The greatest influence on the racing car’s grip is exerted by the aerodynamics. With the help of the flexibly adjustable front and rear wings, it can be set to suit every circuit. The principle is simple: the steeper the angle of a wing, the higher the air resistance will be and the stronger the downward pressure on the car at high speeds. A steep angle on the wings is helpful in corners but more of an impediment on fast straights. On the latter, a flatter wing setting creating less air resistance will provide a higher top speed.

But that is only a small excerpt from the basics of aerodynamics.

“Before every race, drivers and technicians have to come up with another perfect solution,” says Formula 1 expert Christian Danner. “On the one hand, they need to tune the car so that its centre of gravity is as low as possible; on the other hand, the car should not hit the ground each time it goes over an uneven surface. At the same time, they must use the mechanics to stabilise the aerodynamics. If the car’s suspension is too soft, the aerodynamics are impaired because the distance between the car and the ground is constantly

changing – and with that also the volume of air under the car which in turn affects the downforce. The third component responsible for good performance that comes into play is the tyres. A car that has a lot of grip due to its aerodynamic properties can drive with harder tyres because it slips less. Cars that slip more due to less aerodynamic grip require softer rubber. Whatever the circumstances, the old rule of thumb still applies: harder tyres supply less grip but last longer than softer tyres that more or less stick to the track surface, but therefore survive less laps. Teams will tend to choose a tyre mixture that fits the handling of their car.

Soft or hard tuning – this conflict of aims also applies to every standard production vehicle. Hard shock absorbers provide good handling; the car is like a ‘plank’ on the road. Softer settings for the shock absorbers promise comfort but the vehicle sways more. Lately, electronic control systems help to find the correct set-up.

“Electronic shock absorber systems can adjust the damping force to the respective road, load and driving conditions,” says Dr. Christoph Lauterwasser of the Allianz Center for Technology. “These control systems thus offer advantages concerning the stability of the vehicle and the transfer of forces between the tyres and the road surface, facilitating optimal performance.”

In Formula 1, the teams do not set up their cars from scratch. They are provided with lots of data from tests and computer simulations which is taken into account during set-up and of course they always have the experience from the previous year to fall back on. Furthermore, work for the set-up does not begin at the race track.

“The more you can get done beforehand, the better,” states Frank Dernie, Special Projects Engineer at WilliamsF1. “Due to the new engine regulations, we do not drive in the free practice as much as we used to. That makes it important to carry out many tests and calculations beforehand and to solve as much of the puzzle as possible.”

Nonetheless, where the optimal set-up is concerned in the hi-tech Formula 1 industry, a lot is still done by hand, through teamwork and sometimes even a bit of intuition. “The computer simulations may be getting better and better and they certainly provide us with a lot of important information, but we still do not want to rely on them to the exclusion of all else,” says Sam Michael, Senior Operations Engineer and responsible for the racing strategy under WilliamsF1 Technical Director Patrick Head. “It is definitely a good feeling arriving at the race track with the greatest possible amount of data and information. The better we are prepared, the more time we have for improving details. We usually know pretty much what we still need to work on.”

The rest is delicate tinkering and, like so much else in Formula 1, top secret.