Formula 1: A technical deep dive into building the world’s fastest cars
F1 drivers experience similar g-force to Apollo astronauts during Earth re-entry. Here’s how they design and make the cars.
But the bit that’s really impressive is that these machines are designed and built from scratch every year. That’s what makes F1 so competitive and why the rate of improvement is so rapid. These teams—there are only about 10 of them, and most are based in England—have been challenging each other to make a new best-car-in-the-world every year for 60 years. The only way to pole position is to try to find an edge that no one else has thought of yet and then to keep finding new edges when everyone inevitably catches up.
.. The underside of the Lotus 79 F1 car was curved like an upside-down airplane wing, creating a pocket of low pressure that essentially sucked the car to the ground.