efficient delivery of
support to Formula 1, days at Le Mans, where ‘Crackly racing to develop its broadcasting major motorsports events to different locations
which sounds simple Ken’ was a familiar sight in the product, and to investigate future around the world in challenging time-frames.’
right up until you look at the pitlane as teams struggled to technologies. ‘There is a lot of work
detail behind it. Formula 1 has speak to their drivers as the signal on MPLS (Multi Protocol Layer Space race
changed, so that the radio in the bounced off trees, although System) connection – it’s a special This year’s 25 per cent wider tyres and larger
car this season is over telemetry. natural foliage is still an issue at internet dedicated system,’ says front and rear wings has had a huge knock
Riedel picks up the drivers’ voices some circuits. ‘Some of the tracks Rossi. ‘All the F1 teams use it and on effect for DHL as well as the teams. The
and with the radio the team can such as Spa and Monza needs we’re starting to use it in DTM and garages at some circuits such as Monaco and
communicate, but there is no a lot of adjustment in how you other championships because it Montreal are extremely small and so with all the
longer a Riedel part in the car. propagate the signal and construct can connect people in real time, equipment, engineers and mechanics that are
‘The difficulties sometimes is the signal,’ says Rossi. ‘For example they don’t have to be at the track. required to be next to the race bays it results in
the back-to-back races because we supply the medical car, the Instead of sending 60 people on, a very cramped environment. This reduces the
of dismounting on Sunday and safety car, all the marshals and we send the signal home and then efficiency of the mechanics simply because they
then you start again on Tuesday everything has to be connected to they only need to travel with five have no space. This can be crucial in the panic of
and obviously some countries race control, so it takes a little bit people. This kind of technology qualifying where every second counts to release
have more challenges than others,’ of experience and time to make it in Europe, the latency is about the car in that sweet spot where the track has
says Dario Rossi, head of the work flawless. It also depends on 10ms, in far away countries such evolved and there is still time to get a run in. For
motorsport division at Riedel. ‘Of the weather. If its raining or dry as Australia it is about 60ms. If you DHL, the effect of the 60mm width increase on
course, with the FIA we have a lot you have to change the setting. It’s have to go to Australia to Italy then the front tyres and 80mm increase on the rear
of infrastructure because we also not the signal physically, it’s how to the UK it’s 60ms. is multiplied, as they transport approximately
have an installation team which you propagate it in the same way. ‘The challenge is all the 42,800 tyres around the world. Add to this the
comes one week in advance to put infrastructure for the FIA. In larger tyre blankets and trolleys, the larger
the fibre in the pitlane, garages City limits race control we supply a lot of spare front and rear wings, and DHL have a
and paddock. with back-to-back ‘In the city you have different equipment and developed a lot monumental challenge to overcome this year.
races, we do it one week in problems,’ Rossi adds. ‘You of software to manage the race, To help manage the scheduling and tracking
advance and then go to the other have more reflection due to recording signals, cameras for pits of all the cargo worldwide, logistic companies
event with a second kit, come in the buildings in the inner city stops and pitlane and that has to have had to develop their own software.
Monday after the race and then go races such as those held at Baku, be 100 per cent reliable. Working Woodland Group, the logistics partner for World
back to doing the other one.’ Monaco and Singapore.’ in real time is really a challenge.’ Rallycross, have a track and trace system which

74 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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TECHNOLOGY – OPERATIONAL BACK-UP

‘With so many back-

allows it to have tracking of all its freight for 24 to the racetracks. This not only involves the
hours a day and seven days a week. organisation of flights and hotels, but transfers,

to-back races this year

‘We have a first class operating and visas and passports. Traditionally, this would
communication system which not only gives require colour-coded, mass spreadsheets, but a
teams access to costings, but also the ability to system called TravelCheck has been developed
we have to work on the see exactly where their goods are at any given by Trenchant Technologies to accumulate all
time,’ explains Kevin Stevens, CEO of Woodland this data into one central hub. This can then
operational side of things Group. ‘We have a strong team of IT developers be used to break an event down into multiple
to ensure our systems meet the requirements stages which can be manipulated individually,
straight after the race’ of the teams, and event organisers, rather than
insisting they fit in to our system.’
but combined to form a coherent itinerary. The
interaction between the stages can be defined
As well as transporting equipment, and staff can be assigned to specific tasks to
another dimension to logistics is, of course, ensure they are completed. TravelCheck also has
getting the teams, suppliers and organisers an advanced checking capability to maintain
traveller’s details such as passports, visas, driving
licenses, vaccinations, emergency contact
Case study: CP Autosport details and even flight preferences, with any
issues or conflicts immediately flagged up.

C
P Autosport has designed which might be more than an different options; Module Easy ‘By keeping all this information in one place,
a laser measurement tool hour,’ says Sebastian Bleil, manager which is our entry kit for semi-pro’ TravelCheck minimises the scope for mistakes
that takes string out of of CP’s Setup Wizzard. ‘The second racing or hobby racers. Then the creeping in, which can often happen when
the equation when measuring measurement with the adjusted Module Basic, Module Basic Plus you are moving details from one system to
up a car. The system can be used system at the race track is about and then our top notch Module another,’ highlights Chris Drew, director and co-
to measure chassis alignment, five minutes or so. We have tried to Pro which is used in different GT3 founder of Trenchant Technologies. ‘To ensure
the width of the car, the toe and make the system more easy to use series and 24 Hours of Nurburgring TravelCheck satisfies real-world requirements,
camber angle, while there is also a and quicker which is essential.’ and Le Mans,’ says Bleil. ‘Currently we spent last year working with the travel
caster angle measurement that is The system comes with a laser we are developing a new system offices of several F1 teams, improving the
currently in development. leveller, which is able to produce for Formula E cars, so we are functionality and integrating additional features,
The company is relatively a flat surface even if a car is on a adapting the system from the so effectively the system has been designed by
new, and has been developed racetrack with an uneven surface. heavy GT cars to lighter cars. the very people who will use it daily.’
in conjunction with race teams It also has a height adjuster in We’re trying to minimise weight
who have been consulted over case of working on grass behind in this new design as our system For good measure
their own requirements. ‘With a paddock. Height adjustment needs to be heavier and more There are personnel advantages to be found
our system the first set up of the is around 45mm for the scales, stable for the GT cars.’ in equipment, too. For example, CP Autosport
system is 20 minutes compared and the adjustment range is (see case study) has produced a measurement
to first set up with normal scales 135mm.‘We’re offering four Inspector’s gadget system that requires fewer mechanics to use
The company is also targeting than before. ‘It is an all in one solution,’ says
scrutineers: ‘Our system is tailor Sebastian Bleil, manager of its Setup Wizzard,
made for each team and each which is a chassis alignment system that can
car. You need to change the measure the width of the car, the toe angle and
adapters for all the different cars, the camber, while its is also developing a caster
so you could measure all the angle measurement too. ‘It should be the only
Lamborghinis, switch the adapters system currently on the market that is able to
and then measure all the Porsches. measure all the correct width, ride height and
So it’s not a clear advantage for the camber, toe measurement. We are the only one
FIA to use our system to improve in the market who are offering this solution. The
their process as there is not much biggest advantage is it’s able to operate with
time saving. But we were targeting one person, so you don’t need two mechanics,
the best possible solution for a only one mechanic. Everything is computer
specific car within a team and we based, information is transferred to the system
are state of the art in that respect.’ itself to store the measurements. It’s easy to use
CP has just begun to sell the at the racetrack because it saves lots of time.’
system, so two engineers attend On top of all this, as modern technology
at the races to help with technical continues to develop the capabilities of electric
support, but that will change as vehicles this will also help logistic companies
the system is sold further afield. such as DHL to utilise electric trucks and forklifts
Cost will be contained, too: ‘With to make their efforts more efficient. ‘We believe
our cheaper systems we designed the biggest future improvements will come
them so teams could still use their from technology that allows us to capture and
own scales and not have to sell review performance data more efficiently in
them, which also reduced the both IT systems and also Internet of Things
cost of our system so they could applications,’ explains Blackman. ‘This will help
afford it in their budget,’ says us to plan routes, select suppliers, consolidate
Hannes Plesse, manager of shipments and track goods in transit even
Setup Wizzard has been developed in GT racing but will have wider applications performance parts at CP. more efficiently than we do today.’

76 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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TECHNOLOGY – BATTERY MANAGEMENT

In charge of charge
A battery is just dead weight in the car without a fully functioning
battery management system to ensure it works correctly. Racecar
gets plugged in to the current thinking on all things BMS
By LEIGH O’GORMAN

Formula E in Paris. The racecars in the all-electric

series rely heavily on complex battery management
systems. A BMS monitors the state of charge,
temperature and the health of the battery

W
hile investigating the future of technologies. With experience working as a are not as keen to push the boundaries with
battery technology last year control engineer with the Renault Formula 1 technology as maybe they were back in the ’60s.’
(December’s issue, V26N12), team and as the head of control systems testing Despite the huge budgets Formula 1
it became clear that there are with the short-lived but hugely successful Brawn throws at design and engineering efforts,
currently experiments being carried out on GP team, before becoming chief engineer of Lyons believes modern battery management
developing battery chemistries, but some of Drayson Racing’s electric drivetrain division, technology is still something absorbed
these are a long way from mass production and Lyons is well versed in this technology. from road car technology, rather than being
even further away from use in motorsport. Conceptually, Lyons considers motorsport developed within the motorsport environment.
For the time being, then, the focus appears relatively risk averse with regards to certain But he also feels things are beginning to change.
to be at looking at developing the cells and forms of battery technology, and while that may ‘We see in F1, WEC (LMP1) and Formula E, the
packaging that is now in use. But also very much not sound positive upon first consideration, first incarnations of electric racecars were taking
under the microscope is the area of battery he does think there is a good reason for this. technology that had been developed elsewhere
management system (BMS) design. ‘Motorsport these days has got to be pretty and really just optimising and tweaking it. There
A director at Rockfort Engineering, Angus careful, because any accident that happens does have been design modifications to make them
Lyons, has spent much of his motorsport so at a high profile level – particularly when more appropriate for motorsport and that has
career developing battery and powertrain technology companies get involved, so they seen some pretty big steps.

78 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

 ‘The most important job of
the battery management
system is for it to allow
us to have every cell at
the same voltage’

Naturally enough, battery management

system development is a big part of the
Formula E series. Paul McNamara is technical
director for Williams Advanced Engineering.
Having supplied batteries to FE since its
inception, McNamara and his team are well
versed in the methodology behind BMS. He
Formula E power pack with hi-vis warning for mechanics. Part of the reason motorsport has been slow to says: ‘BMS is [about] looking after and doing a
develop both battery and battery management technology is because of the safety issues that are involved lot of safety type functions and deciding when
to intervene, [while] allowing the battery to do
its thing. One of the prime things about BMS is
managing the temperature, state-of-charge and
state-of-health of the battery, because in many
ways the battery operates relatively passively
in terms of delivering its current.’

Terminal velocity
Prins Doornekamp is the founder and chief
technical officer of Super-B Batteries, a Dutch-
based battery technology company that has
been in operation for a decade and supplies
to motorsport outfits in many categories.
Doornekamp and his company project a
straightforward concept to the BMS technology.
‘Safety and longevity,’ he states. ‘The primary
goal if you look at the whole battery system
technology, you design the battery for safety.
Electric power is making its presence felt at all levels of motorsport these days. The ETH Zurich Formula The BMS makes sure that you have a safe
Student car has 220 cells in its battery pack and its BMS can adjust the voltage to each cell individually battery and that you don’t overcharge it. You
don’t want the battery to catch fire. A really
good BMS with good balancing systems also
prolongs the life of your battery,’ he says.
A focus student with ETH Zurich, Tobias
Zunsteg is its Formula Student team’s
cell connection specialist. Zurich runs
an electric vehicle, so Zunsteg’s position
and understanding of the BMS balance of
performance and safety is of critical importance.
‘The most important part of the battery
management system is for us to have every cell
at the same voltage,’ he says. ‘We have 220 cells
in our battery pack. Our system goes so far
that we have monitoring on all our cells and
can balance them, so we can adjust the voltage
of each cell individually. We are required – but
it’s also good for our own safety – to look at
all cell temperatures, and it is an important
part of our battery management system to
watch this key data all the time.’
Formula E (pictured at Monaco) and LMP1 both have more complex battery management systems than those As mentioned above, Lyons believes that
that are currently seen in Formula 1. This is mainly down to the fewer cells that are used in the F1 batteries motorsport is still being a bit conservative in its

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 79

TECHNOLOGY – BATTERY MANAGEMENT

‘Motorsport these days has got to be pretty careful, because

any accident that happens does so at a high profile level’
application of battery technology. He expands Formula E or LMP1 cars, due to the fewer traditional computer architecture, such as an
upon the reason for this. ‘When you take a number of cells used in F1 battery packs. SDI bus. It’s just using next generation
battery that is being used in a fairly benign Lyons also cites developments in the area of technologies to help get information moved
environment of road cars, and you push it into data communication as key to the progression around a bit more quickly.’
a much harder environment, the main thing of battery management systems. Whereas This is an area that Zunsteg also believes
you are trying to do is protect the chemistry he considers CAN as the standard go-to is developing. However, his focus looks more
and protect the battery from a safety point of communications system, it is a low-bandwidth towards lightweight concepts and design. ‘For
view, so what tends to happen is that battery system – a factor underlined further when the future, this may even have light transmitted
management system technology almost comes the number of cells that are being measured data,’ says the ETH Zurich man. ‘Previous years,
with the batteries themselves.’ increases significantly. ‘You want to measure there had been a bunch of wires going through
the parameters of all of them [and] you need a accumulator boxes. We have improved the
Current affairs higher bandwidth, so there are some systems connection between the different sensors and
According to Lyons, the battery management out there,’ says Lyons. ‘Certainly in the next that was a big challenge. For the management
systems currently used in the Formula 1 arena five years we will see systems using possibly system to have CPUs that are able to transmit
are simpler, compared to those used in the Ethernet, possibly fibre optic, certainly we’ll see a lot of data, [while] the sensors are getting
some of the next generation CAN FD [higher smaller, transmission of all the data is difficult
bandwidth CAN] and some of them use more and it is easy to create errors in the path of the
data. In our case, we have 200 cells [which send
data] and around it are other electronic parts in
the car, which also send data and for our system,
it needs to distinguish between data from the
cells and other data and other noise.’
As a battery constructor, Doornekamp
believes an increase in the standards applied
by the IEC (International Electrotechnical
Commission) – specifically the IEC 62619 – has
significantly improved BMS design. ‘That gives
guidelines about proper BMS design. For
example, if you measure the temperature, how
do you know you have measured the accurate
The hybrid drive system in temperature? It’s the same for voltage. Because
a Jaguar XF. Much of the of those guidelines, the BMS has improved and
motorsport BMS kit is still the overall battery, reliability, performance and
derived from road car systems safety will dramatically increase.’

Chemistry set
McNamara adds that while Williams Advanced
Engineering is not looking into long term
chemistries it is examining the possibility of
making battery management systems specific to
cell chemistry. ‘You do the testing at a cell level
for a specific chemistry to understand how that
cell behaves, especially temperature, voltage
and duty cycle. The battery management
system hardware can stay the same, but you
can programme the parameters within those
algorithms. I don’t think anyone is doing it yet,
but we are seeing signs of it in high performance
batteries. We’re thinking, with better algorithms,
you can predict and forecast trouble with cells
and manage it earlier, so we can live with a less
stable cell chemistry. What we also research is
technology to monitor the cell.’
The development of hybrid regulations
in motorsport has added an extra layer of
complication for racing teams in recent years,
but engineers have adapted and are readily
applying the battery management knowledge
One of the big challenges with the Zurich BMS was to make sure the data that was coming from the cells was to this very modern aspect of motorsport.
easily distinguishable from the other data in the car. Light-transmitted battery cell data could be the future Zunsteg doesn’t consider this aspect a particular

80 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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TECHNOLOGY – BATTERY MANAGEMENT

‘Batteries are a little bit like tyres in that they are

extremely difficult to model accurately and consistently’

Electric GT is poised to join Formula E in the

international motorsport firmament. BMS
development will continue so as to meet the
growing demand for battery-powered racecars

barrier, as ‘it’s just like charging our batteries, level of secrecy that the teams desire, cloud- chemistries, so you could pretty much throw
but 10 times a higher current,’ he says. ‘This extra based systems are being used on a more away your algorithms when we move to
current is not detected specifically by the BMS, regular basis, he says. ‘We are seeing more lithium-air or sulphur,’ Lyons adds. ‘Some of the
but rather the input sensors, which log output and more that using cloud-based tools gives underlying algorithms might be carried over,
and input current as well as overall voltage. you quick and easy access to very powerful but the knowledge and the chemical system
This is connected then with our vehicle control computing hardware, very powerful data modelling all starts again, so as a learning
unit where each cell values get collected, analysis software, [and] that helps with the exercise where, as an industry, the battery
as well as the input/output sensor – we call it analysis in the learning and the understanding and electric car industry is getting better, is
‘The Shunt’ – where we have control over the and subsequently the optimisation.’ being able to get to where we were with all the
whole current and whole voltage, before it chemistries more quickly.’
continues to the inverters.’ Trickle charge Doornekamp, too, believes that new
Lyons has a different take on the proposition. In our previous study in the December issue of chemistries may well alter BMS design in
‘It’s knowing how to use that [energy], because Racecar, we saw that burgeoning chemistries, the future and he thinks the change will be
ideally by the end of your journey, if you know such as lithium sulphur and lithium air and significant. ‘Most of those systems are designed
the car is going to be plugged in, you should solid-state batteries were many years away for high energy density and a low discharge
try to make sure that battery is empty, and it’s from mass production, a point once again rate. In vehicles, we don’t need so much energy,
the same with racing applications,’ says Lyons. acknowledged by Lyons. ‘The chemistries are but we need high discharge currents and high
‘We know the conditions that the car is going really dangerous on the R&D side of things. charge currents, so it has to be seen whether
to be driving in, we know the length of the Motorsport pushes things quite hard, [so] the those technologies are suitable for application.’
race, we know the likely conditions, but using batteries have got to be fairly advanced before Zunsteg, however, contends that while he
that energy to the best and making sure that the manufacturers are happy to apply them to believes that the actual battery management
wherever you are able to recover energy under motorsport applications,’ he says. system would unlikely change, this may depend
braking, you to have capacity in the battery. ‘Where we are seeing things evolving in on the construction of the accumulators and
‘It’s pointless to come up to the biggest terms of BMS is the intelligence of the software how it may alter the packaging.
braking point in a lap and the battery is still full and thinking about what is done with that
up, because you can’t recover anything; you are data, so in the early days it was a fairly simple Battery modelling
just wasting energy,’ Lyons says. application of just calculating the parameters in There are still weaknesses to be addressed
Development of IT infrastructures and which the batteries have got to be kept in order in modern battery management systems,
computing systems has also helped engineers to maintain safety margins,’ Lyons adds. ‘Where particularly when it comes to the understanding
get a better grasp of BMS technology, we are seeing most of the development is more of what is happening inside the battery during
particularly as cloud-based IT solutions become intelligent buffer algorithms to track, model and live running. ‘Batteries are a little bit like tyres;
more prominent. In the automotive world understand both the short term and the long they are extremely difficult to model accurately
several manufacturers gather data from cars term charge and health of the battery, and then and consistently. You can’t measure what’s
sold to customers, allowing them to understand work out how hard the battery can be pushed happening right inside a battery, so there are
how internal systems are being used. based on that improved information. lots of technologies being developed, which
While Lyons admits that this is not as ‘A lot of the more dedicated developments are attempting to infer what’s happening
popular a concept in motorsport, due to the relate to the algorithms and they go with the by external measurements and external

82 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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TECHNOLOGY – BATTERY MANAGEMENT

‘There will be more and more processing power required and we

might well see that the computing power will steadily increase’
characteristic changes,’ says Lyons. He also a decade ago, where complex and intelligent really be driven by developing chemistries.
believes modelling will play a greater part in algorithms were developed that could track, ‘BMS is a tool to get the best out of the battery,’
BMS design, potentially forcing the motorsport predict and estimate the internal wear of an says Lyons. He also says the batteries that push
industry to grapple problems head on. ‘There’s a internal combustion unit. Formula 1 or LMP1 machines are very much
lot more in terms of testing and characterisation ‘I think it is much the same, but with quite about power, but with very limited energy, and
of mathematical modelling of the chemistries. a different challenge in what you are trying that it is still difficult to get the right balance
In the old days, it might have been you were 20 to understand,’ Lyons says. ‘Motorsport has of power and energy from chemistries used at
per cent modelling and 80 per cent experience got to be socially responsible these days and this time. ‘What I am excited by is some of the
to get to the point where you had a good BMS; people do generally accept that if a battery new chemistries I see. We are seeing some very
now it’s far more towards the modelling and lasts a season in racing, that’s pretty good. It’s exciting chemistries coming along, which are
simulation and less reliant upon the experience developing techniques and understanding that going to allow us to get much better range and
and testing side of things. I think that’s where help us get the best of it … but if you start off much better performance.’
over the next five to ten years we will start to with a battery that has got ‘just’ enough
see some really quite interesting technologies capacity to do a race and you lose 10 per Distance learning
coming out where people will be able to better cent or 20 per cent of that capacity through However, Lyons also notes that these
track what is happening inside the battery.’ the course of the season, then clearly you will developments are still in their early days and
have a problem at the end of the season. that it may be some time before they make a
Chain reaction ‘The hardware and the electronics will just tangible difference to the motorsport world, but
Lyons also points to other potential challenges, evolve in a logical sense, but there probably he thinks the combination of chemistry changes
such as the management of the chemical won’t be anything that is totally bespoke to and BMS development will see a two-to-three
reactions and the manner in which information batteries or to motorsport,’ Lyons adds. ‘It will times range extension within the next decade.
is communicated internally. ‘If you thump down be the application of new technology in terms ‘In terms of batteries and battery
a straight taking power out of your battery hard, of communication transfer. Where the bespoke management, we will see some pretty
you get various accumulations and chemical developments will be is the modelling and cool technologies – not necessarily unique,
reactions occurring and building up,’ he says. understanding, so there will be more and but still pretty cool technology, just in terms
‘You get chemical accumulations from the more processing power required and we of how the data is all gathered and pulled
cathodes and anodes of the battery and that might well see the computing power will together into the one place and analysed.
changes what actually happens in terms of the steadily increase. Looking at real time modelling We will then see some very, very complex
chemical conversion process. right down at a chemical level, you will probably and intelligent systems in terms of the
‘Thrown into the mix you have got resistant need a lot more processing power.’ tracking analysis and understanding of
properties, thermal properties, you’ve got aging the algorithms, and I think that’s going to
properties and tracking and understanding that Chemical future make a difference,’ Lyons says.’
is an extremely big challenge,’ Lyons says. Lyons is excited about the possibilities McNamara adds that controlling the
Lyons compares the current challenges to presented by the future of battery management complexity and cost of batteries and battery
those faced by engine designers in Formula 1 systems, though he believes this future will management systems design is an important
focus and something that Williams Advanced
Engineering is keen to achieve.
‘I think the future of BMS design is about us
getting to what is really important for the cell
and being able to come up with very compact
and simple ways of detecting and controlling, so
we can make the battery management systems
simpler and lower cost than they are now, and
doing more,’ McNamara says. ‘The challenge
overall in the battery industry is to make
batteries cheaper and lighter.’
Meanwhile, Doornekamp is excited about
the complex mathematical solutions that
are possible. ‘As an engineer, it’s all in the
algorithms. To be able to accurately [project]
state-of-charge, state-of-health – very complex
algorithms, that’s what I like the most.’
Certainly, there is plenty to come with
battery management system technology, but
although it may be some time yet before we see
a sea change on the technology, with batteries,
and in turn battery management systems,
becoming such a major facet of modern
The Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 car uses an A123 Systems battery located in the cockpit. Really big developments in battery international motorsport, the spark is surely
systems are likely to be focussed on chemistries rather than the BMS; the latter simply a tool to get the most from the battery there for ongoing development.

84 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – CHASSIS SIMULATION

Committing sims
Racecar’s numbers man not only argues passionately in favour of the
use of chassis simulation, but also does the maths to back it up
By DANNY NOWLAN

Many are guilty of taking a blinkered approach to

racecar engineering that does not include using
chassis simulation. But is that a big mistake?

W
hen we are caught up in the using simulation. No, what we are about sport. You see this in the knee-jerk reactions
day-to-day running of a racecar, to discuss is based on hard-won experience of regulatory bodies to new technologies and
things that we should be doing that would be foolish to ignore. the attitude that technology has destroyed
tend to slide. It’s a symptom I Before we get started, though, one myth the show. If you actually agree with this then I
see from club level motorsport right up to the we need to dispel immediately is the attitude suggest you Google some of the wheel to wheel
big end of town, and more often that not it is a that using simulation is not important when action of Audi vs Porsche in the WEC.
symptom of just being too busy. One of those running a racecar. The reason I need to address Nothing can be further from the truth,
things that tends to slide is racecar simulation. this is because of one of the great tragedies because simulation and running your car are
However, if you are serious about attaining in motorsport. That is that there is a resident two skills that not only go hand in hand, they
and maintaining a competitive edge then technophobia/hysteria that is always just are essential if you want to succeed. As a case in
simulation needs to be one of the first things bubbling beneath the surface. This pretty point, no one has ever been able to explain to
you do. But I must add here that I don’t write much says something that smacks of anything me why measuring up a racecar is a bad idea.
this because I have a vested interest in everyone more complicated than 1+1 = 2 is evil for the Also, no one has ever successfully explained to

The irrational attitudes I see towards data acquisition totally baffle me

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 87
 TECHNOLOGY – CHASSIS SIMULATION

No one has ever successfully explained to me why understanding

your tyres is somehow not useful when you’re running a racecar
me why actually understanding your tyres is
somehow not useful when running a racecar.
Or let me put it another way. If someone offered
you a tool where you could quantify what your
car can do and allowed you to mathematically
articulate what you could do with a set-up, why
would you say ‘no’? This is exactly what you have
in your hands with racecar simulation.

Irrational attitudes
To kick things off we need to outline where
simulation fits into the motorsport food chain. It
goes without saying that the first thing you do
when running a racecar is to ensure it’s reliable,
it runs and it doesn’t fall apart. The second item
on the agenda is to put some data acquisition
Figure 1: Pitch correlation from a touring car; front pitch behaviour under braking is not adding up. Sim trace is in black here on the car. Think of this another way. Let’s say
you’re sick and you need to go to the doctor.
Table 1: Suspension geometry parameters You walk into the doctor’s office and rather
Variable Value than seeing a wise doctor with a white coat and
stethoscope, you see an individual dressed up
Front Motion Ratio (Damper/Wheel) 0.63
in some crazy witch doctor’s get-up who comes
Front spring rate 123N/mm
to his/her diagnosis by chanting some weird
Front braking force 1224.5kgf
songs and shaking their body parts over a very
Rear braking force 885kgf
suspect looking voodoo doll. I don’t know about
Front pitch centre 50mm
you lot, but I would be heading for the nearest
Rear pitch centre 180mm
exit. So it baffles me on a daily basis the utter
c.g height 0.43m
and total irrational attitudes I see towards data
Wheelbase 2.794m
acquisition. The next step is to measure up the
car and then that’s where simulation fits in. The

EQUATIONS reason simulation fits in at this point is that it

allows you to makes sense of everything else.
To illustrate this, let’s consider when you
Equation 1 don’t have correlation from the simulated vs
FBF ⋅ (h − pc f ) + FBR ⋅ (h − pcr ) actual model. This is really powerful because
LTSM = when you don’t have correlation the simulator
wb is trying to tell you something. The pitch
9.8 *1224.5 ⋅ (0.43 − 50e − 3) + 9.8 * 885 ⋅ (0.44 − 180e − 3) correlation shown in Figure 1 illustrates this
= point very well. As always actual is coloured and
2.794
simulated black. This is powerful because it gives
= 2408 N you the opportunity to explore numerically
Equation 3 why something in the data isn’t adding up. As

Equation 2
TC RAD = ka (1 − kb ⋅ Fz ) ⋅ Fz we can see the speed, steer, acceleration and
rear damper correlation is very good. What’s not
0.5 * LTSM adding up is front pitch under braking.
∂Damp _ ft = Here we have:
k f ⋅ MR f
TCRAD = Traction circle radius of the tyre (N) Summer’s time
0.5 ⋅ 2408 ka = Initial coefficient of friction When faced with a situation like that shown
= kb = Normalised friction coefficient with load (1/N) above the first thing you do is hand calcs. I
122.6 ⋅ 0.63 Fz = Normal load can’t speak for other simulation packages, but
= 15.6mm ChassisSim returns all the applied forces and
force based pitch centres and roll centres. What
Equation 4 1 this means is that you can now sanity check
LP =
2 ⋅ kb what it’s doing. Let me illustrate via example
by sanity checking the simulated pitch under
braking. The parameters we where dealing with
are shown in Table 1. Now that we have this
information to hand, calculating the simulated
pitches is very straightforward. This is illustrated

88 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

The bulk of what we do as race and performance engineers is balancing
the terms of what I like to call the racecar grip and balance equation
in Equation 1. So, crunching the numbers on
the damper movement it is seen in Equation 2.
While this may look like a trivial calculation
this gives you the tools to validate if the
simulation is working as advertised or not. If it is
working and you do have a discrepancy it opens
a window of opportunity to actually see what is
going on. This illustrates one of the great powers
of simulation and it’s why the above example is a
staple at the ChassisSim boot-camps.

Super model
The second reason why simulation needs
to be one of the first things you do is with
the understanding of your tyres. The basic
building block of any tyre model is the second
order traction circle radius vs load equation.
Mathematically this can be expressed as
Equation 3. The nail with Equation 3 is that any Figure 2: Tyre model visualisation. The basic building block of any tyre model is the traction circle radius vs the load
tyre can be approximated by Figure 2. Here we
have the peak load, Lp, that can be expressed
mathematically by Equation 4.
What this means in plain English is that the
maximum force of any tyre can be expressed as
a peak load with a peak force of half the initial
coefficient of friction multiplied by the peak
load. It doesn’t give you the full story but if gives
you more than enough to form the basis of good
correlation. The great thing is that sim packages
like ChassisSim can help you fill in these details.
The reason we are going to all this trouble
is that this gives you the ability to numerically
quantify what a set-up is doing. The bulk of
what we do as race and performance engineers
is balancing the terms of what I call the racecar
grip and balance equation. This can be illustrated
graphically in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

Sim-plified Figure 3. This chart illustrates the total grip vs the lateral load transfer distribution at the front end of a racecar
What we as race engineers do is to try to arrive
at a lateral load transfer distribution that gives
us good grip but ensures the car is drivable.
The power of simulation is that it gives you a
tremendous short cut. The reason for this is that
in the past the shapes of Figure 3 and Figure 4
were unknown and you had to get there with a
lot of track time. With tools like ChassisSim’s tyre
force modelling toolbox you can start to answer
the questions in a fraction of the time.
So the critical question to ask right here is:
just why wouldn’t you want to make use of a
tool like this from day one?
But the ultimate proof of all this is in the
eating. This was graphically illustrated at the
World Time Attack Challenge in 2016. On this
weekend I was looking after the NA Autosport
Evo 6 entry in the open class. I spoke about Figure 4: This chart illustrates the stability index (STBI) vs the lateral load transfer distribution at the front of a racecar
this at length in my Racecar Engineering article
in November 2016 (V26N11) where I outlined

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 89

 TECHNOLOGY – CHASSIS SIMULATION

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Cuv_June_MBAC.indd 3

digi ss Figure 5: The tyre model for the NA Autosport Mitsubishi Evo 6 that competes in Australia’s World Time Attack Challenge

acce

supave%
to 44
Get the latest product
developments, technical Figure 6: Front dive plane simulated changes – this analysis was key to the Evo’s improved performance in the WTAC in 2016
insight and performance
analysis from the leading exactly what we did. However, just to give you numerically nail down what you are doing which
motorsport technology a highlights package of all that, it was actually is why it needs to be on the top of your to do list.
thanks to all the running we did in previous To wrap things up, one of the best
publication every month. years that we had a really good tyre model. descriptions of luck I’ve heard is ‘when
This is illustrated in Figure 5. preparation meets opportunity’. Simulation has
Ultimately, this laid the bedrock for being the preparation bit hard-wired into its DNA,
able to call the key changes to the racecar on which is why when running a racecar it needs to
To order, go to: the weekend. A key example of this is the front be one off the first things you do.
chelseamagazines.com/CRCEPP77 dive plane change that was crucial to the car’s As we have discussed in detail, simulation
success. This is illustrated in Figure 6. tools force you to look at the racecar when
Or call: The end result of all this was going from 17th
in 2015 to third in 2016. What laid the foundation
things aren’t adding up, and more importantly
it gives you the answers. Also, simulation allows
+44 (0)1858 438 443 for this success was all the simulation work that you to quantify what is going on with the tyre.
And quote CRCEPP77 for print, had gone on through the years previously to This forms the bedrock for achievements, such
or CRCEPD77 for digital. understand what the tyres needed. Indeed, I as the NA Autosport entry in World Time Attack
would go as far as to say that without this we Challenge in 2016. So the question you need to
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BUSINESS – PEOPLE

Interview – Oliver Oakes

Driving ambition
The boss of crack Formula 3 operation Hitech GP tells us what a former
race driver can bring to the role of race team management
By MIKE BRESLIN

I
XPB
n a remarkably short time Hitech GP has established when it comes to engineering and development. ‘It is still
itself as one of the top teams in the ultra-competitive an engineering challenge in some respects – it is one of the
FIA Formula 3 European Championship, to the extent most complex cars outside of F1 in terms of options of aero,
that it was branded one of the three ‘super teams’ last geometry, and components you can choose to run,’ Oakes
season; along with Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR) and Prema says, before adding: ‘However, it is also heading a little
Powerteam. But what sets Hitech apart from the other two towards the modern day formula of one-make and being
is that it is run by a former driver, rather than an F3 stalwart highly controlled by the regulators.’
with many decades of experience in the category, and a
relatively young former driver at that. Balance of power
Oliver Oakes (29) came to team management after his Yet despite this increasing level of control Oakes has some
single seater career stalled at F3. Always interested in business concerns that all is not quite so equal in F3 this year. ‘I think,
he took time away from the sport to work in finance, though as most people who have followed the first two rounds will
he kept his hand in by coaching current F3 hot shoe Callum have seen, it is clear that one engine brand has now had a
Ilot in karting – Oakes is a former karting world champion. He big input on the drivetrain side. So it looks like 2017 might be
then went on to form a karting operation which subsequently the year of a big engine disparity,’ he says.
grew into the current F3 squad. ‘It began as a sort of test team Races at those first two rounds at Silverstone and Monza
or small academy project to help drivers step up from karting were mostly won by Volkswagen powered cars, after VW’s
to cars [in Formula Renault]. Then in 2015 I saw that in F3 there tuner, Spiess, was allowed to modify its unit on reliability
was a lack of teams to compete with Prema and a lot of drivers grounds late last year (all Formula 3 engines are homologated
coming through the system from F4. We had in the team a few from 2014 until 2017). However, Monza has always been a VW
people with F3 knowledge and it kind of made sense to step circuit, so the jury is still out to a certain extent.
into FIA F3, which at that time was enjoying the Verstappen But beyond that, Oakes also questions the wisdom of cost
effect [Max, who had jumped from F3 to F1 that year].’ cutting in F3. ‘Sometimes you have to accept that there just
aren’t people out there with lots of money, and at the end of
Driver aids the day if you cost cut too much then you take away all the
While Oakes’ team management experience might have been good bits that the people were paying for anyway.’ Incidentally,
limited, what he did have was a very good insight into the
mind of the driver, though he admits that can be a double Hitech, pictured at Macau at the end of last season, has quickly
‘At the end of the edged sword. ‘I guess some things are positive and others can become one of the teams to beat in FIA European Formula 3

day if you cost cut frustrate my engineers! I believe a lot in our drivers. As a result I
am always pushing the race engineers to work more for them,’
too much you take Oakes says. ‘In general, though, I think what I bring is the ability
to see things from two or three different scenarios and that’s
away the good bits important, especially with a bigger operation. On the human
that people were side it helps to see things from a driver’s perspective. It is also
useful to be not so much older than some of the drivers; I can
paying for anyway’ relate to what they are going through on and off the track.’
Thus far this season Hitech has not had the best of starts
after a stellar showing last year. But in 2016 there was also a
perception that Hitech, Prema and VAR were spending huge
amounts on aerodynamic development and that as a result
other teams could not compete, nor attract drivers. Whether
that is true or not, because of this aero development has been
restricted this season and a bespoke aero kit has been brought
in with the intention of bringing costs down.
‘This season we have seen the banning of the expenditure
the teams were making in development on car parts in
wind tunnels etc.,’ Oakes says. ‘But on the other side we
have also spent a lot of money on update kits for each car
which were 40 per cent more expensive than we initially
discussed. So it was a bit of a Catch 22.’
Those update kits and aero restrictions also chip away
XPB

at what is the raison d’etre of Formula 3, its relative freedom

92 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

despite the recent changes the budgets have not reduced and
still sit in the €650,000 to €750,000 region.
All that said, Oakes is a Formula 3 man through and
RACE MOVES
XPB
through, and like many in the category he doubts there is a
better place to race right now: ‘F3 is probably the strongest Dr Jens Ludmann is now the chief
in the market in terms of quality of drivers, quality of teams, operating officer (COO) at McLaren
mileage given to drivers and the events we support. It is also a Automotive, where he will report to chief
series full of Formula 1 or manufacturer-linked young drivers executive officer (CEO) Mike Flewitt.
which shows they all believe in it,’ he says. Ludmann holds an International C race
At the moment Formula 3 is the only category Hitech’s licence and regularly competes in the
involved in, for unlike its rivals it does not have squads Nurburgring 24 Hour race.
competing in lower formulae or in Formula 2, although this
all eggs in one basket approach does not overly worry Oakes. Willie ‘The Cork’ Davis, the US
‘This was a conscious decision when we started Hitech,’ he race engineer who had a hugely
says. ‘We had to get up to speed quickly during 2015/16 in successful partnership with driver Gary
an operational sense and therefore we will still have some Bettenhausen, has died at the age of 87.
growing pains lingering during 2017. At the end of 2016, after Davis was involved in US single seater
a strong season in F3, there was a lot of talk about us adding a racing for five decades. He was elected to
team in F4 to feed into the F3 team and also to expand with a the Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1996 and
car in LMP2 or Formula E, so our F3 drivers had a step up into the USAC Hall of Fame in 2016.
those arenas, to keep them in the Hitech family. But I made the
decision to keep focusing on what we are doing in F3 for 2017, Cole Pearn, the crew chief on the
as we knew with the new rule changes and the way the world Furniture Row Racing No.78 car in the
economy was looking it would be a transitional year.’ NASCAR Cup Series, was fined $10,000
after one of the lug nuts on the
Formula 1 input Toyota he tends was found to be
It’s not quite all F3, though. ‘We have recently began some R&D improperly installed at post-race
projects for a manufacturer and that is an interesting area to scrutineering for the Bristol Motor
expand into, with support from the racing side, but also using Romain Grosjean is the new director of F1’s Grand Speedway round of the championship.
the development skills we had built up during 2016 that we are Prix Drivers’ Association, replacing Jenson Button in
now no longer allowed to use in F3,’ Oakes says. the role, the latter having retired from his full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series crew chief Greg
To this end former Formula 1 technical director Mark Smith position as a driver at the end of last season. The Haas Erwin was fined $10,000 after the
has been drafted in to help out as Hitech’s head of research and driver was voted in to the position by GPDA members No.22 Penske Racing Ford he looks
development, which is the sort of high profile hire that shows during the Russian Grand Prix. after failed post-race inspection when
the undoubted ambition of this organisation. As Oakes says: the left-front of the car was found to
‘My long term goal is to win championships with the great be running too low at the Bristol Motor
group of people we have put together at Hitech. Whether that The engineers for Tony Kanaan and Speedway round of the series.
be in F3 or another series. I think if you look at recent teams Charlie Kimball at IndyCar outfit Chip
outside of F1 there has only been two organisations that have Ganassi Racing have been switched, Billy Scott, who served as an
managed that year after year at the highest level, ART and with Todd Malloy moving from Kanaan’s Indianapolis 500 crew member before
Prema. For the moment they are the benchmark we need to Honda to work on the Kimball car, while going on to compete in the race as a
surpass. No UK team has managed that and I feel that as extra Eric Cowdin has moved in the other driver in 1976, has died at the age of 68.
motivation.’ With the above in mind, just maybe what a driver direction. Cowdin and Kanaan have Scott competed in drag racing before
also brings to the role of team manager, is drive. worked together in the past, winning switching to single seaters.
the Indianapolis 500 in 2013.
Well-known sportscar team boss Preston
One of rallying’s first major stars, Timo Henn has died at the age of 86. Henn
Makinen, has died at the age of 79. The won the Daytona 24 Hours both as a
Finn won a number of top level rallies, driver and as a team owner. His race
initially at the wheel of BMC cars such as team was usually backed by his Swap
the Austin Healey and more famously the Shop business empire, which was
Mini Cooper, while he also starred in Ford kick started with his idea of running
Escorts. He also drove Toyotas, BMW and flea markets in drive-in movie lots
Peugeots before retiring in 1981. when the spaces were not used to
show films during the daytime.
Eric Bretzman was given the job of
race engineering Fernando Alonso Holly Job, who alongside her husband
for the Spanish Formula 1 star’s highly Alex set up sportscar outfit Alex Job
publicised one-off outing in the Indy Racing in 1988, has died at the age of 60
500. Bretzman, who moved from Chip after a battle with cancer. IMSA president
Ganassi Racing to Andretti Autosport Scott Atherton said in a statement: ‘All
to be its technical director in the winter, of us at IMSA are heartbroken to hear of
achieved huge success at CGR as Holly Job’s passing. Alongside Alex from
Scott Dixon’s engineer, a partnership the beginning, Holly was instrumental in
that chalked up 34 IndyCar race wins, building Alex Job Racing into one of the
three championships and the 2008 most successful professional sportscar
Indianapolis 500 over a 12-year period. racing teams in the industry.’

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 93

BUSINESS – PEOPLE

Jean Todt to stand for third XPB

RACE MOVES – continued
term as the FIA’s president Drew Blickensderfer, the crew
chief on the No.43 Richard Petty
Jean Todt, the president of the told reporters: ‘A lot of people who Motorsports Ford in the NASCAR
FIA, has announced he is to stand voted for me are pushing me to Cup Series, has also been fined
for election for the position once go for another mandate. It is very $65,000 and suspended for three
again in December, meaning he important, because if I had a lot of races after the Aric Almirola-
would go in to a third term as the resistance not to go for election, driven car failed a rear wheel
FIA’s boss should he win. my decision would be much easier steer test at post race
Former Ferrari Formula 1 chief because I will then decide that I scrutineering at Talladega.
Todt first became president of will go [step down]. Director of engineering Scott
the FIA back in 2009, when he ‘As I get a lot of pressure, it will be McDougall will be the interim
beat legendary ex-rally driver Ari a lot more difficult to resist, so I will crew chief for Almirola during
Vatanen to clinch the position. Todt take that into consideration with my Blickensderfer’s suspension.
announced during the Spanish choice,’ Todt had said.
Grand Prix in mid-May that he now Todt has an impeccable Vijay Mallya, the boss of the Force India Former Formula 1 car designer
intends to stand once more. At the motorsport CV, having spent 13 Formula 1 team, was arrested in London in Mario Tolentino has died at the
time of writing there was no word on years at Scuderia Ferrari, first as late April by officers from the Metropolitan age of 68. He penned cars for
whether he will face any challengers. general manager and then as CEO, Police extradition unit, after India had formally Alfa Romeo (where he replaced
‘Today I was proud to announce while before that he was director requested Mallya’s extradition back in February. Gerard Ducarouge in 1982),
to all FIA club presidents my decision of Peugeot Talbot Sport from 1982 Indian authorities claim Mallya owes around Eurobrun and also Scuderia
to run for a third presidential term to 1993, leading it to success in the £900m following the collapse of one of his Italia’s Dallara in the 1980s. He
at the FIA,’ Todt said. WRC and at Le Mans. He started his businesses, Kingfisher Airlines, in 2013. was also responsible for both
Earlier this year the Frenchman career as a rally co-driver in 1966 the Lamborghini and the AGS
said he was under pressure from his and helped win a manufacturers’ Formula 1 cars that raced in 1991.
supporters to put himself forward title for Talbot in 1981 from the Paul Wolfe, the crew chief on
for the role once more, and he navigator’s seat of a Sunbeam. the No.2 Penske-run Ford in the Well-known UK engine builder
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Phil Cornish had died. Cornish
Series, has been fined a whopping started out as an apprentice at

F1 bolsters PR and management $65,000 and was suspended

for three races after the car he
Cosworth and then moved on
to George Whitehead’s WRA

teams with further appointments tends failed the post-race rear

wheel steer test on the LIS (Laser
Inspection Station) at the Phoenix
concern in the late ’60s. He was
renowned for his skills with
American V8s in drag racing,
The shake-up of the F1 management Marussia F1 team, he became head of Raceway round of the series. while he also built Ford BDAs
team that has been a feature of the new Communications at Formula E. He then Brian Wilson took Wolfe’s place for rallying and rallycross.
Liberty Media era has continued in to the moved to the FIA in October 2015. during his suspension.
European part of the season with some Meanwhile, Yath Gangakumaran has Sir John Whitmore, a star in
high profile hires and promotions across been hired as global head of strategy. He Former US single seater star Joe Minis and Lotus Cortinas in 1960s
Formula One Management. will be responsible for advising on strategic Leonard has died at the age of 84. saloon car racing and also a
On the PR side Formula 1 has decisions across all commercial operations Leonard started in motorcycles former Le Mans racer, has died
announced the appointment of well-known within the Formula 1 business, reporting then switched to Indy cars, racing at the age of 79. Whitmore retired
ex-Ferrari media man Luca Colajanni who, to Sean Bratches, managing director, at the Indianapolis 500 for the from race driving in 1966 and
as senior communications officer, will now Commercial Operations. Gangakumaran first time in 1965. His driving went on to become a pioneer
attend all the Formula 1 races. joins F1 from Sky Sports. career came to end after a of, and a renowned expert in,
Colajanni joined the Ferrari Internally, Chloe Targett-Adams has massive shunt in Ontario in 1974. the business performance
communications department in 1992 and been promoted to global director, Promoter Leonard saved the life of a fellow coaching industry.
managed the Scuderia’s press office from and Business Relations for F1, where she will competitor at Langhorne in 1965
2001 to 2012. After a short stint with the lead race promotion operations. Targett- when he pulled the unconscious Dr Preston Calvert has been
Adams joined F1 in 2009 as an in-house driver from a burning car. appointed as the medical adviser
lawyer, following her early career at leading for US GT and touring car series
media and entertainment firm, Harbottle At the time of writing it had been the Pirelli World Challenge, where
& Lewis LLP. Since 2012 she has worked reported that former Ferrari F1 he will work with the series’
closely with the Formula 1 leadership team boss Cesare Fiorio was in a critical safety team. Calvert, a well-
providing senior counsel on the negotiation condition after a cycling accident. known neurologist and neuro-
of all race promotion deals. As well as leading Ferrari at the ophthalmologist, will also work
F1 has also promoted Joanne Revill to end of the ’80s and beginning of closely with Marcus Haselgrove,
the post of communications officer. She the ’90s, Fiorio headed the Lancia the vice president (competition)
joined FOM in 2001 as a TV producer. As WRC assault in the ’70s and ’80s. of PWC promoter WC Vision.
well as scriptwriting, interviewing and
working in both live and post production,
she has been responsible over the past 16 u Moving to a great new job in motorsport and want the world to
XPB

years for creating exclusive content across know about it? Or has your motorsport company recently taken
Former Ferrari and Formula E PR man Luca traditional Formula 1 broadcast media and on an exciting new prospect? Then email with your information to
Colajanni has returned to grand prix racing digital platforms. She will now be in charge Mike Breslin at [email protected]
in a new position working for Formula 1 of the Formula 1 press office.

94 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017

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 BUSINESS – NEWS • PEOPLE • PRODUCTS

Electronics 3D printing
Better get yourself connected Rubber stamped

CRP Technology has launched Flexible parts manufactured

A new ultra-small 8STA circular removable No.26 contacts that can Windform RL, the first in Windform RL and stiff parts
connector series along with a handle wires from 24 to 30 AWG. Other thermoplastic elastomer in Windform materials can be
package of lightweight 8STA key features include seven colour-coded material within the Windform bonded together by epoxy resins
compatible accessories has been orientations, PCB options and a boot family of materials for or with mechanical joints.
announced by Lane Motorsport. termination feature. A single flange professional 3D printing. The material is said to show
The Souriau size 01 8STA connector version is also available. It is a durable thermoplastic excellent durability and stability. It
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construction with V -shaped The backlit LCD screen
displays measurements to
an accuracy of 0.1-degree
with a resolution of
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ensure the display remains
upright at all times.
Additional features Aeroflow has launched a range of hoses including E85 and E10, methanol, oils,
include a hold button to and fittings for competition use. lubricants and coolant systems.
freeze the display, and a The Kryptalon Series hoses feature The patented one-piece fitting design is
programmable audio alarm a Kevlar braid and Teflon liner that has a claimed to be easy to assemble with a pipe
to notify the user when convoluted outer and a smooth inner olive that sits on the outside of the braid;
a measurement is either bore design which eradicates boundary this unique design also helps save valuable
within or outside of a layer entrapment and minimises flow time during assembly, we’re told. The hoses
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the chosen angle. -4AN through to -20AN and are suitable hard anodised in a black or titanium finish.
www.bg-racing.co.uk for a large range of applications – fuels www.aeroflowperformance.eu

JULY 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 97

 BUMP STOP

PIT CREW
Last chance saloons
H
Editor onda made an interesting comment in the In the meantime, the TCR series is looking to expand into
Andrew Cotton
@RacecarEd paddock at Monza, saying that it would be trying the UK and into France, as well as the US in California, that last
Deputy editor
Sam Collins
to win the final World Touring Car Championship being particularly significant as the DTM was trying to secure
@RacecarEngineer title this year. A little further digging, and it seems a North American berth as part of its global expansion but the
News editor and chief sub editor
Mike Breslin
that they may be close to the truth, with the FIA rumoured Americans were not interested. That gives it more of a global
Design to be working closely with Hans Werner Aufrecht, formerly presence than before, and the fight with the FIA over the
Dave Oswald
of the DTM organisation, to deliver DTM cars into the WTCC, naming (TCR versus TCN2) seems to have been won in Lotti’s
Technical consultant
Peter Wright the only global touring car platform under direct FIA control. favour. The WTCC could do a deal to run the DTM cars, but
Contributors
Mike Blanchet, Ricardo Divila,
The current WTCC cars are going to be obsolete, and its that then leads to another set of problems; especially one of
Gemma Hatton, Simon McBeath, manufacturers are now looking to TCR. cost. If manufacturers are investing in a domestic series, taking
Danny Nowlan, Leigh O’Gorman,
Mark Ortiz, Serge Vanbockryck According to paddock rumour, the WTCC is set to take those same cars around the world involves more money
Photography a two-year sabbatical at the end of this season if new for transport of goods and personnel, and that’s a tall order
ACO Archives, DPPI, James Moy, Porsche
Historical Archives, Jean-Marc Tesseidre regulations cannot be agreed. At this stage this means that before the issue of the three continents is even addressed;
Deputy managing director
Steve Ross Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3730
the WTCC has two options; stick with its current cars for a fifth Europe and Japan would be relatively simple to sort out, but a
Email [email protected] season, or go with other cars that are already built; DTM. The third with a suitable track and a desire to have 4-litre naturally-
Advertisement Manager
Lauren Mills Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3796
TC1 cars that currently compete in the WTCC were introduced aspirated hi-tech carbon cars? That’s a challenge.
Email lauren.mills@ in 2014 with the highest technology that the WTCC had ever There is no doubt that the FIA would grease the path a
chelseamagazines.com
Circulation Manager Daniel Webb seen, and the cost reflected that. little to make it easier for all this to
A customer Chevrolet Cruze was
Touring car racing happen, but the activation costs for
Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3710
Email [email protected]
Publisher Simon Temlett around €600,000 for the chassis, a global series, when actually there

with such expensive

Managing director Paul Dobson plus the engine. The running is already a facility to do a customer-
Editorial
Racecar Engineering, Chelsea Magazine
costs, accident damage with the based programme, does not seem,
Company, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, carbon bodywork, and with the on paper, to make sense.
London, SW3 3TQ
Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3700
Advertising
global programme, has meant
that the privateer teams are
hi-tech racecars Touring car racing with such
expensive cars also makes no sense. A

makes no sense
Racecar Engineering, Chelsea Magazine
Company, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, seeking, and receiving, subsidies conversation with Lotti at Spa yielded
London, SW3 3TQ
Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3700 to continue racing, a short-term this nugget of motorsport wisdom.
Fax +44 (0) 20 7349 3701
solution to a long-term problem, The most popular global sport in the
Subscriptions
Tel: +44 (0)1858 438443 while the alternative, the low-technology TCR, is becoming world is soccer, and for less than £20 it is possible to buy a ball,
Email: racecarengineering@
subscription.co.uk ever-more attractive in terms of competition and costs. find a field and play the same game with the same number of
Online: www.subscription.co.uk/
chelsea/help
TCR is following a very similar path to the Blancpain GT3 players, to the same rules as in the World Cup. Why is motor
Post: Racecar Engineering, Subscriptions series. Promoters Marcello Lotti and Stephane Ratel worked racing so different that we actually need touring cars to be
Department, Tower House, Sovereign Park,
Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, LE16 9EF together on the Super Racing Weekend project from 2001 somewhere up there at the pinnacle of the cost pyramid?
Subscription rates to 2004 and both have built up internationally successful There is a different argument for Formula 1, the WEC and
UK £86.00 (12 issues)
USA $174 (12 issues) series and concepts. Their concept is simple; customer racing even Formula E, where the advancement of technology is
ROW £98 (12 issues)
provides a manufacturer with global exposure and they can the prime reason for the series, and the world has caught on
Back Issues
www.chelseamagazines.com/shop sell cars, while manufacturers can choose to promote or to the concept with amazing loyalty. Porsche’s race to road
News distribution ignore a series according to its own interests. The WTCC has programme featured in this magazine (page 8) is a testament
Seymour International Ltd, 2 East
Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT seen entries fall, with Citroen and Lada leaving as factory to how a manufacturer can positively view a high technology
Tel +44 (0) 20 7429 4000
Fax +44 (0) 20 7429 4001 efforts at the end of 2016, leaving Honda, which is already racing programme. But touring cars was never designed to
Email [email protected]
heavily involved in the TCR, and Volvo, which is also rumoured achieve that same goal. That was always the go-to place for
Printed by William Gibbons
Printed in England to be building a TCR car, although the World title is attractive highly entertaining racing and big personalities, while it was
ISSN No 0961-1096
USPS No 007-969 to the Swedes. With TCR also attracting the likes of Renault, also meant to be accessible to a wide variety of teams and
Hyundai and Kia, and having more spaces on grids around the brands. The DTM and the WTCC put themselves up there
world than can be filled, it’s an interesting turn of events. at the top of the pyramid and, perhaps, have convinced
But apparently there is some momentum from the themselves that they have made the right choice. In the
German manufacturers and one Japanese manufacturer to meantime, Lotti and Ratel are quietly plying their trades, very
compete on a global platform under the Class 1 rules with successfully, and the manufacturers seem to have grasped
DTM cars, but these won’t be ready to use in a race series their concept rather better than a factory race programme.
until the engine regulations are brought into line, and that
www.racecar-engineering.com
could be in 2019 at the very earliest. ANDREW COTTON Editor

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98 www.racecar-engineering.com JULY 2017