Page 38 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

38 EE|Times EUROPE

In Formula 1, Engineers Are Essential Members of the Team

One of the biggest obstacles to success is the harsh racing
environment. Excessive temperatures and vibrations can
impair the accuracy of the sensor and ultimately destroy the
device itself. The electronic components must operate at
maximum efficiency.
One design imperative is drift reduction. Drift is the
tendency of a sensor to lose accuracy over time, resulting in
permanent component damage and irreversible engine fail-
ure. With a hundred or so sensors in a typical race car, the
total burden of data acquisition accuracy can be enormous.
The racing environment also introduces dust, oil, and
moisture. Materials science is part of the solution, yielding
materials for building components that can operate with
high reliability under difficult conditions. Conventional
vibration protection is focused on mounting hardware. Reli-
ability is compromised over time if electronic components
are not protected against vibration or are not inherently
designed to be resistant to material fatigue.

Figure 2: Connectors used in Formula 1 cars (Source: McLaren Racing) DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM
The measurements recorded by a data acquisition system
are taken by the sensors installed throughout the machine.
The engine, engine brake, torque control, engine injection, and A typical Formula 1 car, for example, uses three sensors to gauge the
ignition are parameters that can be managed using a telemetry and speed of the vehicle: a Hall-effect magnetic sensor installed on the
data analysis system. Other components closely related to the use of wheel, a Correvit optical sensor, and a Pitot tube.
telemetry and data analysis systems are the chassis, tires, accelerator “Air-speed sensors in the form of a Pitot tube are used by Formula 1
operation, vehicle speed, and aerodynamics regulation through the cars, but of course, the wind has to be factored in,” said Watt. “So even
penetration coefficient of the mechanical vehicle. asking how fast an F1 car is going can be a difficult question to answer
“Telemetry can sometimes be a misused term in Formula 1, but it accurately and usually involves statistical analysis of multiple sources
is usually used to refer to the wireless transmission of on-car data of data combined with models and post-processing.”
generated in the SECU and sent to the team trackside in the pits,” said The rotation speed of each wheel is measured with a standard model
Watt. “The telemetry systems used in Formula 1 have been subject to to account for slippage. Optical sensors watch the track and the GPS.
some very pragmatic changes in recent years. It used to be the case There are also sensors that measure temperature, angular and linear
that each team took its own independent radio telemetry system to velocity, angular and linear displacement, pressure, material stresses,
the trackside, and the pits ended up looking like a forest of pump-up acceleration, magnetic field variations, and so on. Accelerometers are
masts of ever-increasing heights. Of course, the radio spectrum became used to measure lateral g-force (cornering) and to detect longitudinal
increasingly congested, and when you think that this has to be taken forces such as braking in a range from 0 to 4 g’s.
around the world and subject to regional radio spectrum regulations, it The position of the sensor determines which direction is detected.
was starting to become a nightmare. A dual-axis sensor measures both steering and braking forces. Non-
“On top of this, these systems often couldn’t support full coverage at contact temperature detection is often directed at the braking, motor,
certain tracks, such as Monaco and Singapore, so some teams started and tire devices.
to deploy repeaters on the roofs of hotels and the like,” added Watt. Infrared microelectromechanical-system (MEMS) sensors are used for
“Fortunately, the FOM [Formula One Management] and FIA stepped in temperature measurement, allowing non-contact temperature testing.
and introduced the Standard Communication System, which provides Usually, these sensors use a thermopile material to absorb the infrared
both a driver voice radio and telemetry link for all teams. FOM now energy emitted by the object being measured, and the change in voltage
places a shared system of access points around the track and delivers determines the temperature of the object. Thermal cameras aimed at the
the encrypted data from each car to the team’s garage via a fiber link.” contact areas of the tires monitor wear and allow heating control.
Today, he said, “the telemetry link is a critical part of the operation Some parameters, such as transmission torque and load cells, are
of all Formula 1 teams. Due to a combination of the complexity of the recorded at frequencies on the order of 200 Hz, i.e., 200 times per
cars and the power units and the sporting regulations — meaning that second. If there is a strong vibration, it is possible to put an extra log
teams have to keep engines and gearboxes for multiple races — teams on the machine and change the rate to get a vibration analysis on
will almost certainly not run a car on track without the visibility of the various parts of the machine. As a precaution, F1 engineers collect the
car’s health that the combination of sensors, ECU, and telemetry link data every time the car returns to the pit by uploading it to a dedicated
gives and the resultant possibility for the trackside engineers to inter- server. “When it comes to analyzing suspension movement, sampling
vene before a fault leads to catastrophic damage of valuable powertrain rates of 1 kHz are common, and these can rise to 100 kHz or higher
components. If not prevented, such an incident could result in a loss of when performing the vibration analysis that is often part of reliability
valuable track running or even future penalties for the team.” validation work,” said Watt.
The sensors help to monitor, control, and optimize both the car and Telemetry and correct data acquisition are important factors in F1
the driver by collecting data on braking, cornering speed, gearbox, because they allow engineers to collect a huge amount of data during a
wheel rotation, gearbox life, and the range of speeds in which the race. The data can then be interpreted and used to ensure that the car
engine runs most efficiently. The acquired data is used for real-time is running at its best. ■
analysis of engine performance so that team engineers can act
accordingly to solve problems remotely and thus improve the effi- Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio is editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News
ciency of the car. and EEWeb.

DECEMBER 2020 | www.eetimes.eu