Persuasive Essay

If you have ever been in a car accident, you will know how quickly everything can happen when traveling at high speeds such as in a car. While this sense of speed for most people is primarily a factor of danger, it is also the thrill that race car drivers love more than anything. Formula 1 drivers today do not need as much skill to drive their cars as those like Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda, who raced before all the new technical assistance that the modern Formula 1 car has in it today. Some would argue that the current drivers are also not taking as much risk since modern F1 cars are so far more advanced in safety technology than earlier cars because, with time and advancements, the F1 cars of today are incredibly safe. While it may seem ironic, production cars are more efficient and environmentally friendly, because of the innovations made for Formula 1 cars. The discovery of downforce via aerodynamics, ABS Brakes, monocoque bodies and more has tremendously impacted the automobile industry. Consequently, production cars are more user-friendly, safer, and environmentally friendly than ever before.

Ever since the first combustion engine was put into a car, motor racing was not far behind. From the start, mechanics would try to make their cars faster and more powerful to get the quickest lap times possible. Racing cars come with many issues, one of which is reliability. Since the earliest days of racing, making a reliable car that will outperform the rest has been one of the most demanding challenges for engineers and mechanics. In fact, with early era cars, the reliability was so bad that a mechanic would ride alongside the driver, so when the inevitable would happen, and the car broke down, the mechanic could hop out the car and do his best to fix it. Public roads would be used as race tracks for the cars, many of which would consist of gravel, dirt, sand, and bumpy asphalt that the cars would have to race on; this would not help the reliability situation. (Manishin). The car's suspension was so rudimentary, the wheels were skinny, and in some cases made of wood, the roads would tear the cars apart piece by piece until the car could no longer take any more abuse. All of these factors added to the dangerous side of racing; most of the cars would not have a roof or some form of protection if a rollover were to happen. The cars would have drum brakes which were not ideal for racing and could be prone to cause issues like overheating. Race cars have come a long way since they were first lined up on the road (Simanaitis).

         Advancements in the automotive industry have come out of Formula 1 and road racing, technology like aerodynamics, Anti-lock Brake System (ABS), monocoque bodies, hybrid technology, crumple zones, and plenty more. “The trickle-down effect is something which F1 has always sought to promote, but in reality it's a little more complex than racing teams creating things which eventually get used in our road cars. F1 has actually been more about taking technology that has been tried and tinkered with - often with limited success - and pushing it to its very limit. It's at this point that this 'perfected' technology then feeds back into the real world” “Racing Ahead”. One of the most significant advancements in Formula 1 racing was the monocoque body or “unibody” design. The frame is the part of the car where the main mechanical components are set, such as the engine, transmission, rear end, and suspension; on top of this, the vehicle's body is mounted. Because of this, the frame needs to be extremely strong and well braced. The problem that engineers would run into with this is the more power they would push out of their engines and through the drivetrain, the more the frame would flex and twist. More supports and braces would have to be added to the frame; the side effect, of course, would be more weight. A new engineering marvel would be constructed for race cars called a unibody (Simanaitis).

         Unibody vehicles have many benefits; now that the body and frame are merged into one, the vehicle's weight decrease drastically (Simanaitis). The unibody design also increases the structural integrity of the car and the safety of high-speed crashes. “Much of the energy involved in an impact is dissipated through crash structures – external parts such as the nose and side pods which are designed to break free from the monocoque in a heavy impact, thereby taking energy with them” (“Safety in F1”). As Dennis Simanaitis writes, “The unitary body has a great many advantages, but some challenges as well. In its favor are crashworthiness as well as inherent rigidity—owing to its multiplicity of calculated contours, tubular and box sections.” Because of the way a unibody is so precisely made and the strength is built into the car. This allows for more power to be put through the chassis and more stability. This lets the suspension have a solid foundation so it can perform at its best. This type of body also has built-in areas that are intentionally weaker than the rest. This is done so when the car comes into collision with another vehicle or object, these areas will fold in or crumple, dissipating some of the energy from the crash. This can be seen in modern Formula 1 cars when they get into a wreck; the front is wholly mangled where it was designed to fold in and absorb the energy, but the rest of the monocoque is entirely intact, protecting the driver (Simanaitis). Because of the need to go faster and make their cars safer, almost all production cars are unibodies, and Formula 1 cars are to thank for that. 

         Unibodies are not the only thing to come out of racing, however; ABS brakes are another marvel that makes cars so much safer. Before ABS brakes, drivers would have to manually control their car's brakes and make sure not to lock up the tires. When drivers lock up their tires, they begin to slide, which takes longer to slow the car down. This will also damage the tires since the surface of the tires will be rubbing on the asphalt, tearing apart the rubber on that contact spot; this will make the wheel unbalanced and cause vibrations in the car, making it more challenging to drive and losing traction on that part of the tire. ABS brakes take control of the braking process. When you mash the brake pedal in a car today, a computer will begin to measure wheel speed with sensors. The sensors will determine what wheels need more pressure from the brake pads to slow the car down and which ones might need to be let off in order not to lock the wheels, causing you to skid across the road (“Anti-lock”). 

         Aerodynamics are crucial in Formula 1 cars; the idea of aerodynamics is weightless downforce. In order for a vehicle to gain more traction, the tires need to be pressed onto the surface of the road as hard as possible. The problem with this is the immediate solution would be adding weight, but with more weight comes the loss of acceleration and outright speed. Adding parts to a car like wings and areas of high surface where the air can push the car down when traveling at high speeds is free traction at no cost of weight (“Downforce”). This became an incredibly sophisticated process with teams using wind tunnels to make any adjustments they need to gain a little more downforce. Thanks to Formula 1, production cars are now styled with air control in mind. Because of the importance of aerodynamics on formula one cars, the automotive industry saw the advances of having a more aerodynamic car. With less wind resistance comes less force that the vehicle has to fight while driving, thus using less fuel and making the ride smoother, all of which are ways Formula 1 has contributed to our daily cars.

         Just about all advancements that have been created in Formula 1 can be found in commercial vehicles today. James Richings writes, “Formula 1 cars have evolved from racing coffins to lean, sophisticated machines. A Formula 1 car is expensive, to say the least, and made of the best, most technologically advanced materials. We have seen a lot of changes over the years. We have moved from front engines to rear, turbo-charged engines to electronic driving aids, from smooth tubes to carefully engineered downforce generating lightweight bodies.” The amount of technology to come out of these sports is incredibly important for our daily lives and is worth continuing so we can further advance our cars and other daily necessities.