Thursday, June 7, 2007

How drivers made it to F1 ?

If you thought that the life is f1 is so good and these drivers are lucky to get there, than this article is for u . I have taken some of my drivers whom i follow and put up there biography .All the drivers were not just lucky they actually put there efforts to get here, Well follow links for there biography.

Fernando Alonso
http://www.fernandoalonso.com/DEFAULT2_i.cfm?seccion=0

Kimi Raikonnen
http://www.kimicentral.net/content/view/12/28/

Lewis hamilton
http://www.thef1blog.com/thef1blog/thef1blog.php/2006/05/30/biography_lewis_hamilton

Felipe Massa
http://www.felipemassa.com/index2.php?lang=uk&go=biography/index.php

Jenson Button
http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/drivers/button.shtml

David Coulthard
http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/drivers/coulthard.shtml

Monday, June 4, 2007

A-Z Basic jargons used in F1 Race

Anti lock brake system (ABS)
Electronical system that prevents blocking of the wheels during hard braking. This system is forbidden in formula one, but widely used in road cars.

Apex
The inside part of a corner that is considered to be the ideal racing line

Backmarker
A car that gets a blue flag to let someone pass by because he is a lap up.

chassis
Backbone on which a car is based. Older racing cars had a steel or wood chassis. Today's cars use carbon fibre

Chicane
A tight combination of two corners in opposite direction. Most of the time slow and with curbes.

Diffuser
Channels under the car defined by vertical "fences" which increase the airflow beneath the car by drawing it out and improving downforce.

Downforce
Force generated by air passing over the wings, plus the interaction of the flat bottom of the car and the track surface.

Formation lap
Final lap in grid order before the drivers take up their grid positions for the start.

FIA
Fédération International d'Automobile. This is the ruling body of world-wide motorsport based in Paris, France

G force
The apparent increase in weight of an object due to gravitational forces. That way, drivers are pushed backwards when accellerating and pushed to the left of the car when turning right and the other way around.

Hairpin
A very tight and slow corner, that usually is a bend of more than 100°. The most known examples are 'Grand Hotel' in Monaco en 'La source' in Spa-Francorshamps

Horsepower(HP)
A measurement of the engine's ability to perform work. One horsepower is defined as the ability to lift 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute. In metric terms, it is the ability to raise 250 kilograms a distance of 30 centimeters in one second. It is also equal to 745.7 watts

Lockup
The moment when a tire begins to skid during braking. A tire's maximum braking force occurs when it is on the verge of lockup. Ideally all four tires should approach lockup simultaneously to give a vehicle the best braking. Because this ideal is hard to create in the real world, one end tends to lock up before the other.

Lollipop
The sign held on the nose of the car during a pit stop to remind the driver to brake. It is then lifted when the stop is finished and the pit lane is clear for the driver to leave.

Marshal
Marshals are positioned at many places around the race circuit, their job is to look after safety. This includes moving cars from unsafe positions and alerting drivers to on track hazards by waving various coloured flags.

Oversteer
In cornering, oversteer exists when the rear end of the car tends to make a larger radius turn than the front end.

Pit lane
The road that links the pit garages occupied by the various teams to the track
Pit wallThe team have a much of their communication equipment on the pit wall so as the can talk to the driver and monitor his performance over the Grand Prix weekend.
qualifyingIts a run a day before race for identifying the starting position

Racing line
This is the optimum line around a race circuit, therefore in theory it is the fastest way around a circuit. For a lone corner this is usually a wide entrance, followed by a defined ‘apex’ which is near the middle of the corner on the inside, and a wide exit to allow all the power to be used. It is the straightest line through a corner.

Red flag
A solid red flag is used to stop the race immediately. Generally races are stopped for bad accidents or weather. Occasionally, a multiple car pileup will halt a race. Wreckers and fire marshals clear the track of cars, debris and fluids. Alternatively, rain makes the surface of the race track dangerous. Once NASCAR officials authorize the race to start again, a green flag resumes the race.

Safety car
In the event of an accident or blockage on the race circuit the safety car will be sent out in front of the lead car to slow down and control the cars still on track until the debris can be cleared.
StewardThe stewards run the race weekend at a Grand Prix. They make all the decision with regard to rules, penalties and incidents that can happen over the weekend. Stewards are different to marshals in that they control the event from race control as opposed to trackside

Telemetry
Manner of sending radio signals from either the car to the pitbox or the other way around. Particularly useful to determine the right setup as revs, ride height, gear, throttle and brakes can be studied based on these reports. Two way telemetry also enables drivers to change settings on the car to increase performance or avoid problems.

understeer
A lack of grip at the front wheels, which makes the car feel to slip away at the front, when cornering.

Wing
In motorsport, a synonym for aerofoil. Shaped like and aircraft wing, but attached with the downside up to push the car as much as possible to the ground.

Yellow flag
A solid yellow flag is used to slow down the racers in the case of a crash, debris on the
course (like car parts), slick fluids on the track or the weather has become a factor with rain. During a yellow flag the pace car, with the top lights flashing, joins up with the race leader and sets a slower speed on the track. This is done to preserve the driving order on the track as cars cannot pass one another under a yellow after crossing the start/finish line. Drivers generally use this time to hit the pits for refueling, new tires and adjustments. It is an advantageous time to make the race car faster on the track.

For more details check out this excellent site
http://www.f1technical.net/glossary/a

Sunday, June 3, 2007

What is Traction control and why is it used ?

We all heard various technical jargons like Traction control , ABS etc when we talk about cars and that too these systems are now effectively used in cars we drive today . Now am sure generally people have no clue what these system does and when it actually works.let me make it simple for all ...

Let's talk about Traction Control today , i will make it as simple as possible.

How many times you started your engine in morning and thought of racing away by the signal .Well result is a big screechy sound due to wheel spin of your car .Why the wheel spins?

Lets understand this part first.
when we press on gas roughly we try to get the maximum power of the engine and the whole torque(power) is applied to one of the wheel set depending on car(front/back/both wheels).Due to such high acceleration one set of wheel tried to move faster then the other set.This leads to a spin of wheel set and believe me this also reduces your acceleration and burns the tire.
So now we come across a technology which will avoid such spin and that's we call as "Traction control". These are electronic device which keeps a check on the actual speed of the car and the rotation of the tire.

For eg if your are driving back wheel drive car as in case of f1 , the sensor for determining the car speed are kept in front wheels . Sensors are also present in back wheels to determine the speed of rotation of tires.

In this case if the "traction control " notices that the back wheels are rotating faster then front wheels (which provides actual speed of car), it retards the rotation of back wheels by one of these mediums:
1) Cut the fuel supply for engine
2) Apply brakes on back tyres

There are more advanced techniques to cut the rotation .

So in this way the rotation of the tires are controlled which helps to prevent slip and the tires remains in ground rather then spinning like a "jack Ass" .

So next time you are racing in streets or in circuits , make sure of one thing "never press on gas paddle completely" to avoid spinning , this will give you much better acceleration .