ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING VEHICLES at the Geneva show this year was a mock up racing car concept, the LF1. Created by Leonardo Fioravanti,best known for his work as Pininfarina's design director when some of the most exciting Ferraris were
produced. the LF1 resolves several problems that make modem Formula 1 races boring. Lead changes mostly take place only during pit stops, because turbulence generated by the car in front destabilizes an attacking driver as downforce disappears, making his car unpredictable at best and uncontrollable at worst.
Fioravanti wants to:
1.Reduce size in the interest of efficiency
2.Link racing cars more closely to roadgoing sports and GT cars, as used to be the case
3.Sharply reduce wake turbulence.
On the first point, there are already proposals to use i8oo-cc turbocharged engines for the 2012 season, which accords with current industry practices.Ford, Fiat, Renault, Volkswagen, and others already offer smaller turbocharged engines, a trend likely to be almost universal within a decade.
As to the second point, current F1 cars use thirteen inch wheels, but most performance cars have at least eighteen inch wheels. Larger wheels would permit engineering cross-fertilization of road and racing braking sytems.
The final point, reducing aerodynamic commotion, has been treated through the use of computational fluid dynamics a technique already employed in aircraft design, specifically to reduce required separation distances between aircraft landing and taking off, as well as by fairing and semienclosing the tires.
Fioravanti proposes to measure turbulence ten meters behind a car and assure that no car surpasses a specific maximum value. He has patented design details to allow measurement for control purposes. We can all hope that his
initiative is successful. It would mean better racing and better cars to dream about driving.
Automobile Magazine june 2009
