6: The Race Team in .NET

Creation Code 39 in .NET 6: The Race Team

An engine supplier also has its own technical director, ensuring its Formula One programme s technical progress runs smoothly In those teams that build their own engines, the team s technical director also has reporting to him the chief of engine design So complex is the whole business that there can be two levels of technical management above the guy who actually designs the chassis or engine Chief designers, aerodynamicists, and research and development bosses all report to the team s technical director The following sections explain their roles on a Formula One team

Aerodynamics really determine the ultimate potential of a Formula One car Even if a team sets up the car just right, it s never going to shave whole seconds of lap time, only fractions of that But the difference between a good and bad car aerodynamically can easily be whole seconds That s why the chief aerodynamicist carries the heavy burden of responsibility on his shoulders The calculations are so involved and microscopic that he (or she Williams currently has a female aero chief) depends on a whole team of aerodynamicists who work beneath to figure out the details, come up with new components, and try them out in the wind tunnel The chief aerodynamicist is primarily interested in the overall effect The aerodynamic performance of a car is expressed in its lift:drag ratio how much downforce can be had for how little straightline speed drag The chief aerodynamicist is concerned with this above all else

The chief designer is the person who has to come up with an overall layout for the car that allows everything to fit and be adequately cooled whilst giving the aerodynamicist the necessary scope for generating efficient downforce Essential to utilising the aerodynamic forces is the task of coming up with a structure that is stiff enough to withstand them another job of the chief designer Reporting to him is a team of designers and structural analysts At least one team rotates between two chief designers so that one works on next year s car without the distraction of developing the current one and then goes on to develop his car when it becomes current, leaving the other designer to initiate the next in the sequence

New materials and technology and new ways of using existing technology come from the R&D (Research and Development) department, headed by the

chief of R&D Investing heavily in research and development invariably translates to lap time on the track The more inventive minds, who might go off at a tangent too readily to make a chief designer, may nonetheless make a great R&D man

Some teams separate out the design and application elements and appoint a chief of engineering to oversee how designs are translated into reality This person such as Renault s Pat Symonds or Williams Sam Michael often plays a strong managerial role during a race weekend

The accuracy and repeatability of the wind tunnel is essential for the aerodynamicists to know how good or bad the team s car is Setting up a wind tunnel is a highly complex business and the top teams have someone whose job it is to engineer the tunnel itself

The engine design chief oversees the design of the engine in much the same way that the technical director oversees the design of the rest of the car The chief engine designer that is, the person actually designs the engine is not necessarily the same as engine design chief who will be a technical manager overseeing the department, including the chief engine designer!

Some teams manufacture their own gearboxes and therefore have their own team of transmission designers and fabricators But even those that buy-in their gearboxes from specialist manufacturers have engineers who specialise in the mating up of engine and transmission