Why are F1 cars so fragile when it comes to the littlest touch, some pieces of the car go flying?

Question

Obviously no offence to any F1 lovers, just curious.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

All other things being equal, an F1 car (like an airplane) works best when it’s as light as it can get. As a result, they go for the absolute minimum amount of structure (weight) they can get away with. They’re also incredibly sensitive to very small aerodynamic changes. As a result, it is faster to build “fragile” and try not to hit anything than to build so durable that you can survive the hit without damage (the latter will guarantee that you finish every race…last).

F1 cars are *extremely* strong in the directions that matter to handle driving loads, but not in directions that don’t. This is one of the reasons they use carbon fiber, not metal, for most components.