More than just a race for speed, F1 cars are the product of engineering innovation, combining fluid dynamics and advanced materials technology to make them fast and stable. In the process, engineers apply scientific principles such as Bernoulli’s theorem to design the downward force of the wings to prevent the car from flipping over, while advanced technologies for lightweight and durability ensure optimal performance.
F1 is the world’s biggest motorsport, with nearly 4 million spectators a year, 600 million viewers, and an estimated KRW 4 trillion in corporate sponsorship, and is held across Europe, Asia, North and South America. Together with the World Cup and the Olympics, it is known as the Big Three and is the largest single sporting event in the world. As a global sport, F1 is more than just a race for speed; it’s also a stage for engineering innovation, with F1 machines being a collection of cutting-edge technologies.
An integral part of the sport, the F1 car is often described by engineers as the pinnacle of automotive engineering. To design and build these high-tech machines, engineers apply knowledge from a variety of disciplines, including mechanical engineering, aerodynamics, and materials science. An F1 car isn’t just a machine that goes fast, it’s a complex mechanical device that wins races. Everything from engine performance, aerodynamic design, suspension systems, and tyre grip must be carefully engineered, requiring sophisticated engineering knowledge and skills.
So what is engineering? Engineering is often compared to science, and engineering students are often asked, ‘What’s the difference between engineering and science?’ While science is the study of regular or irregular phenomena in nature to understand why they occur, engineering is the study of how the phenomena demonstrated by science can be used in human life. While science answers the question of why, engineering explains how. For example, when a leaf blows in the wind, scientists study how the flow of air affects the object, while engineers devise practical applications based on their findings.
Now let’s look at how engineering knowledge is applied to F1 cars. An easy example of this can be seen by analysing the wings that are mounted on the front and rear of F1 cars. On the surface, you might think they’re there for looks, but they’re actually a critical device that keeps the car’s body firmly on the ground and prevents it from flipping over. What makes this possible is lift, an application of Bernoulli’s theorem. Bernoulli’s theorem is one of the fundamental laws of fluid mechanics, describing the relationship between velocity and pressure when a fluid flows.
For example, consider air flowing through a tube of different thicknesses. As the air flows through the wider sections, its velocity decreases and its pressure increases. Conversely, the velocity increases and the pressure decreases as it passes through the narrower sections. In this way, the velocity and pressure of a fluid are inversely proportional, and this principle plays an important role in the design of high-speed vehicles such as F1 cars.
The principle behind lift on an aeroplane wing is the same: the upper surface of the wing is longer than the lower surface, which creates a difference in the velocity of fluid flow, which in turn creates a pressure difference. This pressure difference is what creates lift, and it works similarly in F1 cars. However, F1 cars need to suppress lift, so their wings are designed in the opposite direction to an aeroplane wing to create downforce.
When an F1 car is travelling at high speeds, the body naturally experiences upward force. If this upward force becomes too strong, there is a risk of the car flipping over or becoming airborne. In fact, in past F1 races, some cars have flipped over due to too much lift. To prevent this from happening, engineers design wings at the front and rear of the car that generate downward force, keeping the body strongly attached to the ground and stable.
The downward force of the wings is an important factor in maximising the stability and performance of F1 cars. By fine-tuning the size and angle of the wing, engineers find the optimal design for the track’s characteristics and weather conditions. This allows F1 cars to be stable when travelling through corners at high speeds, and allows drivers to get the most out of their cars. These designs are fine-tuned for each race, and the latest advances in mechanical and aeronautical engineering are constantly being applied.
In addition, the design process for an F1 car must simultaneously achieve two opposing goals: light weight and durability. To minimise the weight of the car body while maintaining strength and durability, mechanics use advanced materials such as carbon fibre. These materials are lightweight, strong, and able to withstand the extreme pressures created by high temperatures and high speeds. Engineers take these details into account when designing the optimal F1 car.
In conclusion, an F1 car is not just a vehicle, it is a crystallisation of engineering innovation. In the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, we learn this complex engineering knowledge and apply it in practice to create innovative products. Thanks to the research and skills of our engineers, we get to witness the next generation of technology being implemented in F1 races every year. Even now, thousands of engineers around the world are working to develop faster, safer, and more efficient F1 machines.
