In this entry we analyze the performance of the car as a function of the angle of both the Front and Rear Wing. As you probably know, a formula car has two wings, which both provide with downforce, that is, they work as inverted plane wings that instead of making the car go up flying, they push the car down into the track, thus increasing the pressure and grip on the tires. If formula car didn't have these wings, the inertia would easily send them off track.
The front wing pushes the front wheels into the track, and since the front wheels are the ones who steer the car, then when you increase the downforce in front the car is more responsible when steering. However, you should be careful to not go with too much downforce in front, for the car may oversteer and go out of your control.
On the other hand, the rear wing pushes the back of the car down on the rear wheels, which are the ones providing the acceleration to the car. Thus, increasing the downforce on the rear wheels increase the traction. Don't go up too much, or you will start losing top speed.
The case of Monaco
We analyze how fast can your car go on the Monaco track. Being probably the most difficult track, any mistake you make or variation in setup will be obvious in the final Time of Lap (ToL).
The analysis was made using the following setup and tools:
- Simulator: rFactor
- Pilot: autopilot
- Car: BMW Sauber 2007
- Track: Monaco (Monte Carlo 1988 by Carrera.4)
- Setup: default car setup, no fuel consumption nor tire degradation. Medium hard tires.
The car was launched with a variations in the front and rear wing angle combination and several times of lap were recorded for each case. For this analysis we are interested on the average time for each session. The results are shown on the following graphic:
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This graphic shows the ToL measured in milliseconds, as a function of the Front Wing angle (horizontal axis) and the Rear Wing angle (vertical axis). The ToL is displayed in a color scale, in which dark blue colors mean the ToL if the fastest achievable with its corresponding wing configuration, and the dark red color means the ToL is the slowest of the pack. By all means you want to setup your car as near as possible to the dark blue minimum ToL, this configuration is where the car is fastest.
Stay away from the red configurations by all means. Notice the time difference between the fastest (77,148 ms) and the slowest time (88,000 ms) is 10852 ms, or 10.8 seconds in plain english. Remember that in Formula 1 qualifying, any car 7% slower than the pole position ToL is not allowed to race. In this case, the slowest time is 14% slower than the fastest time! If we were using a red configuration and racing against a blue configured car, then we are doomed. This should give you a hint of how important is to achieve the correct setup of your car.
The fastest time achievable (77,148 ms or 1' m 17'' s) was found using an angle of 38 degrees on the Front Wing and 29 degrees on the Rear Wing.
Details and validity of this graphic
Now that we have seen the big picture, let's go on with the details. You will soon realize the happy picture is very hard to achieve. Before setting up your car as found fastest on the graphic and going racing your friends believing you are fastest, please be very aware of the following facts:
- This result is only valid for the Monaco track. A proper explanation for this will be provided on a later entry, for now, please accept the fact that each track requires a particular setup. The fastest configuration here, will be by all means not necessarily the fastest on Monza nor Spa. So you just find the proper graphic for each track, right? Yes! But sadly, no.
- This result is only valid for the BMW Sauber 2007 car as modeled on rFactor. Details for this will come later, for now just have in mind we are working with a model in a simulator, not the real car on the real track on sunny mediterranean shore, which may have a very different, uncorrelated, behavior. Ouch.
- This result is, yes you guessed correctly, only valid for the rFactor autopilot, which seems to be orders of magnitude better than me. Each driver will have different skills and be able to control the car on different situations, so while one particular setup may be uncontrollable for one pilot, it may be the fastest for another one. More details, yes you guessed correctly again, will come later as I deepen on the study of these topics.
- Sadly, there is more... this setup, yeah, yeah, is only valid for these particular tires, particular suspension, fuel load, particular everything. If you have followed me this far, you may as well be coming to the understanding on why the car setup is more a craft than a precision engineering task. However, the purpose of this study is to keep the ball on the engineering side, shall we? Good.
Shall you be brave enough to follow be, then stay tuned.
