The Best Compromise

When you watch a Formula One race, it is very easy to believe that everything on those cars is optimised. The everything is the very best it can be. The pinnacle of technology and development.

You would be wrong.

Everything on those cars is a compromise. What sets Formula One apart from lower classes of motorsport is the compromises are being decided on by using the best software, the smartest people and most money. Don’t get me wrong, a Formula One car is a truly amazing piece of engineering and is the very best it can be. But to believe that everything on the car is ideal is incorrect. 

I’ll use Formula One in this post as it provides the most extreme examples, but the principles and lessons can be applied to any form of motorsport. In fact, any form of engineering come to think of it…

On an F1 car, aero is king. If you work in F1, or intend to in the future, remember that statement. Aero is king. It takes president over everything else. This means that everything designed to be on the outside of the car is compromised to improve the aerodynamics. The most obvious example of this is the suspension system. Look how flat and thin the wishbones are on the cars. They are shaped like mini aerofoils so as not to disrupt the air flow by creating turbulence. The air moving between the nose and the wheel is destined to end up either under the car in the diffuser, passing through a radiator, or moving up and interacting with that giant rear wing. As a suspension designer, you would want your wishbones to be made of tubes, with uniform stress distributions and linear behaviour under bending. The aerodynamicists would throw that design out and tell you to try again. The result is a suspension system that has been moved away from the ideal. A compromise.

There are plenty of other examples:

The Exhaust – Length and geometry are designed in a way that best advantages the airflow at the back of the car. It won’t be optimised for engine torque.

The Wheels – Designed to reduce turbulence and calm down the airflow. Probably not the lightest they can be, but more functional.
Radio Antennas – Ideally, they wouldn’t be there at all. The generous Aerodynamicists let you have a few centimetres in the middle of the nose cone. Radio transmissions have been known to suffer.

Don’t think that the compromise is all one way however. Every compromise made also affects the aero package on the car. Suspension needs to hold the wheels on. Exhausts need to vent somewhere. Wheels need to spin. Radios need to transmit.

And the biggest bug-bear for any aero engineer – that pesky driver insists on sticking his head out right in the middle of the car. To help, they give him a fancy streamlined helmet, but wouldn’t it be so much nicer if he wasn’t there in the first place?

Remember as you progress through your career that you are constantly looking for the best compromise. You want the best for the car as a whole – not necessarily what’s best for your little bit. Be patient with your colleagues and take the time to understand the implications that your changes will have on other areas.

Having the best suspension, exhaust routing, wheels, radio or helmet will not win a race individually. But compromise and get the best combination of them? Now you’re on to a winner!