Sidepodcast

F1 Safety - The Car

• Length: 4:35 
• Size: 4.2 MB 
• File: safety2.mp3 
• Transcript: safety2.pdf 
• Torrent: safety2.torrent 

This is Sidepodcast and the second episode of our latest mini series F1 Safety. Yesterday we covered all things helmets and clothing, and today we’re going to take a closer look at the safety of a Formula 1 car.

We talked about carbon fibre briefly in the previous show, as the material is supremely strong but very light weight, ultimately a designers dream. Apparently there is also such a thing as carbon-fibre reinforced plastic but I think that’s taking it too far. The majority of a Formula 1 car is made from the lovely carbon fibre, and in terms of safety, the driver is encased in a strong, reinforced tub. No matter what happens to the car, the tub should remain in tact.

There are a few rules to be followed when designing the cockpit. Firstly, no oil, fuel or water lines are allowed to pass through the area where the driver sits. The cockpit sides have very specific dimensions – specified to be even higher in 2008 after we saw cars flying over each other in ’07.

Drivers are strapped into their custom made seat, moulded to them both for comfort and to stop them sliding around every lap. They have six point harnesses, which can be unclasped with one hand. A driver has to be able to get out of a car within five seconds, and replace the steering wheel in another five. If, in an accident situation, he is unable to get out of the car, marshals and rescue crews are able to pull both the driver and the seat from a car together.

Another useful safety feature is wheel tethers. In case of an accident, the tyres are tethered to the car so that some of the forces are absorbed. The idea is that a wheel doesn’t go bouncing off down a track, but at the same time, the tethers shouldn’t hold on to a wheel at all costs. If the forces are great enough that a wheel does get loose, it’s speed should have been reduced to make it mostly harmless.

Before being allowed anywhere near a track, the cars must go through thorough crash tests, usually performed at the Cranfield Impact Centre, in Bedfordshire. The FIA set the standards and supervise the tests, to ensure the cars can survive all kinds of impacts. There are two main types of crash test – dynamic and static.

Naturally, the dynamic tests are ones in which the car is moving, and the effects of an accident are monitored. The impacts are tested on the front, sides and rear, with speeds of up to 15 metres per second. A crash test dummy situated inside the car is hooked up to monitors, and the deceleration on the chest shouldn’t exceed 60G within three milliseconds. These are numbers that are almost meaningless to me, but it shows the detail the crash tests go into.

The static tests put the cars through their paces by applying pressure to the various sides, again with the intent of keeping the tub, the gearbox and the roll bar in good and safe condition. In these instances, the steering wheel needs to remain removable for easy access to the driver in case of an accident.

Once the car is cleared to race, it needs to have a black box installed on it. This is similar to the boxes on aircraft, that record all the important car information so that if an incident does occur, then it should be straightforward to find out what happened, and why. This box, the accident data recorder, is also linked to a medical warning system, which will give warning to the FIA and the medical car, ahead of the streamed pictures on the world feed. The black box needs to be accessible without having to remove any other parts of the car, but naturally it is tucked away so as not to interrupt with the aerodynamic design. It’s required on all cars when they are on track with other teams, but not necessary if there is just a single team at a circuit for a testing session.

With all this on board, the car is now ready to leave the garage and get moving. There are some additional safety measures in place for when a car is out on track and far from the controlled environment of the pitlane. An onboard fire extinguisher must be executable from within the cockpit. There is also a master switch inside the cockpit to deactivate the electronics and fuel pumps in case of emergency.

The drivers have in-dash flags to let them know the state of the track as they go around it – whether there are yellow flags, or if the safety car is being deployed. Two more small things to finish, the rear view mirrors are supposedly a safety device but are to all intents and purposes useless – David Coulthard proved that – and the rear light is there to try and reduce pileups. It comes on when a driver is slowing to enter the pitlane, or if there is reduced visibility because of the weather.

That concludes the second part of our F1 Safety mini series. Don’t forget to leave your feedback, either on the site sidepodcast.com or email me Christine@sidepodcast.com. I’ll be back tomorrow with part three, please join me then.

Theme music: Headway, Safety.

Inside the Cockpit

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

It looks like a lot of fun, whizzing round a track at high speed and hopefully winning. But it's not easy, and the drivers that make it to Formula 1 are not known as the best for no reason. But what is life like in the cockpit?

Getting In

Firstly, it's very, very, low. The idea is to keep the driver as flat as possible, and as low to the ground as possible. The centre of gravity is an important consideration. Therefore, the drivers are practically lying down. For shorter people, it's not so bad. Pedals can always be moved forward. But if you are one of the taller ones on the grid, you have to bend your knees more to fit. This results in bruised knees as you fly over the kerbs on the circuit.

With your legs tucked away in the nose of the car, and a steering wheel fitted into place after you are in position, the cockpit can be incredibly claustrophobic. Everyone outside the car is so much higher up than you, whilst you are strapped in and basically stuck inside. Drivers prefer to be strapped in tightly to the cars so that they can tell the difference between their movements and the bodywork. Arms and legs need to be as unrestricted as possible, however, to aid their driving style.

Going Fast

During a race, the heat is incredible. Many of the tracks on the calendar are in high temperature countries such as Bahrain and Malaysia. The colour of your sponsors can add to the problem, if they prefer a black paintjob that will absorb the heat. Add to that the heat driving so fast will generate, from the engine to the tyres, all around the driver. The extra protection drivers wear, gloves, helmet, racing suit, can also raise body temperatures. Given these facts, drivers can lose as much as 1.5 kilos of their body weight during an entire race distance. They have to stock up on liquids beforehand.

The protections are essential though, cornering at high speeds causes enormous forces on the head and neck of the driver, and concentration has to be at an all time high. The aim of a driver is to expend as little energy as possible so that they have enough reserves to maintain concentration for the 70 or so laps.

In fact, a pit stop can be the only breather a driver gets, and they only last 6-8 seconds, so there is no chance for a rest.

To sum up, you only need to remember one thing, a driver's comfort is an afterthought. Speed is the only thing that matters.

F1 Guide (Part 6) - Safety

• Length: 3:09 
• Size: 3.0 MB 
• File: guide6.mp3 
• Transcript: guide6.pdf 
• Torrent: guide6.torrent 

Welcome to the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1.

It’s all about going as fast as you possibly can and beating your opponents at all costs. But at high speeds, and with such delicate equipment, safety is an important part of the sport. From the basics of a helmet and gloves, to specifics like fireproof underwear are all there to protect the driver when things go wrong.

Your driver is sitting in the cockpit, often referred to as the tub, or survival cell. This is because the basics of a driver’s survival starts here. Constructed of carbon fibre, it is both light and strong. Crash structures are built into the front and rear of the cell along with the roll hoop whose job it is to protect the driver if the car rolls, hitting the ground before the driver’s helmet.

Keeping the driver in his seat is more than your average seat belt. It comprises of four belts joined by a central buckle, shoulders and hips, to ensure the driver is fixed securely. His most vulnerable part is probably the head and neck. Aptly, this is protected by then HANS system – head and neck support system. It’s a device that joins the driver’s torso to his helmet and it’s goal is to reduce the loadings to a driver’s head and neck during the rapid deceleration caused by an accident.

Moving away from the driver to the car, you’ll find on each wheel a restraint system, which prevents the tyre from flying off uncontrollably. As well as protecting the driver, this also protects marshals and spectators, as do run off areas and tyre walls. These are in place for when a car loses control and leaves the track. Smashing into a tyre wall greatly reduces speed and impact, and run-off areas provide a safe haven for an out of control car.

Before a car can even take to a track, it has to pass a number of mandatory FIA crash tests. These are similar to the crash tests your average road car goes through, to ensure that the structure can absorb a certain amount of force on impact. This guarantees a minimum level of safety for the driver.

Now we understand how a driver is protected, the last thing to cover in the area of safety, is what happens immediately after an accident on track. If the accident is relatively inconsequential, marshals will be asked to wave a yellow flag, indicating that drivers must slow down around the affected area. If the accident is more serious, the safety car can be deployed. During a race, the safety car is constantly on standby. So, a car may be stranded in a dangerous position on the track, in which case a safety car will be deployed to slow down the remaining racers. With the safety car deployed and the cars slowed behind it, marshals are able to clear an accident in relative safety so that the race can continue without further disruption. Cars remain queued up behind the safety car until stewards deem the course safe again, at which point the safety car peels into the pits and the cars resume racing when they reach the start / finish line.

Although it may seem quite a convoluted process, it’s important to keep your drivers running safely throughout the season.

Having covered all the basics of Formula 1, the last topic in our series will be how you can get to a race.

Theme music: Cedar Falls, Car Crash.