Formula One Wants To BAN The Use Of Wind Tunnels Because High Tech Racing Has No Need For That Type Of Witchcraft

Following the Portuguese Grand Prix at the end of October, the F1 Commission held a meeting to discuss the future of the sport. One of the ideas brought forward in this meeting to reduce not only costs for teams, but also to meet the sport’s needs for meeting sustainability goals. Wind tunnels take a lot of energy to operate, after all. Significantly more than comparable designs done in computational fluid dynamics.

The most recent, and to my knowledge only F1 car to date to have been designed without the help of a wind tunnel was the 2010 Virgin Racing VR-01. A full decade ago this all-computers technology was far enough along to produce an F1 backmarker that was, well, let’s be honest it wasn’t good. But what it was was functional. Team drivers Lucas di Grassi and Timo Glock couldn’t get the damn thing to finish any higher than 14th throughout the season, scoring zero points and retiring fifteen times from 19 Grands Prix.

PUGPROUD - 11/16/2020 11:13:09 AM

+1 Boost

Maybe computer simulation will advance enough to support a ban on wind tunnels but a significant amount of on track testing under varying conditions would be necessary before implementation. Too much at risk to get it wrong.

atc98092 - 11/16/2020 3:27:42 PM

+2 Boost

"Formula One Wants To Plan The Use...", or perhaps they want to BAN the use?

Agent009 - 11/16/2020 3:40:00 PM

0 Boost

Yep a disconnect between the brain and keyboard... title corrected

ricks0me - 11/16/2020 4:02:33 PM

0 Boost

Wind Tunnels are Politically Incorrect >>>> I learned something new today
>>> They use a lot of energy >>> But OF COURSE F1 racing does not use a lot of energy

Would the lefties on this site please educate me???