Some more amazing facts about the machines that roar on the track.

WHEN DID SINGLE SEATER CARS COME OUT AND WHY?
It was only in the 1920's when single seater cars came out,till then two seater's were used. Single seaters came out beacuse of the development of (would you believe it) rear view mirrors, Since the primary use of the second seat mechanic was to warn when another driver was going to overtake!!

HOW MANY G's OR G FORCES DOES A F1 DRIVER REACH?
Did you know when a Formula 1 driver lifts his foot off the foot pedal at 300kph (185mph), his racecar will slow at over 1G just due to the aerodynamic drag - a rate equivalent to the maximum braking of a typical road car. By the time he has put his foot on the brake pedal, and the brakes have heated up to their working temperature, the car will have slowed by 200kph and the brakes will add around 4G to the effort to slow the car, instantaneously absorbing over 2500hp.Just over 2 seconds later, he will be travelling at 100kph (60mph), and ready to ease off the brake pedal as he approaches the apex to the second gear corner ahead. A current Formula One car is capable of a transverse acceleration of up to 4G, whereas a road car does not exceed 1G.

Did you know that The tyres of a F1 car have to be filled with air with 0% moisture or the moisture will have an impact on the expanded volume at operating temperature.The optimum tyre temperature of an F1 car is about 90`C

WHAT DOES THE McLaren MP4 SIGNIFY?
In 1980 Marlboro forced a merger between McLaren and Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing, who had a carbon-fibre F1 car designed by John Barnard on the stocks. This became the McLaren MP4/1 which rescued the team's competitiveness. Eventually Teddy Mayer left the team he helped to found, leaving Dennis in sole charge.Thus the 1st MP4 /1 was out, The first true McLaren was the M1, also known as the McLaren-Elva-Oldsmobile Mark 1 when it was productionised by Trojan.

Did you know  that radio communication between the team mechanics and the driver is one way only, the driver cannot communicate back. Also radio communication is scambled so that teams cannot overhear on each other's conversation

The formula1 car must not exceed 3000cc and 12 cyl. and wt of the car should not be less than 600 kg along with the wt. of the driver.The car cannot be 4 wheel drive and must have a reverse gear.A Formula One car can travel from 0-100kph in two seconds with a top speed of over 300kph.Also the engine producing so much power is as light as 100 kg and 60x50 cm's in length.

WHEN DID THE FORMULA OF 3.0 LITRE ENGINE COME INTO EFFECT?
The 1965 season was the last under the 1.5 litre formula. For 1966 the new 3 litre formula was introduced with a maximum weight of 500kg. Race distances were also changed to between 300 and 400km.These regulations were thought of as early as 1963 but only implemented in 66..

BRAKES Did you know that brake operating temperatures range between 700 °C and 1000 °C ! Braking balance adjustment is also very important, from the front to the rear. The rear brakes should be adjusted so tightly that the rear wheels almost lock.
The instantaneous 650KW put into one front disc rotor causes a temperature rise of around 800degC/sec, bringing the disc up to its optimum working temperature of around 600degC very quickly.

SAFETY MEASURES
The driver must be able to cut off all the electrical circuits to the ignition, all fuel pumps and rear light by means of a spark-proof circuit breaker switch - which must be located and specifically marked on the dashboard.

FAN CAR
In 1978 Nikki Lauda drove the infamous FAN CAR by Lotus. In an exercise in loophole exploitation that probably made Colin Chapman green with envy, Brabham repositioned the radiators at the rear of the car and cooled them with a big fan instead of with rammed air as was normal with side-mounted radiators. Of course, they contrived to see to it that the fan just happened to also suck air out from under the car increasing its downforce. Lauda and John Watson employed all of the sandbagging skills they could muster in an effort to hide the fact that the car was unbeatable. It won once, in 1978 at Anderstorp with Lauda at the wheel. It never won again because it never competed again, having been promptly banned as being contrary to some rule or other.

HOW POWERFUL IS A FORMULA 1 ENGINE
In 1999 the 3.0 litre engine produces roughly about 800 HP!!! This change to a 3.0 litre from a 3.5l engine was brought about in 1996 when the FIA decided that the cars were getting too fast.A Formula One car travels approximately two kilometres on one litre of fuel. The turbo charged cars in the late eighties produced over a 1000 BHP from thier 1.5 litre turbo charged engine.

ITS NOT ONLY DRIVING SKILL!
 From a normal seating position, with all seat belts fastened, and whilst wearing his usual driving equipment, a driver must be able to remove the steering wheel and get out of the car within five seconds and then replace the steering wheel within a total of 10 seconds.

In 1988 Mclaren drivers Prost and Senna won 15 out of 16 races in a season, McLaren scored 199 constructor points. McLaren recorded 15 pole positions,and they would have won the last race of the season too leading till the last lap. All these records set that year hold to date.

WHEN DID REAR ENGINED CARS COME OUT?
The 1st rear engined car to come out was the JAP powered T12 entered by Harry Schell at Monaco in 1950. The next car after that was Helmut Klodwig's BMW Klodwig Eigenbau Heck entered the 1952 German Grand Prix at the Nordscliefe. In 1961 all cars had become rear engined with Ferrari developing a new rear-engined V-6 car that would dominate 1961. The Championship race became a battle between Ferrari team-mates Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips. However at Monza von Trips was killed after tangling with Jim Clark early on in the race. Von Trip's car careered off into a spectator area and a dozen of the crowd were also killed.Phil Hill won the race and, with no other driver close enough to overhaul his points total, the Drivers' Championship was also his. He ended the season just one point ahead of his deceased team-mate von Trips with Ferrari of course winning the Constructors' title.click for pic

ALL THE CURRENT CARS IN F1 LOOK THE SAME?
The FIA states that each team must design its own chasis which means there will be some slight difference between the chasis of all the teams although outsourcing is allowed, like Scuderia Italia using Dallara built chassis and more recently BAR using a Reynard built car. Suspension design by definition has to be unique to each car as each car loads in different ways. Same with gearboxes, as they must be different for each engine, and for the different circuits.SO THE CARS MAY LOOK THE SAME BUT ARE VERY MUCH DIFFERENT.

DID YOU KNOW that the first Grand Prix car to have a supercharger was the Fiat 805.405 in 1923.

SIX WHEELERS
Tyrrell P34 is the only six-wheeler ever to compete in F1 although Williams and March had one ready to come out but did not. P34 was designed around four tiny front wheels and two conventionally-sized rears. Designer Derek Gardner's philosophy was: to minimise front-end lift by using smaller tyres; additional benefits in front-end braking were also achieved due to use of four smaller discs which meant faster cooling, better airflow to discs, large gain in brake pad size. Of course, brake balance was initially a problem; if one pair of front wheels lock, the effective wheelbase of the car changes!

The March 2-4-0 was not a car as such, but a four-wheel rear end grafted onto a number of 761 and 771 chassis. All six wheels were standard front-wheel size. It was never actually raced.Had it succeeded, it might have kept March competitive in F1, However, the car was apparently very impressive in the wet when tested with all four rears driven, but the money to develop it into a serious racer never appeared and this tantalising prospect faded, as did March as a serious F1 contender for many years

In 1957 Stuart Lewis-Evans of GB used 5 different cars for the formula1 world championship and this is the largest No of cars used by a driver in one single championship, the cars were the Connaught B-Alta ,Vanwall VW4, Vanwall VW5, Vanwall VW1 and the Vanwall VW7and Stuart finished in 12 place.In 1973 Jacky Ickx used again 5 cars but faired slightly better than Stuart finishing the year in 9 place, the cars used were Ferrari 312B2, Ferrari 312B3, McLaren M23, Ferrari 312B3S and the Williams IR01-Ford,In 1978 Jody Scheckter used 5 different cars(all wolf constructor) and did better than the previous two finishing in 7th place with 24 points.Patric Tambay in 1979 also used 5 differnt Mercedes.

In 1981 the Williams FW07 was arguably the class of the F1 field. Patrick Head's next idea was to build a car with the biggest possible ground-effect tunnels; he was convinced that the best aerodynamic way to do this was to build a car with conventional front wheels and four small rears, with an ultra-short tub and massive sidepods. Prototypes were built and were very quick, putting in extremely competitive times which were not equalled for some years by conventional cars. However, in the turmoil surrounding F1 in the early 80s, FISA banned six-wheelers (ostensibly to keep F1 closer to 'conventional' road cars) along with ground-effects, and the Williams six-wheeler remained a fascinating white elephant. It is still in existence and appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The short, stubby monocoque of the six-wheeler was later used on the conventional FW08.

RESTRICTIONS ON ENGINES
There are thus restrictions on cylinder capacity, fuel, engines which are not reciprocating or 4-stroke are prohibited, and the engines are restricted to a maximum of twelve cylinders which cannot have an oval section.Also turbocarging of the engine has not allowed since 1988.

CAR NUMBER
Did you know that Starting No's for the cars are given to the constructor and not to the car driver, except for the current world champion, whichever team he joins will get no 1 no for the car and his teammate will get the No. 2 number.This rule was removed in 1996 and the previous years results determine the No. of the car, also No. 13 is removed from the starting No's.

PITSTOP DURING SAFETY CAR OUT?
The driver can have a pitstop while the safety car is out, but it may only rejoin the track when the green light is on in the pit lane. It will be on at all times except when the Safety Car and the line of cars following it are about to pass or are passing the pit exit.

CAN A DRIVER CHANGE HIS CAR DURING A RACE?
No change of car is authorised following the green light signalling the start of the formation lap.Nevertheless, if the race is interrupted before two laps have been completed, the starting procedure is repeated and starts again from the T-15 point. Car changes are authorised once again until the green light indicating the start of the formation lap is shown.

DO F1 CARS HAVE AUTOMATIC GEARSHIFTS?
Automatic is prohibited in the technical regulations,and most of the drivers use semi-automatic. He simply presses a button on the side of his steering wheel. There is a button on each side: one for changing up, the other for changing down. He therefore no longer has to take his hand off the steering wheel, and this hydraulic device, which is electronically activated, allows the driver to change gear in one or two hundredths of a second!

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PRODUCE A 'F1' CAR?
From scratch it takes about 5 months to produce a f1 car after the season is over, the teams are cementing thier new sponsership deals, getting thier drivers and getting ready to build thier new cars by christmas,After designing the car,the parts are developed,the engine, gearbox and other mechanical are fitted after the chassis has been painted,the gearbox being the most complicated part, usually taking three months to complete.Body parts are designed for aerodynamism. The nose is carefully designed(three layers with honeycomb structure) as the nose has to sustain the shock to prevent injury to the driver.such as wings and engine covers are fitted and the sponsors logo's are applied to the car.The car is ready but not yet, it has to be crash tested and other inspections have to be made by the governing body, if they are not satisfied then changes have to be made to the car.

STALLING ON THE GRID,WHAT HAPPENS?
BEFORE FORMATION LAP
If a driver stalls whilst the green light is on i.e.start of the formation lap, his mechanics are allowed to push the car to get it to start, once all the competitors have left the grid. Since overtaking is not permitted during the formation lap, he must start from the back of the grid. However, a driver who has had difficulty starting the car but who manages to leave before the last car has crossed the Start/Finish line is allowed to overtake during the formation lap and take up his original position on the grid.

AFTER FORMATION LAP,BUT BEFORE START
If a driver stalls on the grid after the formation lap, but before the start, he must raise his arm to notify the starter, who turns on the flashing yellow lights. The start is aborted and the procedure begins again from the "5-minute" board. In order to compensate for the additional formation lap, the race is reduced by one lap. The driver responsible for the false start must start from the back of the grid.

DURING THE START
If a driver stalls during the start when all the lights are extinguished, and therefore too late for the starting procedure to be interrupted and aborted, the marshals will push his car to the pit lane once all the competitors have left the grid. If the driver is then able to start his engine, he may rejoin the race. Otherwise, he is pushed back to his pit where his mechanics will take over.

STEWARD/TYRRELL
There is no mistaking the fact that Tyrrell will always have a well-deserved place in F1 history.  Three times World Champion, Jackie Stewart played his part in the Tyrrell saga. It's strange to think that after all these years, Stewart enters the Constructor's arena as the man who gave him his first break exits.