Patrick Sharpe

Mr. Palcsey

April 30, 2018

Honors English 10

Evolution of Aerodynamics Formula 1 Racing

The inception of motorsport racing originated in France in 1894. These races were held

on public roads with no restrictions or regulations. As these first motorized vehicles grew in

power and speed the sport was banned by the French government in 1900, but resumed in 1903.

These road races quickly became deadly leaving drivers and spectators injured or dead. To

combat the fatality rate the first sanctioned Grand Prix was held in 1906 on the original Le-Mans

circuit. Grand Prix races were held and governed by the Alliance Internationale des Automobile

Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) until 1946. It was in 1946 that the AIACR would change their name

to the Federation International de I’Automobile (FIA). The motorsport’s name was also changed

to Formula A, and only a few years later became the widely known name of Formula 1 (Rendall

21-37).

The first Formula 1 championship season was held in 1950. Through the 50’s F1 cars

were mainly front-engine, front-wheel drive cars. These first cars were mainly pre-war and war

cars from World War II. In the beginning of Formula One engineers and designers did not

accommodate aerodynamic forces to increase efficiency and speed of these cars. Aerodynamics

was introduced to F1 by Colin Chapman in 1968 through the concept of downforce. From that

moment on engineers strived to achieve the maximum aerodynamics by focusing on the two key

concepts to create the most aerodynamic car possible: downforce and drag-reduction. “Despite
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this, designers can’t make their cars too “slippery” as a good supply of airflow has to be ensured

to help cool the various parts of the power unit” (formula1.com).

Since the discovery of downforce in 1968 by Colin Chapman, Formula 1 was changed

forever. The aerodynamics of a Formula 1 car is similar to that of an airplane. The car generates

negative lift (downforce) while an airplane creates upward lift in flight (Bhatnagar 23). The

principal at work in both of these cases is called the Bernoulli Principle. The Bernoulli Principle

states “circulating airflow around the aerofoil that arises because of viscosity, the speed of the

flow over the top of the aerofoil is faster than that below, with the result that there is upward

pressure on the aerofoil” (Jelly, Nick).

Since a Formula 1 car needs to achieve maximum downforce, the Bernoulli Principle is

reversed creating two distinct airflow pressures. The airflow under the car is a faster, low

pressure stream while the above airflow consists of a slower but higher pressure stream. Upon

exiting the car’s body and wing/spoiler, the airflow will want to return to its path before

contacting the car. Reuniting the two airstreams cause drag. In attempts to combat this drag and

gain more speed during the early years of F1, engineers lowered the cars, increased airflow to the

engine which in turn increased power output. To further balance the car, engineers moved the

engine to the rear of the car increasing traction and stability (Bhatnagar 14). As Formula 1 grew,

loose restrictions were put in place allowing teams to experiment with the cars in attempts to

make them faster. These experimental attempts cost money, therefore allowing wealthy

manufacturers to reign in Formula 1.

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Formula 1 quickly became an expensive caliber sport that only the wealthy elite and

factories could compete in. Kit cars were introduced to lower financial standards and allowed

small teams to work their way up into Formula 1 (Rendall 81). Two of the most successful kit

car teams were Lotus and McLaren. Each team moved up to race in Formula 1 in 1965 (Rendall

110). As larger factory teams continued to increase power and reliability smaller teams such as

Lotus struggled to stay competitive. In 1968 Colin Chapman, a Lotus engineer and former

driver, discovered a way to keep the car planted without increasing physical weight (Urlings 1).

This discovery led to the fitment of a spoiler onto the Lotus 49B. This would effectively

generate negative lift, called downforce, increasing agility and handling (Bhatnager 15). Thus

aerodynamics was born into the motorsport of Formula 1.

The Lotus 49B used a device called a spoiler alongside two front wings on either side of

the nose. Each component used on the Lotus 49B generated a minuscule amount of downforce

compared to today’s cars. The spoiler used on the Lotus 49B was the first rear-downforce

generating concept used in Formula One (Bhatnager 14). A spoiler is usually found at the rear of

the car. Its shape is mainly that of a lip, but road cars, such as the Ferrari F40 and BMW E30

M3 EVO feature raised spoilers, but accomplish the same task.

A spoiler works by increasing airflow pressure through a disturbance in the air’s path.

This disturbance builds pressure against the spoiler, which in turn plants the rear of the car into

the ground. The spoiler generates the small amount of downforce by literally spoiling the

airflow. The drawback of a spoiler is its size and the aftermath. A spoiler can only become so

big until it produces more drag than downforce. Also, once airflow has passed the spoiler,

vortices will form creating drag and will slow a car down. This drag throws off the car’s balance

and creates a “low-pressure ‘balloon’” at the rear of the car slowing it down (formula1.com).
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One race later at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium in 1968, the Ferrari and Brabham teams

developed and mounted high mounted wings to combat Lotus’s design (Bhatnager 15). These

high mounted wings were swiftly banned by the FIA due to their danger and relation to strut and

suspension failures causing deadly crashes (Bhatnager 15-16). Upon being banned, wings were

mounted directly above the rear axle to generate downforce to the rear wheels. This new

Formula 1 wing took the Bernoulli Principle to the next level producing immense downforce.

Upon the introduction of the rear wing, Lotus accompanied their rear wing with endplates.

Colin Chapman added endplates to the Lotus wing in 1969 (Urlings 1). Endplates were

engineered to control air vortices, decreasing drag and increasing downforce. Endplates

themselves have evolved and current endplates are producing the most downforce with the least

drag than ever before (Urlings 1-2). Following the introduction of endplates, Lotus was another

step ahead of the competition. In 1970 Lotus redesigned their cars to accommodate radiators

along the side to produce a wedge-shaped front wing. The new front wing increased frontal

downforce and “improved air penetration, which in turn reduced drag” (Bhatnager 16). This new

configuration soon leaked to the Ferrari and McLaren teams, allowing them to win world

championships from 1974-1977 (Bhatnager 17).

In 1977 Lotus put an end to the Ferrari and McLaren reign. The F1 team discovered a

new aerodynamic device called ground effect. Ground effect aero was created by shaping the

undercarriage of the body like an upside-down wing. Accompanied by side-skirts, air pressure

could be easily controlled resulting in immense downforce (Seljak 15-16). The idea of ground

effect was to block high pressure airflow from spilling over the side panels and reaching the low

pressure air below the car (Seljak 16). This technique led to Lotus victories but the concept was
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banned in 1983 due to a deadly crash naming ground effect as the cause. Ground effect would

be hindsight for a related piece of equipment called a diffuser.

Introduced in 1990 by McLaren, the diffuser massively helped airflow under the car

(Bhatnager 18). A diffuser is placed between the rear wheels of the car. This placement allows

the fast-moving, low pressure air to return to its original, neutral state and smoothly exit the rear

of the car, free of vortices. This design allows greater “suction” between the car floor and the

ground while reducing drag (Seljak 18). The diffuser also eliminates drag coefficients such as

the “low-pressure balloon” and formation of vortices. Upon uniting all aerodynamic concepts

together a recipe of ingenious engineering has been created and will forever be looked at as an

influential gain of speed, agility, and knowledge.

Each aerodynamic evolution in Formula 1 has led to immense gains in downforce, speed,

and knowledge. Upon expanding on the basic Bernoulli principle and concepts of the past,

modern F1 designers engineer each car to distribute downforce comparable to a space-shuttle

take off. Though not all designs have stayed relevant, each components basis can be traced back

to its ancestors. With the technology available to engineers and designers today paired with

knowledge from the past, the future evolutions and innovations of aerodynamics will be earth-

shattering for Formula 1 and motorsports as a whole.

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Works Cited

Bhatnagar, Unmukt Rajeev. “Formula 1 Race Car Performance Improvement by Optimization of

the Aerodynamic Relationship between the Front and Rear Wings.” The Pennsylvania

State University the Graduate School College of Engineering. Dec. 2014.

Formula1.com. “Aerodynamics.” Formula One World Championships Limited. 2003-2018.

Jelly, Nick. A Dictionary of Energy Science. Oxford University Press. 2017.

Rendall, Ivan. The Power Game the History of Formula 1 and the World Championship.

Cassell&CO. 2000. Print.

Seljak, Gregor. “Race Car Aerodynamics.” 8. April. 2008.

Urlings, Andy. “Rear Wing Endplates in F1: An Extensive Analysis.” F1Technical.net. 24.

April. 2016.