how to start/run a ferrari F1

Mostly it's a matter of running the oil through an external heater. The engines don't fit together correctly when "cold".

They start like Indy cars -- with an external starter.

 

Lots of standing around, arms waving and BS being shared ... with one person doing all the work ...

Pete

 

There should be a key hole somewhere behind the steering...

 

The newer cars (~1999 > now) need to run the oil through an external heater. A laptop does a checkup if everything is working and it gets started through an external starter.

No idea how long it takes to heat up the oil, but after that it really is fairly 'straight forward'.

 

to further explain, it's not actually the oil which needs to get hot (I'm sure that takes all of 5 minutes), it's the engine.

 

Risi supported an Owner at the last New Orleans event.....

Oil warming
Tire warming
Starting and engine warm up
Take off four tire blanket warmers.....

Go pretend you are Schumi...

 

Actually, there are different fuel and ignition maps to select as the internal and exhaust temps normalize after ignition and a ton of other stuff. Makes a difference in the longevity of those priceless engines...

 

It used to take us 30-45 minutes to warm up a WSC racecar back in the day and that was with the water and oil remote radiator circulation warming units. Although they were pretty crude and new back then and the Group C race cars before that maybe even longer. By the time you go through your whole check list it takes that long so 1 hour is about right. It took longer before we had the remote pump/heater raditaor devices as there are no oil or water thermostats in race cars. I can remember vividly using kerosene heaters under the engines on cold days to warm them up before we hit the start button. WE would even hit the start button a few time to circulate warm oil from the tank that had heater probe or heat blankets before turning on the ignition and fuel pumps. We even devised a drill motor pump to pressurize the main and rod bearings with hot oil beforehand too all in an effort to get oil into the bearings with pressure before it lit off.

FYI its like a pilot and flight crew going through the checklist and warming up before flight.

 

Yep, that too. Thanks for jogging the grey matter.

When I was running the 962C even when we had it on "pace car" fuel map (leanest) we still warmed up the engine with a warm up set of spark plugs then put new plugs in before the car went to the grid. I can't believe I did not remember that....have a few burn scars still from those days.

 

+1 Early season testing, Silverstone, raining..... Put the space heater up it's ass and get everything warm - On the DFV, the Lord of Darkness' fuel metering unit had better be warm before lighting the fires - It would explode otherwise....

+1 Spin 'er over until the oil pressure gauge shows some action [Although they carried starters back then, we'd use compressed air as they do today] Then turn ign on and get 'er going. [I once asked if there were any possible downsides to doing this on the F-car - If you "forget" to disable the immobilizer you can generate oil pressure before lighting the fires,and that always struck me as a good thing.....]

Cheers,
Ian

 

Hahaha! "War wounds."

On the titanium and some of the thinwall mag cased transaxles, you need to physically clear the rear wheels and allow the shafts, diff and wheels to rotate during warm up to normalize the case temps, too.

It took me an average of 2 hours to get the Alfa V-12 F1 car ready to go out, and that car had mechanical injection.

 

do F1 engines also have cool down or shut down procedures? i was just reading that on champ cars you would flush everything with gas before putting it away.

 

Hah! BTDT.

 

I was at this years Goodwood FOS two weeks ago. There was a few modern F1 cars running both up and down the hill. There was a Ferrari, 2 Red bulls, LHs Mclaren and a JTs Lotus. It only took a few minutes to start the cars at the start line. Then once they were ran up the hill it took a further few minutes to start the cars for the run back down.
It did not seem like an issue at all.

 

That's after the first start of the day. I am sure that if you went up to the car at the start line, it would be up to temp as they had already gone through the start procedure before they brought it up the driveway.

Even the historic cars get warmed up and heat soaked before being started to go out.

 

Yes but no were near 3/4-1 hour as the OP asked. More like 5 minutes. I was there and anyone else who was there can clarify. They were not warming up for long.

 

Hell yeah!.... 4 guys try to ensure the brakes don't explode.
- 2 guys plug in the hydraulic umbilicals
- 2 guys plug in the 'puters
- More guys ensure it cools down "to spec"......

*Gas*? WTF?....

In "the old days", we'd hose some gas over the ass end - Agitate with old paintbrush, and "hose" off again, followed by compressed air - All while smoking a *** of course (!) But *flushing* suggests something different - At least to me (?)

Cheers,
Ian

 

oops. by flushing i meant the fuel system. they need to get all the methanol out as it's highly corrosive.

 

At the start line. Rest assured, there was a long procedure earlier, before they got to the line.

 

Serious Q - Is the "funny fuel" they run in the IRL more corrosive than F1 (pump) gas?

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1

 

That depends. Indy cars run 98% ethanol (2% gas), which is more corrosive than dry pump gas. But if the ethanol in pump gas (mostly E10 in the US) separates or the gas contains water (apparently cheaper gas stations don't control this as well), which helps the ethanol separate, then you get a concentrated layer of ethanol which is corrosive. For lawnmowers that sit over the winter, it's a problem. For cars, I don't know.

 

No methanol in F1. That was Indy cars and Champ cars.

There are additives that do break down rubber and other sealing components in the fuel system, so they do pump it dry.

 

Yeah, I didn't mean "do F-1 cars need to flush the methanol", I just meant do they have an extended shutdown procedure (for whatever reasons) like champ cars did.