Wouldn’t they all be flooring it? If the lane is straight how does one driver speed up and pass another?
Edit: straight aways
In: Engineering
The car in the front cuts the air and this in turn makes it harder to go faster(drag) but the car behind doesn’t have to do this (as the car in front already done that) and this means less drag which means more speed to overtake.
Also there is something known as DRS (Drag Reduction System). The driver behind gets to open his rear wing to reduce drag further more. This makes overtaking much easier.
Also they could carry more speed from the corner while close and just carry more speed combined with all these.
It’s hard, there isn’t a lot of passing in F1 because of it.
Some drivers have worse cars, it’s not hard for the top cars to pass the worst cars. They are just faster.
Usually it’s because the driver in front screws up the corner before the straight, so they go into the straight with less initial speed. The car behind is starting with more speed, so they can overtake. They may be on different tire strategies, so the car with fresh tires will have an easier time than the car with old tires.
The car in front may brake earlier, so the car behind will pass going into the corner at the end of the straight.
Going down the straight, the car behind is drafting. The car in front is pushing the air out of the way. The car behind can accelerate into the low pressure air behind the front car, get a higher speed, come out of the draft and pass. This doesn’t really work anymore, there is so much ‘dirty air’, the car behind doesn’t handle as well.
F1 cars have an energy recovery system, like a hybrid car. If the car behind has its ERS system fully charged and the other car doesn’t, it’ll get an extra 160 horsepower, allowing a pass.
[removed]
DRS (drag reduction system) provides a small speed boost to any car following within 1 second of another car. They use that system and late braking into the first corner after the straight to pass.
Many ways. More engine power, the pull that the following car gets from not having to cut into the air, and also there is a strategic flap on the rear wing that will flip down only certain times so there is much less drag on the rear wing. It’s called DRS
F1 cars are all at max throttle on the straight, but there’s more factors than that to consider.
Fuel weight for one, the less fuel in your tank the lighter your car and the faster you can go.
Tire type and wear. The harder the compound the more durable it is, but the less grip it provides. The more worn out the tire the harder it is to accelerate, brake, and turn. Tire temperate also makes a big difference.
Downforce. The more downforce a car has, the more drag it produces and the slower it’s top speed.
Engines. The different engines have different power outputs and can be operating in different modes depending on the need to save fuel.
The engines are also hybrids so depending on where you are in the lap the battery store will have a different amount of charge you can deploy to the MGU-K for an extra 160 HP.
There’s also the DRS. If you are within 1 second of the guy in front you can open the DRS flap which is worth an extra 10-15km/h of top speed.
If you can get through a corner going faster, you’ll be faster all the way along the straight, even if the cars accelerate at the same rate. Also, the car behind can accelerate faster by slip-streaming the car in front. And Formula 1 has DRS (Drag Reduction System) to give an artificial advantage to the car behind. At one or two points on the track, if you’re within 1 second of the car in front, you can open up your rear wing on a section of the staight which allows you to go faster.
It’s drafting basically. The car in front breaks the air and reduces drag on the car behind it. That’s why you see a car shoot up like its going to rear end the car in front and swerve out at the last second. They pretty quickly lose the advantage once they are back in air again. Same reason all the NASCAR guys are riding each others bumper and a group of them can pass the car in front. They can’t do this in corners since the car needs air over the wings to create downforce on the wings.
A combination of things can give drivers an edge in the straight. Speed out of the corner is one and there is a system where cars that are behind can reduce their air drag with their wings. Also by drafting a car the one behind has less drag and can accelerate through the slipstream on the car ahead
Latest Answers