Formula One Engines

Although F1 racing engines have lost some of the attractiveness they

used to have when the regulations allowed more freedom, every single
design currently in use is still a highly advanced piece of engineering
that has required lots of time and thought. An engine is the only power
source of a Formula One car - apart from the KERS systems in 2009
which are indirectly charged by the power generated by the engine - and
is a structural part of the chassis.

Facts and figures

Because of the regulations and

engineering optimisations, all curent
engines are of a similar type, and
feature the following similarities:

 All F1 engines are naturally

aspirated V8's of 2400cc
 Engines are limited to 18,000rpm
 The weight is exactly 95kg (each
manufacturer easily reaches this
regulated minimum weight)
 Engine blocks are constructed of forged aluminium alloy, because
of the weight advantages it gives in comparison to steel. Other
materials would maybe give some extra advantages, but to limit
costs, the FIA has forbidden all non-ferro materials.
 Crankshaft and piston rods are Iron based for strength.
 At its maximum pace the current V8 engines consume around 60
litres of petrol for 100km of racing.
 It's not exactly known how much oil such a top engine contains,
but this oil is for 70% in the engine, while the other 30% is in a
dry-sump lubrication system that changes oil within the engine
three to four times a minute.
  Before its first track time and after each race, each engine is tested
on an engine dyno to validate its performance and identify
problems. A videoclip of Renault's RS24 on the dyno can be found
here.

Evolution of engine design

All current engines run by the competing F1 teams are very similar due
to the very stringent regulations that have increasingly come into play
since 2006. Until that time, all car manufacturers involved in F1 were
effectively outracing each other in a spending race. It is not a lie to claim
that in the years after 1995, the manufacturer who invested most and
could hire most people could produce the best engine.

Back in 1997, Ford Cosworth started a furious battle for weight

reduction as their CR1 at the time was at least 25kg lighter than any
other. Although they suffered some
reliability problems troughout the season,
the engine was an example for the others, as
it allowed the team to shift ballast in the car
to benefit the car's handling.

As a reaction to this weight shedding, the

the 1998 Mercedes-benz engine was
possibly one of the most revolutionary engines ever built, making
performance gains and drastic weight cuts at the same time. It quickly
proved good enough to be the basis of Mika Hakkinen's two consecutive
world titles with McLaren Mercedes. When in 2000, the FIA decided to
limit the use of Berillium alloys - to a maximum of 5 mass percentage -
due to being poisonous in high quantities, Mercedes struggled for years
to recover from that setback - they could not match anymore the power
of the at that time mighty Ferrari and BMW engines.
By the end of 2005, most of the teams had converged their designs to 3
litre V10's with an internal angle of 90°. The teams' designers had come
to the conclusion that 90° was the best compromise between
performance and stiffness of the engine itself.

That same year, some 3l V10 engines were producing more than 980hp
and running very close to the 1000hp mark, a figure that was never
reached since the ban on turbo engines. It was a sign for F1's governing
body to change the regulations as top speeds at Monza of 370km/h were
deemed hazardous for the drivers as well as the spectators. The
maximum capacity was thus reduced to 2.4l and the cylinder count to 8.
Additionally, the FIA ruled that an engine freeze would come into effect
a year later to put an end to the spending race.

Only 2 years later however, halfway through 2008, the FIA and several
teams who strictly followed the rules - including the likes of Toyota and
Renault - found that the regulations still allowed too much freedom. It
appeared that over the last year, Mercedes and Ferrari had been able to
add up to 40hp to their engines as so called "reliability updates", while
others had followed the engine freeze more strictly. Several meetings
with FIA officials and the teams' principals then resulted in an
equalisation of the engines, in which the less powerful could put on
several updates to be on par in the next years.
Even so, without fiercely looking for improvements, a current F1 engine
is a highly interesting piece of engineering, in total consisting of 5000
seperate parts, 1500 of which are moving. It is estimated that when in
operation, a new F1 engine can produce around 720hp, but would be
able to reach up to 780hp and above 20,000rpm if there would not be a
limit on engine revolutions.

Difference with road engines

 Higher volumetric efficiency. VE is used to describe the amount

of fuel/air in the cylinder in relation to regular atmospheric air. If
the cylinder is filled with fuel/air at atmospheric pressure, then the
engine is said to have 100% volumetric efficiency. Turbo chargers
for instance can increase VE to above 100% while normally
aspirated engines tipically run anywhere between 80% and 100%.
In this region however, a Formula One engine usually can achieve
a higher VE than normal road engines because of their highly
optimised intake manifolds.
 Unfortunately, from the total fuel energy that is put into the
cylinders, averagely less than 1/3 ends up as useable horsepower.
Ignition timing, thermal coatings, plug location and chamber
design all affect the thermal efficiency (TE). Low compression
street engines may have a TE of approximately 0.26, a racing
engine may reach approximately 0.34. This seemingly small
difference results in a difference of about 30% (0.34 - 0.26 / 0.26)
more horsepower than before.
 From all that power generated, part of it is used by the engine to
run itself. The left over power is what you would measure on a
dynamometer. The difference between what you would measure on
the dyno and the workable power in the cylinder is the mechanical
efficiency (ME). Mechanical efficiency is affected by rocker
friction, bearing friction, piston skirt area, and other moving parts,
but it is also dependent on the engine's RPM. The greater the RPM,
the more power it takes to turn the engine. This means limiting
internal engine friction can generate a large surplus in power
 output, and where in F1 the stress is on power, on the road it is also
on fuel consumption.

These main optimization necessities are what makes Formula One

engine design difficult. At the end of the line, an F1 engine revs much
higher than road units, hence limiting the lifetime of such a power
source. It is especially the mechanical efficiency that causes Formula
One engines to be made of different materials. These are necessary to
decrease internal friction and the overall weight of the engine, but more
importantly, limit the weight of internal parts, e.g. of the valves, which
should be as light as possible to allow incredibly fast movement of more
than 300 movements up and down a second (this at 18.000 rpm).

Another deciding point trying to reach a maximum of power out of an

engine is the exhaust. The minor change of lenght or form of an exhaust
can influence the horsepowers drastically. Although variable outlet
systems are not allowed, the exhaust system on a race car does not
feature a muffler, lacks a katalysator and is specially made to whitstand
temperatures as high as 1200°C, a lot more than what is achieved with a
regular road engine.

Engine design phylosophies

Considering internal combustion engines (thus leaving out oscillating

and Wankel rotary combustion engines), there are basically three
different ways of building an engine. The difference here is how the
cylinders are placed compared to each other.

 Inline engines, where all cylinders are placed next to (or after) each
other are not used in Formula One since the 60's. While the
engines are small, they are long and therefore require a heavy
cranckshaft.
 Boxer engines are actually one of the best ways to build an engine,
if all external factors allow it. Two cylinder rows are placed
opposed to each other. You could consider a boxer engine as being
a 180° V-angle engine design. These engines became popular in F1
 because of the low centre of gravity and the average production
costs, but later on disappeared out of the picture as this type of
engine is not sufficiently stiff enough to whitstand the car's G-
forces in cornering conditions. Ferrari for instance have run 12
cylinder boxer engines from 1970 to 1980 before moving to a 120°
V-angle engine.
 V-type engines, as currently used in all F1 cars. The V is in fact the
geometrical angle that seperated the two cylinder banks from each
other where the crankshaft can be considered the origin of the
angle. Obviously for this type of engine the size of the V is a major
factor and must be decided in the first phases of the engine design.
Previously, engines have been designed with angles such as 60°
V12 or 72° V10. Although it has historically been an interesting
evolution to see the differences between the teams' engines, the
FIA have fixed the engine type to 90° V8 models.

Since the introduction of the Ford Cosworth DFV, an engine in a F1 car

is a stressed member of the chassis, meaning that it is an integral part of
the car. Before that idea, a chassis was built as a tube frame with the
engine placed in it afterwards, while now a chassis would fall apart if no
engine was fitted. A current engine is bolted in between the rear end of
the monocoque and the frontal side of the gearbox. As of that time, V-
type engines have gradually pushed out any other engine type because
they are compact and can be constructed very rigidly without requiring
further strengthening to the chassis to ensure stiffness.

Contrary to boxer or flat engines, V-angled combustion engines pose an

extra design problem, as it is crucial for an engine's performance that the
V-angle is chosen wisely. This angle important to ensure a correct firing
sequence and hence also influences its primary balance.

Calculating possible V angles for a specific number of cylinders is

fortunately not a daunting task. If you consider that every combustion
cycle takes 2 turns - intake and combustion phase - of the crankshaft,
and a full circle is 360°, the engine's included V-angle x the number of
cylinders must be a function of 720 in order to achieve evenly spaced
cylinder firing and primary balance.

That is also why a boxer engine is an ideal layout. The cylinders are
opposed at 180° so having 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 isn't that big.
Perfect primary balance is easy to achieve, as long as the reciprocating
and rotating parts are in balance and, the firing order is always evenly
spaced. A few examples make it clear why several specific angles have
been very popular in F1 engine design:

 As mentioned earlier, Ferrari have used a 60° V12 or 120° V12

engine. As for the first option, divide 720° by 12 cylinders and you
get 60. You get 120° when you imagine a V12 as two aligned V6
engines.
 Renault's extremely successful 72° V10 engines share the same
thoughts. It is the perfect bank angle for any V10 engine if a boxer
is not an option. One cylinder is fired every time the cranckshaft
has completed 72° so that after 2 turns every single piston has gone
through one complete cycle.
 Currently every team runs 90° V8 engines but not only because the
regulations prescribe so. Also this is a perfect angle and meets the
size requirements set by the aerodynamicists.
 Contrary to these optimal choices, there have
also been unusual uses. For instance the 2005
90° V10 engines that everyone but Renault
were using. While they may have been more
interesting for other reasons, it's performance
could theoretically not beat Renault's RS25
that was a 72° V10. The 90° V10 engines
hence had either offset crankpins or a funny firing order.
 Before their RS24 Renault was trying a revolutionary design as
they designed a 112° V10. Although the engine evolved from
RS21 to RS23 and was beneficial in terms of the centre of gravity
it was finally abandoned. The engine could not reach competitively
 high rpms since the uneven firing order introduced unwanted
vibrations in the engine.

Cranckshaft design

Although the V8 with the now compulsory cylinder angle of 90 degrees

may look like a sawn-off V10, technically it is an entirely separate
concept with its own specific requirements. The V8 has a distinct firing
sequence and demands a fundamentally different crankshaft design.
Whereas a 72-degree offset crankshaft was used in most V10 Formula
One engines, V8 powerplants can feature crankshafts with either four
throws spaced at 90 degrees or four throws spaced at 180 degrees.
Standard production engines are fitted with 90-degree crankshaft
variants due to their better dynamic attributes, but a 180-degree
crankshaft is favoured in racing car engine design. The improved
performance this allows offsets the disadvantages in terms of dynamics.

Cooling

With such a low thermal efficiency, cooling of any internal combustion

engine is vital for its correct operation. Basically, an F1 cooling system
is the same as in any regular road car, as engine cooland and oil is
pumped through a radiator to cool down before completing another
cycle through the engine.

However, due to the space restrictions and aerodynamic requirements of

a race car, the positioning of these components is completely different.
The following shows the internals of a championship winning Renault
R25 of 2005, included with its Renault RS25 engine (2). The flat panels
located nearly vertically in the front of the side pods are the radiators
(4). While in this picture the radiator is covered with a protective hose, it
is not during running as air passes through the aluminium fins of the
radiator. Their position however varies considerably in different cars as
they are influenced by the aerodynamic and weight distribution
requirements of a car.
Contrary to popular belief, the air inlet above the driver's head is not part
of the cooling system but instead provided the engine's cylinders with air
to be mixed with fuel for combustion. It is commonly thought that the
purpose of this is to 'ram' air into the engine like a supercharger, but the
airbox does the opposite. The carbon fibre duct (1) gradually widens out
as it approaches the engine, effectively creating a venturi and a suction
effect on the small air inlet. The shape of this ducts and inlet however
must be carefullly designed to both fill all cylinders equally and not
harm the exterior aerodynaimcs of the engine cover, all to optimize the
volumetric efficiency.

Marked with (3) is the engine exhaust system while (5) and (6) identify
the rear suspension that is fitted onto the gearbox.

Transmission

The transmission of any car is considered to be all intermediate gears

and systems to get the engine rotational power to the wheels. In reality
this comes down to the gearbox and differential, which are both
assembled into the gearbox casing. Just as with the engine, this casing -
often made of titanium or carbon fibre - is also a structural part of the
chassis and is firmly bolted onto the rear end of the engine. More can be
found in the specific article about F1 transmissions.

Regulations

The current regulations on Formula One engines can be summarised as

follows. These specifications have become more strict during recent
years in an attempt to limit costs and decrease performance. You can
find an evolution of the most important regulations per era in the safety
section. As this is only an exerpt of the most important regulations on
engines, you would need to see the official FIA technical regulations
before you start to design a Formula One engine yourself.

Specification
Only 4-stroke engines with reciprocating pistons are permitted.
Engine capacity must not exceed 2400 cc.
Crankshaft rotational speed must not exceed 18,000rpm.
Supercharging is forbidden.
All engines must have 8 cylinders arranged in a 90º “V” configuration
and the normal section of each cylinder must be circular.
Engines must have two inlet and two exhaust valves per cylinder.
Only reciprocating poppet valves are permitted.
The sealing interface between the moving valve component and the
stationary engine component must be circular.

Dimensions, weight and centre of gravity

Cylinder bore diameter may not exceed 98mm.
Cylinder spacing must be fixed at 106.5mm (+/- 0.2mm).
The crankshaft centreline must not be less than 58mm above the
reference plane.
The overall weight of the engine must be a minimum of 95kg.
The centre of gravity of the engine may not lie less than 165mm above
the reference plane.
The longitudinal and lateral position of the centre of gravity of the
engine must fall within a region that is the geometric centre of the
engine, +/- 50mm. The geometric centre of the engine in a lateral sense
will be considered to lie on the centre of the crankshaft and at the mid
point between the centres of the forward and rear most cylinder bores
longitudinally.
Variable geometry systems are not permitted

Materials
Magnesium based alloys, Metal Matrix Composites (MMC’s) and
Intermetallic materials may not be used anywhere in an engine
Coatings are free provided the total coating thickness does not exceed
25% of the section thickness of the underlying base material in all axes.
In all cases the relevant coating must not exceed 0.8mm.
Pistons must be manufactured from an aluminium alloy which is either
Al-Si ; Al-Cu ; Al-Mg or Al-Zn based.
Piston pins, crankshafts and camshafts must be manufactured from an
iron based alloy and must be machined from a single piece of material.
A supplementary device temporarily connected to the car may be used to
start the engine both on the grid and in the pits.