Originally Posted by
Fat Boy
Well, your numbers are a bit high, but the idea is right. If you're saying that an F-1 car can produce 3 times it's weight in downforce and have tires with a mu of 2.0 or better, I think you're a tick high on both accounts. The aero number is *maybe* close in extraordinary circumstances (i.e. Monaco downforce, but a much longer straight), but the top mu you're going to see is only about 1.7. The top braking they see is around 5 g's and that's a spike when they first hit the pedal (and they can take advantage of all that downforce, as the car slows they don't have the normal force to maintain this performance) Trust me on this one, huh?
Depends upon the year/generation of F1 you're looking at. I'm primarily using their peak-performance figures from the Turbo Era pre'88 where 1200+hp cars were common and they had aggressive double-deck wings to convert as much of that power as possible to downforce. Also threadless tyres were the norm back then, which provided much, much more grip than the treaded tyres they've used in recent years. FIA rules robbed them of a lot of this power by outlawing the turbo in the late-80s and reducing downforce from wings a couple years ago:
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/un...port/5281.html
I got to see for the very time in history F1 and Indy cars using the same track in 2002 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Quite entertaining considering F1 was in the rain and Indy was nice spring weather a couple months later.
