Tag Archives: Formula One

Some Formula One Motors

The Festival of Speed is going to include F1 cars by default. How could you not have them when it is all about fast cars. The teams had substantial presence at the event with stands for several of them with exhibits about the car engineering for people to see as well as examples of cars themselves. I am sure there were a few potential engineering recruits that were looking at how they might get themselves into this career.

There were also cars on the road heading up the climb. Early on I saw an old McLaren that James Hunt had driven in the 70s. Ferrari had a bunch of their cars heading out at another time. Lando Norris was driving one of the more recent McLaren models and others of varying vintages were scattered around. For fans of Formula One, there would have been plenty to keep you happy. Of course, in an event of this scale, they are just a small part of what was available overall.

The Complexity of the Floor of an F1 Car

Anyone who follows the details of Formula One is familiar with the endless efforts that go into the design of the aerodynamics of the car. Anyone that knows me knows that I love the aero side of things. The designs will be updated throughout a season to try and maximise the downforce on the car whilst minimising the drag penalty from that downforce. Taking a look at a Williams F1 car at Beaulieu gave a bit of a hint of the tiny details that are included in the design. There is a good chance that this car was not even an operational example and the aero features might not be representative of an actual racing set up, but they are a good approximation of what is involved, and the reality is that it is quite amazing.

Generations of F1 Racing Cars

The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu has an F1 exhibit running throughout the summer. There are a number of F1 cars from across the decades on show along with some images and information displays. I imagine that a few competitors were willing to collaborate on this because several of the cars seemed to have the same heritage. For example, the Jaguar is from the team that became Red Bull, so they were probably owned by the same entity and there were some Williams cars too.

Here are a few shots of the generations of cars that were on display. It is interesting to see how much the size and look of the cars has changed as the rule structures have evolved and the technology has advanced. The 70s cars really do look incredibly flimsy, and it is no surprise that drivers died a lot in those days.