5 facts that will surprise you about F1

BACALLADO JUAN MANUEL October 16, 2018

236 3 minutes read

The premier category of motorsports hides secrets that make possible its high performance and, above all, unimaginable speeds.

Formula 1 represents the highest category of motorsport, in which 10 teams (Ferrari, Force India, HaaS, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Renault, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Williams) do their best to add the most points during 21 races that take place in different countries spread over four continents (Asia, Europe, America and Oceania), in a season that begins in March and ends in mid-November, according to data of Formula 1.

Leer en español: 5 datos que te sorprenderán sobre la F1

The 24 competitors must take full advantage of the performance of their cars, since only the top 10 places receive points. While the first place gets 25 points, the tenth receives just 1, according to review the Rfvirtual web portal.

Here are five facts about Formula 1 that you might not have known:

1. Extreme speeds

To win, not only skill is needed, but also speed, for this reason, the cars are capable of going from 0 to 100 km / h in just 2.6 seconds, says the portal Uno Cero. For these speeds is not even necessarily a gasoline V8 engine, since 2014, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) demanded that the teams of Formula 1 that the engines had to be hybrid V6 turbo with a displacement of 1600 cc and an 8-speed gearbox, according to the web portal Motor.

However, contrary to being affected by the use of an engine that works with gasoline and electricity, the performance of the cars has improved, in fact, in 2016 the Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas, broke the record of maximum speed on a track , reaching 378 km / h with Williams' car in a training session for the Baku Grand Prix, Azeirbaijan; according to review Insurance for Days.

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2. Immediate braking
On a track with curves and drivers at very high speeds, it is necessary to have an optimal braking. The cars have a braking system capable of going from 200 to 0 km / h in just 2.12 seconds, according to Diario Motor.

The braking system for this cars has a special creation. Brembo, official brake distributor for Formula 1, takes 5 to 6 months to produce a Formula 1 braking system, this is a lot more time compared to what it takes to produce a conventional car: a single day, review the newspaper As.

The brake discs of a car are made of 100% carbon, with a thousand holes and an air system to cool enough the set of discs that reaches temperatures of 1300 ° C, for this reason, the brake discs have a duration maximum 800 km, while those of a conventional car can last up to 100 thousand km, according to As.

3. One race, 4 kg less

Due to the resistance against the G-force that must be imposed by a Formula 1 driver that leads to extreme speeds, high temperatures and lack of sufficient hydration, pilots lose up to 4 kg of body weight at the end of a race, according to Factoides.

4. Tires

In Formula 1 there are seven different types of tires, due to the implementation of two new tires in 2018 by Pirelli, the only supplier of tires for the cars since 2010, says Mundo Deportivo. The types of tires are: super hard, hard, medium, soft, super soft, ultra soft and hyper soft. The softer, the more speed a car can reach, the less the tires will last, while the harder ones have more grip, idea for rain or hot and smooth surfaces, and they last longer, although less speed is achieved, according to SportYou .

Due to the constant change of tires to be made by the teams during the qualifying races and the Grand Prix, 60,000 tires are used during a season among all the cars, since the duration of a tire ranges from 90 to 120. kilometers, reviews Uno Cero.

5. Millimeter construction

A car of the Formula 1 is not any car, they are armed with up to 80,000 pieces, so if only 99.9% of the components were assembled correctly, there would be 80 badly armed parts that would cause some error in the race, according to Uno Cero.

A single-seater is the result of a meticulous work of engineers, mechanics and even computer scientists. The construction begins with the design in computer of each one of the pieces, the manufacture made by automated machines that perfectly shape the component, then the aerodynamics is tested in a wind tunnel with a model of the car. They spend five months to finish assembling, testing and rectifying each of the details of the cars, so they then start to roll on the tracks, according to Motor Passion.

LatinAmerican Post | Juan Bacallado

Translated from "Cinco datos que te sorprenderán sobre la Fórmula Uno"

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