"McLarry" (McLarry)
06/14/2015 at 00:11 • Filed to: None
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"McLarry" (McLarry)
06/14/2015 at 00:11 • Filed to: None | 1
| 14 |
Just about every article about Le Mans seems to be getting mileage out of pointing out that Nico Hulkenberg is an F1 driver and Mark Webber used to be, and that they’re really good. Inevitably, this leads many to contrast the various virtues of F1 and endurance racing. This (and beer) led me to some musings about the similarities of the two forms of racing rather than their differences. After watching LMP1 cars accelerating out of a turn rocket past racing Ferraris (which are no slouch) as if they were standing still, I started to wonder how a modern F1 car might compare. My instinct is to assume that the F1 cars would blow away the competition, but then again were that the case I would expect LMP’s to look a lot more like F1 cars than they do.
Some obvious limitations come to mind: F1 cars don’t refuel (but they used to), their brakes only last about the distance of one race (if you’re lucky), and they’re so unreliable that the probability of one making it to the end of a 24-hour race without churning through a few engine and gearbox changes is effectively nil. If these could be remedied, however, what would be the result?
Wondering if anyone else had pondered this (mostly because I don’t feel like doing maths) I took to the Google, where I found !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! article, which states that the 2015 F1 engine regulations make them eligible to compete at Le Mans, and is generally much more optimistic about the reliability aspect.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
What say you? Is it a pipe dream to think an F1 car could be developed to run a 24-hour race? Would it blow away the competition or fail to be competitive? Why hasn’t anybody tried yet?
Alex from Toronto
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 00:18 |
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It would be cool to see them. But, I don’t know if F1 engines could last all 24 hours.
For Sweden
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 00:21 |
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Engine would go boom.
CTSenVy
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 00:33 |
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Considering that some F1 teams have already blown thru (pun kind of intended) their allotted engines for the year, I don’t think they would hold up for a 24 hour test.
If an F1 team wanted to design and run a LMP I’m sure they could, but there are enough differences in the specs that a F1 car would barely be recognizable to meet ACO specs
tromoly
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 00:41 |
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F1 did race at LeMans, in 1967, on the Bugatti Circuit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Fren…
So maybe not the same thing...
PushToStart
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 00:44 |
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Even in the days of the relatively reliable V8’s of a few years ago, there’s no way an F1 engine could run flat out for that long. Even at a normal for F1 race length it would be a challenge because of the amount of time/percentage of the lap of LeMans that the throttle would be completely open. If you’re talking for 24 hours, it’d be damn near impossible.
A similar style chassis configuration would likely work, but the engine would need to be totally reworked, aka, it wouldn't really be an F1 car.
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McLarry
> PushToStart
06/14/2015 at 00:58 |
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Yeah there’s a fundamental design difference in that F1 cars are designed to go flat out for 300km then stop. I should think they would be able to change the design to make it more survivable (though undoubtedly to the detriment of performance) while still preserving much of the essence, but my perspective is admittedly limited.
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McLarry
> Alex from Toronto
06/14/2015 at 00:59 |
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Certainly not in their current form, but (as somebody that doesn’t make engines) perhaps the reliability could be improved?
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McLarry
> CTSenVy
06/14/2015 at 01:00 |
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Yeah, I think there’s no hope as they stand now...with a year or so to chew on the problem, though, I bet they could make something that could at least go half the distance before exploding magnificently :P
AntiSpeed
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 01:19 |
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I don’t think it would go very well, but it would be ironic since similar regs between prototype and F1 engines is what killed Group C in the early 90’s.
Smoggi - powered by 3 cylinders
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 04:14 |
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You could increase reliability by not having them rev to 18k rpm but that would kill the only cool thing about those engines.
bryan40oop
> McLarry
06/14/2015 at 10:20 |
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“ Engine regulations mean F1 car could complete Le Mans”
NO, NO NO NONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Back in the 80’s bernie convinced the ACO to adopt the 3.5L engine max (same as F1 at the time)
It was a train wreck. Keep that troll away.
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McLarry
> bryan40oop
06/14/2015 at 19:32 |
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I don’t think it’ll happen, but it was a fun, booze-fueled thought exercise :P
TheLateApx
> McLarry
05/13/2016 at 23:28 |
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Look, isn’t the shortest race, that an LMP1 car runs, about 3 hours long? Now, for a really fucked up reason that I can’t justify, make the F1 car do a 3hr race vs an LMP1 car at a common venue. Did someone say Spa? Surely the F1 minds can beef up those rigs to go, what, 40'ish% longer? Ya feel me? And for the sake of the rules, we’ll use a 3-5 year old chassis.
Would we need to give the diesels a head start? Ha.
[like you, i self medicated, so i thought i’d have my fun at this game. thanks]
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McLarry
> TheLateApx
05/14/2016 at 15:33 |
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Yeah, I think there are some 3hr races in there - 6 certainly. F1 races aren’t allowed to exceed 2hrs, so there’s a bit of a gap there, but surely they could just turn the engines and brakes down a bit to last that long and do pit stops for tires and fuel. I suspect it would be a contest of outright speed vs efficiency, with the hybrid diesels putting down slower laps but sipping fuel and staying out of the pits longer. Since you mention Spa, I checked the respective lap times - the best LMP1 lap at Spa last year was 1'59.1 and the best F1 lap at Spa last year was 1'52.4. Granted that’s best lap, not average, so that won’t be the race pace, but still... 7s a lap is a big gap to make up in pit stops.