Introduction

A Formula One car is a single-seat, open cockpit, open-wheel racing car with substantial front and
rear wings, and an engine positioned behind the driver, intended to be used in competition at
Formula One racing events.
They use internal combustion engines and have transmissions, suspensions, wheels and brakes.
Formula One cars aren't designed for casual driving or cruising down the interstate. Everything
about them is tweaked and tooled for one thing and one thing only -- speed. Formula One cars can
easily attain speeds of 200 mph -- but during a race, the speeds are generally lower. [1] A typical
Formula One car is shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: A typical Formula One car

The technical specifications of Formula One cars change from one year to the other. The
dimensions of a Formula One car as of 2017 are as follows:

 The overall width of a car, excluding tires, must not exceed 2,000mm.
 The length, height and shape of the car are effectively governed by other specific
parameters. For example, bodywork between the front and rear wheel center lines must not
be more than 1,600mm wide.
 To prevent tire damage to other cars, certain pieces of bodywork (such as front wing
endplates) must be at least 10mm thick.
 No part of the car can be more than 950mm in height. [2]
Every F1 car is composed of two main components − the chassis and the engine, beside other
components such as the gearbox, steering wheel, fuel, tires, brakes.
DISCUSSION

Figure 1-2
The formula 1 car is composed of many parts as indicated in figure 1-2; We’ll take about each part.

Chassis
The heart of a Formula One car is the chassis -- the part of the automobile onto which everything is
bolted and attached. Like most modern cars and aircraft, Formula One race cars feature
monocoque construction. Monocoque is a French word meaning "single shell," which refers to the
process of making the entire body out of a single piece of material. Once upon a time, that material
was aluminum, but today it's a strong composite, like spun carbon fibers set in resin or carbon fiber
layered over aluminum mesh. The result is a lightweight car that can withstand the enormous
downward-acting forces that are produced as the vehicle moves through the air.

The monocoque incorporates the cockpit, a strong, padded cell that accommodates a single driver.
Unlike the cockpits of road-ready cars, which can show great variance, the cockpits of Formula
One cars must adhere to very rigorous technical regulations. They must, for example, meet
minimum size requirements and must have a flat floor. The seat, however, is made to fit a driver's
precise measurements so his movement is limited as the car moves around the track. [3]
ENGINE
Before 2006, Formula One cars were powered by massive three-liter, V10 engines. Then the
rules changed, specifying the use of 2.4-liter V8 engines. Even though power outputs fell
with the rule change, Formula One engines can still produce nearly 900 horsepower. To
put that into perspective, consider that a Volkswagen Jetta's 2.5-liter engine produces just
150 horsepower. Of course, the Jetta's engine is probably good for at least 100,000 miles or
so. A Formula One engine needs to be rebuilt after about 500 miles. Why? Because
generating all of that power requires that the engine run at very high revolution rates --
nearly 19,000 revolutions per minute. Running an engine at such high rpms produces an
enormous amount of heat and puts a great deal of stress on the moving parts. The fuel that
powers such an engine is not the typical unleaded gasoline you pump at the neighborhood
Exxon, but it's similar. Small quantities of non-hydrocarbon compounds are allowed, but
most power-boosting additives have been banned completely. All in all, Formula One teams
use about 50 different fuel blends, tuned for different tracks or conditions, in a typical
season. Each blend must be submitted to the FIA, the sport's governing body, for approval
of its composition and physical properties. [4]

Transmission
It's the job of the transmission to transfer all of the engine's power to the rear wheels of the
Formula One car. The transmission bolts directly to the back of the engine and includes all of the
parts you would expect to find in a road car -- gearbox, differential and driveshaft. The gearbox
must have a minimum of four forward gears and a maximum of seven gears. Six-speed
gearboxes were popular for several years, but most Formula One cars now run seven-speed units.
A reverse gear must also be fitted. The gearbox is connected to a differential, a set of gears
allowing the rear wheels to revolve at different speeds during cornering. And the differential is
connected to the driveshaft, which transfers power to the wheels.

Shifting gears in a Formula One car is not the same as shifting gears in a road car with a manual
transmission. Instead of using a traditional "H" gate selector, drivers select gears using paddles
located just behind the steering wheel. Downshifting is done on one side of the steering wheel,
upshifting on the other. Although fully automatic transmission systems, including systems with
sophisticated launch control, are possible on Formula One cars, they are now illegal. This helps
 reduce the overall cost of the power train and enables drivers to use gear-shifting skills to gain
advantage in a race. [5]

Aerodynamics
A Formula One race car is defined as much by its aerodynamics as it is by its powerful
engine. That's because any vehicle traveling at high speed must be able to do two things
well: reduce air resistance and increase downforce. Formula One cars are low and wide to
decrease air resistance. Wings, a diffuser, end plates and barge boards increase downforce.
Let's look at each of these in greater detail.

 Wings, which first appeared in the 1960s, operate on the same principles as
airplane wings, only in reverse. Airplane wings create lift, but the wings on a Formula
One car produce downforce, which holds the car onto the track, especially during
cornering. The angle of both front and rear wings can be fine-tuned and adjusted to get
the ideal balance between air resistance and downforce.
 Lotus engineers discovered in the 1970s that a Formula One car itself could be
turned into a giant wing. Using a unique undercarriage design, they were able to extract
air from beneath the car, creating an area of low pressure that sucked the entire vehicle
downward. These so-called "ground-effect" forces were soon outlawed and strict
regulations put in place to govern undercarriage design. The bottom of today's cars
must be flat from the nose cone to the rear axle line. Beyond that line, engineers have
free reign. Most incorporate a diffuser, an upward-sweeping device located just beneath
the engine and gearbox that creates a suction effect as it funnels air up and passes it to
the rear of the car.
 Much of aerodynamics is concerned with getting air to move where you want it to
move. Endplates are small, flanged areas at the edges of the front wings that help "grab"
the air and direct it along the side of the car. The barge boards, located just behind the
front wheels, pick up the air from there, accelerating it to create even more downforce.

The result of all this aerodynamics engineering is a combined downforce of about 2,500
kilograms (5,512 pounds). That's more than four times the weight of the car itself. [6]

Suspension
The suspension of a Formula One car has all of the same components as the suspension of a road
car. Those components include springs, dampers, arms and anti-sway bars. How Car Suspensions
Work provides detailed information about each of these parts and even includes a section on
Formula One suspensions. To keep things simple here, we'll say that almost all Formula One cars
feature double wishbone suspensions. Before any race, a team will tweak suspension settings to
ensure that the car can brake and corner safely, yet still deliver responsiveness of handling. [7]

Brakes
You would recognize all of the parts of the disc brakes found on Formula One cars. The big
difference, of course, is that the brakes used in Formula One must stop a vehicle traveling at speeds
greater than 200 mph. This causes the brakes to glow red-hot when they are used. To help reduce
wear and tear and increase braking performance, carbon fiber discs and pads are now used. These
brake systems are extremely effective at temperatures up to 750° C (1,382° F), even though they are
lightweight. Holes around the edge of the brake disc allow heat to escape rapidly. The cars also
have air intakes fitted to the outside of the wheel hub to cool down the brakes. The air intakes are
changed for the different braking requirements of each track. [8]

Tires
The tires of a Formula One race car may be the most important part on the entire vehicle.
This seems like an overstatement until you realize that the tires are the only things
touching the track surface. That means all of the other major systems -- engine, suspension
and braking -- do their work by way of the tires. If the tires don't perform well, the car
won't perform well, regardless of the technical superiority demonstrated in other systems.

Like every part of a Formula One car, tires are highly regulated. Slick tires -- those with no
tread pattern and a high contact area -- were introduced in the 1960s and used until 1998.
Then the FIA change the rules to reduce cornering speeds and make the sport more
competitive. On today's Formula One cars, the front tires must be between 12 and 15
inches wide and the rear tires between 14 and 15 inches wide. Four continuous,
longitudinal grooves must run around the circumference. The grooves must be at least 2.5
millimeters (0.098 inches) deep and 50 mm (1.97 inches) apart. In rainy conditions, cars can
have "intermediate" and "wet" tires, which have full tread patterns designed to channel
water away from the road surface.

Formula One tires are made from very soft rubber compounds which, as they heat up,
adhere to the road and provide enormous gripping power. In fact, racing tires perform best
at high temperatures, so they have to be warmed up before they are race-ready. The
tradeoff is decreased durability. A Formula One tire is designed to last for, at most, about
125 miles.
Traction control can extend the life of tires by limiting wheel spin, especially under loads
imposed by cornering. Traction control systems use electronic sensors to compare the
speed of the wheel to the speed of the road the wheel is driving over. If the wheel is
traveling faster than the road surface -- an indication that the wheels are dangerously close
to spinning -- then the engine is automatically throttled back. Traction control has been
allowed and banned at various times throughout modern Formula One history. It has been
allowed since the beginning of the 2002 season, but it will be outlawed altogether at the
start of the 2008 season. [9]

Steering wheel

Figure 1-3 [10]

The steering wheel of a Formula One car bears little resemblance to the steering wheel of a
road car. As the car's command center, it houses a dizzying array of buttons, toggles and
switches. During the race, the driver can control almost every aspect of the car's
performance -- gear changes, fuel mixture, brake balance and more -- with just the touch
of a finger. And, amazingly, all of this control comes on a steering wheel that is about half
the diameter of a normal car's steering wheel.

The rules state that the driver must be able to get out of his car within five seconds,
removing nothing except the steering wheel. To allow for this, the steering wheel is joined
to the steering column via a Snap-On connector. [11]

 References of intro
 1. https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/motorsports/formula-one2.html
  2. https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/rules-
regs/Bodywork_and_dimensions_and_Cockpit.html

References of discussion

3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11[https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/motorsports/formula-one11.html]

8 [source: F1 Country].
References
1. https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/motorsports/formula-one2.html

2. https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/inside-f1/rules-
regs/Bodywork_and_dimensions_and_Cockpit.html