Formula One Partnered With an Unlikely Tech Giant To Help Create a New Race Car
Ru Chen
· 3 min read
Formula One has unveiled their
new car
for the 2022 season and we’re loving the revolutionary aerodynamic design. The interesting part is F1 partnered with Amazon to create it!
Amazon crunching data for Formula One
NewsBytes
reported that thanks to Amazon’s help, the new car is faster and cleaner than other models. F1 needed to run computer simulations to see how to revolutionize aerodynamics and wake flow, so they hired the help of the tech giant Amazon’s subsidiary: Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS has been crunching data for F1 to create the best design possible. They lent F1 engineers 2,500 processing cores so that they could run through simulations much more efficiently than if they used normal computers (which only have ~64 cores).
Amazon claimed to have cut down the simulation runtime by 80%. That’s a ton of time saved for F1 as they run simulations using computational fluid dynamics (a mathematical method).
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New design reduces ‘dirty air’ the car leaves in its wake
When a car leaves behind dirty air, the cars racing after it will suffer downforce losses and become unstable to drive.
That’s why F1 has departed from the usual look of the front and rear wings of racing cars. Instead of hard edges, the new design has sweeping curves.
The objective is to encourage closer and more exciting races, especially through corners.
Special upgrades for the Formula One cars
The current-generation car suffers from 35% to 46% of downforce losses. The new design reduces the downforce losses to 4% to 18%, which makes a tremendous impact on the ease of chasing after other cars.
The wheels have increased from 13 to 18 inches, and the new F1 cars will use low-profile tires for the first time. Bespoke wheel covers and wake control devices are added to improve airflow, which is what matters when racing.
The new design will also have:
- A new front wing shape
- Simplified suspension
- Underbody Venturi tunnels
Formula for the future
MORE: You Should Stick to Speed Limits Even on a Race Track
The new F1 car has the most efficient engine ever created. Its fuel economy is cutting-edge and unmatchable. According to
CNET
, the car will burn a new fuel called E10, which contains 10% ethanol. F1 has sustainability in mind for the future of racing (as well as our planet), hoping to switch to an alternative to fossil fuel by 2030.
Going green
, or at least greener, is a cause that many companies have been aiming for.
