Scuderia's F1 Simulator

There were some reports in the least year about Ferrari's new F1 simulator. Which would be the most advanced from the paddock. The project was being headed by Gabrielle Delicoli with test driver Marc Gene in the developing team. Then it was announced that Moog was going to build the simulator. After this I haven't heard any news about it. I was hoping any of you guys knew something more recent about the simulator. As I am very interested in a project like this and the capabilities it can have. I believe that these simulators have a far greater potential than many have realized yet. P

Astrand

 

Actually the rumor is, that McLaren has the most advanced sim in racing. So you might want to check with them. Or are you already related to them?

Seriously I doubt you'll learn much on here about such a top secret project. Most of us don't know and the few that might know will not spill the beans.

 

I think it's safe to say that there is lots of money being poured into this right now since it's the only way they'll be able to "test" during the season. Any cost reductions in F1 are likely being made up by simulator development much like we saw with wind tunnel development years back.

 

Are you talking about actual "driving" simulators? Or CFD? CFD is massive at this point, they do have driving simulators but nothing spectacular, more so to get a basic idea of a new car set up or learn a new track.

 

Based on their speed this year, this is probably what it looks like.
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Moog headquarter's and main operations are located one town from me. I have a friend who works there who worked on the Airbus A380. I will ask him if he has any inside scoop....
Kevin

 

Be interesting to see any stationary simulator able to replicate the forces acting on car/driver at F1 braking and cornering G-forces. Can't figure out how they can apply that additional force myself

 

There was a documentary on Speed regarding the development of the ALMS P1 Acura by Wirth engineering that showed the CFD and the simulator that they used. It was very interesting and David Brabham said it really worked well. I'm sure all the simulators are similar to that. They also briefly showed Kaz in the Williams simulator in the last episode of Inside Grand Prix.

 

There was an article/thread somewhere on simulators recently. It seems that McLaren's is the best and Top Secret. Not even Alonso who detests McLaren would even speak a word about its simulator. Rumor has it that when Mika was testing the McLaren last year that he got a go at the simulator and when he was finishing up he decided to crash into the wall and the steering wheel nearly broke his wrist. So yeah, my birthday is coming up and Christmas is soon, anybody got an extra top secret simulator laying around?

 

That documentary was really well done. It was amazing to see an entire car developed by CFD....certainly more cost effective than a wind tunnel. It was great to see Brabham pounding away for hours and "developing the car" in the simulator.

 

Maybe with a helmet on, which has steel wires attached to weights which calculate the force and pulls on the helmet accordingly?

 

Not knowing anything about the subject has never stopped some posters from going on at great length about many of the issues raised here.

 

I believe development has been going smoothly with the original design being updated to allow the device to remain dormant during simulated qualifying sessions...

 

Really?

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

 

Here I have some videos I've seen about the Williams simulator:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/newsbeat/newsid_7965000/7965045.stm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zpCT-GgAYk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3KUfd4v0Gg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-UltV9uRxM&feature=related


I they say Lewis Hamilton was practicing in McLaren's simulator for years before F1. But thats the rumor as mentioned here, they say the simulator is top secret. That is why Ferrari wanted to make the ultimate F1 simulator. I know BMW and other teams use a third-party simulator for their tests, but the name of the company eludes me now.

Astrand

 

That Williams simulator looks really low-tech. I heard McLaren got one of the best simulators in the field.

It has 'realistic force feedback'. Which i guess means g-forces and steering wheel feedback
G forces to the neck would be easy to replicate. But how can they replicate g-forces to the body?

 

Don't think there has been any further mention of it since it was announced about a year ago. I'm interested to hear if Wolfgang5150 comes up with anything.

 

I believe what you saw in the Williams video is a pretty accurate representation of what the teams are running.

In terms of the CFD tangent a little earlier, it is helpful in development but it isn't everything. Results still need to be verified empirically. Always! [unless there's a testing ban...] Computer programs for engineering epitomize garbage in, garbage out. Any FEA/FEM or CFD program is only as good as the data you put in. While it sounds obvious, it's true!

In the case of Ferrari, FLUENT can't just run your current design iteration. It needs boundary conditions etc. which are gathered through instrumenting a real life counter part. The role of CFD is to test the multiple iterations rather than prototype every possible idea and put it into the wind tunnel. It's a way to sort out which ideas are rubbish. This is particularly important in aerodynamic development as the majority is experimentally done. That is while the goal is obvious [increase down force with minimum drag influence or better pressure gradient for cooling though radiator etc.] the exact method to achieve the goal isn't. There's no one formula for designing a specific application.

 

I'd love to have a real F1 simulator (not just a video game) in my house.

 

That Williams sim looks about as low tech as the one I have at home.

This can't be the latest and greatest:

I visited the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart last year and they had a McLaren-Mercedes sim there, which was basically like an airplane sim: The whole cockpit was on a hydraulic platform, that could swing in all directions controlled by the computers simulating the g forces. That's more like it.

 

I almost responded to this thread, but then I realized I read the title too fast, and it was not about a sTimulator, but a simulator......how boring.

 

There's a japanese company (http://www.frex.com/gp/] IIRC) which makes hydraulic platforms etc for use with video games. Fairly pricey but incredibly durable according to users!