Toyota F1: Behind the scenes

Managed by Technical Director Engine, Luca Marmorini, the Panasonic Toyota Racing engine facilities are divided into three sub-departments; technical offices, workshop and test bench. All three departments are located in close proximity to each other, to allow an easy and efficient flow of information and unified working environment for all engine designers, engineers and mechanics. Consequently, employees in the three departments can work closely with each other every step of the way through the engine development process from the design through to simulation and on to the track.

Engine Design Office

The engine design team has been in place since 2001 with a good mix of skilled young engineers new to F1 and engineers with F1 experience, who have matured together over time as a group. These designers work together in one design office to create Panasonic Toyota Racing’s competitive 10-cylinder, 3-litre engine from scratch. The work of the engine design office is done using state-of-the-art Catia CAD (Computer Aided Design). Through CAD, engineers are able to produce individual drawings, which together form the final product. To attain the perfect balance of performance, reliability and lightweight in the Panasonic Toyota Racing “RVX” (Racing V10) engine, a methodical approach is required and it takes in the region of 1,500 detail CAD drawings to reach the end result.

Engine Workshop

Once the design is finalised, the engine can begin to take shape in the workshop. With little automation involved, the Toyota V10 engines are all hand-built by a dedicated group of skilled mechanics, 50% of whom have worked at Toyota Motorsport in Cologne for over 10 years. Mechanics are divided into project teams working on different aspects of the engine build-up process: parts preparation and component assembly, cylinder head build-up, track engine assembly and track support. In addition to the race engines, development continues using single cylinder engines. Nothing is left to chance in search of the most powerful, most reliable F1 engine. The mechanics in the engine workshop build and rebuild over 300 engines per year. After every race or test, the engines are stripped down and inspected before being rebuilt. The rebuilding process does not simply constitute reassembly. Of the 4,500 components within the engine (including 2,300 unique components), some 60% will be replaced with new ones. All in all, it will take two men four to five days to assemble a single V10 engine, which equates to a 200-hour job. Although all engines weigh approximately 100kg, the precise specifications of each one will be determined by the demand of individual circuits. The Panasonic Toyota Racing RVX-04 engine has around 900bhp and maximum revolutions around 19,000rpm.

Engine Dyno:

Before being fitted into the car every freshly built engine will be run on one of the team’s seven dynamometers in order to eliminate any potential problems before getting to the race track. One of these dynos has been in use since Toyota’s Rally and Le Mans days, but as the F1 programme got underway, additional dynos were added to cope with the additional pressure of producing more powerful V10 engines. In total, Toyota Motorsport has two single cylinder, two transient and three static test benches. Staff of highly qualified engineers use computers to monitor the engine’s every beat from isolated control rooms. Development of each engine begins on a single cylinder test bench, which gives highly accurate results and allows the engine department to be fully satisfied with the performance of one cylinder before producing a full ten cylinder engine. Development is not only much simpler using just one cylinder, but the process is much more economical than developing all ten cylinders from the outset.

On the transient dynos, the engine is connected to the gearbox, so that engineers are able to simulate the rigours of a race without the engine ever leaving the factory. By using data recorded at races, the engineers can subject it to the same cycles of acceleration and deceleration that it would experience at the track. The ultimate test of any F1 engine is still the old Hockenheimring, where engines would be at full revs for seventeen seconds twice in a single lap. Improvements in engine performance during the season are not made at the expense of reliability. In its two years of F1 competition to date, Panasonic Toyota Racing has only experienced engine failures in two races, underlining Toyota Motorsport’s meticulous engine manufacturing and testing process.

Chassis Department

Technical Director Mike Gascoyne heads the Panasonic Toyota Racing chassis department and is responsible for the overall management and co-ordination of each stage in the production of the Toyota F1 chassis. Beginning with the crucial design work, which is headed up by highly experienced Chief Designer Gustav Brunner, design of the chassis is an ongoing process but as soon as one season starts, the chassis team is already looking ahead to the next.

Chassis Design Offices

Led by Gustav Brunner, a team of chassis designers creates the shape of the central F1 monocoque, gearbox, suspension, brakes and steering. Working closely with the aerodynamic designers taking test data from the 50% in-house wind tunnel, and the test and race team collecting telemetry data, their job is one of constant evolution. Chassis designers, like the engine designers, use the most up-to-date Catia CAD technology in their daily activities, but before chassis design progress to specific details, the overall philosophy of the car has to be determined. Initial meetings between the chassis and engine departments take place to avoid the potentially conflicting spatial requirements of the engine and gearbox. Consequently, the suspension and aerodynamics must be brought together into a package that is quick but easily manageable.

The aim for each new car is to lower the weight and centre of gravity, whilst increasing performance. Constant communication between engine and chassis departments is essential as improvements to the engine during the season have a knock-on effect to the chassis. For example, a more powerful engine specification inevitably leads to more heat being generated, so designers have to find a way of removing the heat efficiently. The key to success does not lie purely in the design but on effective inter-departmental communication, supporting Toyota’s “all under one roof” philosophy.

Parts Production

CNC

The Computer Numerical Control department produces many chassis and engine parts as well as composite forms for carbon fibre manufacture. CNC is equipped with fast and powerful machines, many of which are multi-pallet and can handle up to six identical components in one machining cycle. As well as multi-pallet capacity, all of the machines have extensive tool stations and can select between 30 and 120 different tools, depending on the task in hand. 5-axis-milling machines are used to enable a degree of flexibility and accuracy in manufacturing, which is paramount in modern day F1. These machines are capable of machining components over an area of 1 metre to an accuracy of 4 microns (0.004 mm) approximately 25 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.

A range of materials are machined here including aluminium and magnesium castings for engine blocks, cylinder heads, throttle valves and gearboxes, as well as synthetic materials used for the production of patterns. The design data that is processed by the CNC shop in a year is expected to be in the region of 2000+ Mb in addition to the 10,000 operator loaded programmes. The production of a cylinder head for example, from the drawing to the finished product, takes 14 days and uses 320 different tools. Between 450 and 500 cylinder heads and around 150 crankcases are produced per year. The CNC department has staff working on a flexible 3-shift system, but the department is capable of working 24 hours if necessary.

Composites

The Composites department is where all of the laminated components used in the construction of the chassis are produced. For this purpose, materials such as carbon and Kevlar fibre are used extensively. When a new car is developed, about 25 to 30 parts will be produced per day. The final monocoque is made out of 17 different moulds and takes four people 16 days to put together. The various stages of composites manufacture start with the production of patterns in CNC. These are then transferred to the composites area where moulds are made from carbon fibre. The moulds are prepared to a very high quality finish and are then thoroughly checked on the measuring rig because the quality of the final components depends on the accuracy of the original moulds.

The actual race car composite components are then taken from these moulds. The basic structure of a typical composite component (diagram) is an aluminium honeycomb core onto which is laid interwoven carbon fibre cloth, which has been infused with a resin that hardens with heat. This process, known as the “lay- up” stage, takes place in rooms are carefully controlled providing a dust free air-conditioned environment. All the carbon layers are cut from a roll of material using an accurate ultrasonic computer-controlled cutting machine. Once this lay-up process is complete the mould and the laminates are packed together into a sealed vacuum bag ready for curing (baking). The curing takes place in one of the three autoclaves – a vessel that puts the components under pressure, pushing the carbon layers together and then heats them to speed up and improve the hardening process of the resin.

The curing process can be several hours long with temperatures around 200°C. After the curing process the strength of the carbon is higher than the strength of steel but at the same time the material is much lighter. After some trimming and final quality control parts then will be delivered to the F1 Workshop, or, if required, painted in-house before being added to the car. To enable the engineers to create new parts very quickly and establish new installation concepts, state-of-the-art lasersinter machines, which are used to produce high-accuracy rapid prototypes of car components for either windtunnel models or installation testing on actual cars.

Fabrication

Even in today’s high-tech world, hand skills, such as bending and welding, often take precedence over the technology. In Fabrication, a team of highly skilled craftsmen drawn from the motorsport, aviation and industrial worlds use both traditional metalworking techniques and modern machinery to produce components, which are sometimes more work of art than work of engineering. First of all, the material is cut into form, rolled and then the seam is welded with a horizontal welding machine. It is then bended in a pipe-bending machine. During the bending process, the outside of the pipe is stretched and the inside of the pipe is compressed. All pipes have the same length but are bent differently for efficiency and because of limited space availability in the car. All developments of new exhaust systems are made in-house as the space availability in the car changes during the season and therefore being quick and flexible with changes is very important. A typical exhaust system will take one man about 50 hours to produce.

This department builds about 150 exhaust systems each year, including the ones used on the test benches, for development as well as for racing and testing. A new exhaust system will be used for each race, which - after quality control - can be re-used on the test bench or for testing etc. As well as the intricate exhaust systems made here many other fabricated components are produced in-house including wishbones, pipe work, oil tanks and other parts impossible to make by machines.

Product Quality Assurance

In the high-speed world of Formula 1 with speed of over 300kph and times measured in thousandths of tenths-ofa- second, accuracy and safety depend on effective quality control. The Product Quality Assurance department measures the accuracy each component used in the Formula 1 car. Each component on the car is produced within very tight manufacturing tolerances, often of just a few microns. This department is charged not only with checking the accuracy of the components after manufacture, but is also closely involved in the actual process of manufacture, making sure that any defects or concerns are pinpointed early on in the manufacturing process. PQA is equipped with a wide range of state-of-the-art measurement equipment capable of measuring tolerances as small as one micron. Critical components are all tracked using a system of unique identification code to ensure that they do not exceed their service life. This prevents component failure due to fatigue. All geometric and material data, which is used to manage the components life cycle, is collected in Product Quality Assurance.

Aerodynamics Department:

The aerodynamics department is headed up by René Hilhorst and is divided up into three areas located in close proximity to each other. In addition to the aero design offices, Toyota Motorsport houses its own 50%-scale windtunnel and model workshop, which have proved essential to Panasonic Toyota Racing’s progress in F1.

Model Workshop

Half-scale models are created in the model shop and used for aerodynamic windtunnel testing. They are built entirely by a team of highly experienced model makers. The models are made of similar materials to the real cars - carbon fibre and aluminium, but also make extensive use of lasersinter parts for speed of production. A typical model will take 4-6 weeks to produce although the majority of the work carried out is modification to existing models to add new ideas and designs. These rebuilds generally take around 10 days to complete. Toyota uses windtunnel models in various configurations during the intensive aerodynamic development programme. The models are all half full-size (referred to as 50%-scale) and various parts can be quickly changed to experiment with different aerodynamic effects in the windtunnel. The team makes many different front and rear wings, sidepods and engine covers for this purpose. Each model is packed with sensitive measuring equipment and sensors to record exactly what is happening in the wind tunnel. Lessons learned in the windtunnel are fed through to the design engineers who analyse how best to integrate these improvements into the race cars.

Windtunnel:

The Toyota Formula 1 facility houses its own wind tunnel for aerodynamic testing of its own half-scale models. Few would disagree that the biggest gains in F1 nowadays are made through aerodynamics and the windtunnel’s role is to help the team find more downforce and reduce the drag, therefore achieving a good balance between corner speed and straight-line speed. Consisting of a steel belt “rolling road” from the USA and a Canadian/German fan, the windtunnel was designed in partnership between Toyota Motorsport and a German engineering company from a specification laid down by René Hilhorst in 1999. It has been fully operational since July 2002, and currently runs seven days a week, as Panasonic Toyota Racing uses its in-house aero talent to find the gains that will lead it up the grid. Since minute changes can affect the flow of air all over the car, aerodynamicists must prioritise their ideas.

Often they will use “Computational Fluid Dynamics“ (CFD) computer software to test the worth of potential improvements before actually designing and making the part. This not only saves valuable time, but also minimises the risk of spending time and money researching changes that may not work. Some aspects of the car are difficult to predict, for example pitch sensitivity, where the aero is affected by the pitching of a car under braking and acceleration, so the windtunnel ultimately remains the best tool to simulate track conditions and to develop a car aerodynamically. As soon as an improvement is suggested or a hypothesis established by Toyota’s aero department, new components can be manufactured and added to the wind tunnel models to test the theory. By using half-scale models, modifications can be implemented quickly, and at lower costs, before being set into full-scale production. The rolling road accurately simulates the movement of the track beneath the car, even though the car in the tunnel is fixed and not actually moving. A staff of engineers maintains and operates the wind tunnel, which is capable of running at speeds in excess of 200kph and 24 hour operation.

F1 Workshop:

The Formula 1 workshop is responsible for the assembly of all race and test cars and is divided into the following divisions: car assembly, hydraulic assembly, gearbox assembly and suspension assembly. There are five working bays, three are used for the racing cars and the two are used for the test cars. Three mechanics are working permanently in each bay, joined by one person for the gearbox, one person for the hydraulics, one person for the electrics and one person for the engine. It is here that all the components come together.

The engine assembly, the electric assembly as well as the hydraulic assemblies for the engine and the chassis are delivered as a finished package from the respective departments. The gearbox will be completed in the suspension assembly and then delivered as a complete rearend- assembly, including suspension parts and brakes. The F1 car is built and then completely stripped and carefully re-assembled between every race and test. This requires a team of technicians to check the 4,500 components on every car and the engine is regarded as just one of the components.

It is only through meticulous attention to detail that speed and reliability can be ensured when the cars are on track. To set up a brand new car from scratch takes about two weeks, the rebuild after each race or test only three to four days. All assemblies are dismantled and returned to the respective department for revision/recycling. At the same time a new assembly unit has been prepared and can be put in immediately. After the rebuild of a racing car an operational test (shake-down) takes place before heading to the race track.

Research and Development:

The future of Panasonic Toyota Racing as a successful racing team depends very much on the work performed by the Research and Development department. Research and Development is where components, can be tested in a repeatable environment to destruction or until durability limits are reached. Furthermore tests to optimise performance are part of the daily work together with function- and calibration tests of new parts. Any component, however small, has to perform function, reliably, safety and efficiency before the installation on the car. In the R&D Testbench department, repeatable conditions are guaranteed and where the physics of the different systems can be deeply analysed.

Destruction testing helps to optimise component design, structure strength and reduce weight. This is also the place where the safety of the car’s monocoque is checked through the FIA homologation tests to get the permission from the FIA to take part in the Formula 1 world championship.

One of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in R&D is the seven-post rig. Much in the same way as the engine in the dyno and aerodynamics in the windtunnel, the seven-post rig permits the Toyota F1 team to recreate the vertical behaviour of the F1 car’s suspension on the track without a single wheel being turned. Through use of the seven-post rig and with actual data collected from race weekends or test sessions, computer software is used to subject the car to all the vertical forces that it would experience on the race track.

The rig does not only gather valuable information on the suspension and wheels, but is also able to simulate aerodynamic effects on the car. Seven-post rigs have become an essential part of Formula 1 research and development in recent years and – in conjunction with the engine dyno and windtunnel - enables the team to be well prepared before it reaches the track.