Aerodynamics (Aerospace Engineering)

     Adrian Newey, the chief design engineer at Red Bull Racing has been thought of as the greatest engineer to ever enter the sport of Formula 1. Adrian's job in the sport is to design the chassis, or the body, of his team's F1 car. This requires unparalleled knowledge in aerodynamics and mechanics.
For those who are unfamiliar, F1 is the worlds most popular form of motorsport. It takes Open-Wheel, 1000hp+ cars to the most beautiful and challenging race-tracks that man has ever created. These car's are capable of over 230mph, and can corner harder than a fighter jet.
     The reason the cars are able to corner so fast is due to the downforce generated from the cars chassis/body. In order for the 4 wheels to stay pressed down on the asphalt (allowing for more grip), the body of the car needs to be pushed down by the air that passes over it. To maximize this, the cars need to be designed to generate as much downforce as possible, without effecting drag. Several parts of an F1 car are designed solely for this purpose. The front wings main responsibility is to provide downforce for the front wheels. But, it is also responsible for moving air around the wheels, which would increase drag, and for moving air under the car, which improves downforce.

       Working backwards, the air then moves over the engine cover. This is heavily restricted by the F1 governing body, and can't be very much tampered with. So, the engine cover is designed to be as sleek as possible, reducing any potential drag (more on that in a second). Next is the rear wing. The rear wings responsibility is to provide downforce for the rear wheels. This is done by having a high vertical shelf like structure, that pushes air up, pushing the car down. While Adrian Newey is designing all of this, he also needs to keep the drag at bay.
    Drag is a force that acts opposite to an objects motion due to the air it must move through. This ultimately will hinder an objects ability to reach a top speed. In Formula 1, speed is everything. So, the cars are designed by aerodynamicist to eliminate all drag, and include as much downforce as possible. The difficult part is, downforce and drag often argue with each other. As you add more downforce, it is likely you are increasing the drag. This is overcome by clever designing, and optimizing all of the space given. A cube for instance, generates horrible drag. Not only does the air hit the front face, it also folds over, and rolls off the back. This creates a vortex behind the cube, and slows in down. The most effective design is am airfoil or streamlined design (seen in the middle in the picture below). This is an object that starts narrow, and is gradually made wider, and even more gradually made back narrow again. This eliminates both the air hitting a front face, and the air creating a vortex behind it. In the picture below, you can see how it compares to other shapes.
    When Adrian Newey designs his teams F1 racer, he constantly has this all in mind, and much more. It is no secret that he has got his design down though, as he has won 4 championships in the last 6 years, and 6 in the last 10.

Writer: Pat Wilkinson

formula1.com