F1 in Schools

[UnityF1]

I am currently involved in an F1 in Schools competition, which is a competition for young students, aged 9-19. The idea is to design and build a small F1 style car (max 210mm long and 85mm wide) out of balsa, with the wings and wheels any materials wanted, although we are 3D printing the wings out of ABS, and the wheels are acetal. The cars travel down a 20m track in about 1.1seconds, meaning around 60mph! Visit their website to find out more on the competition at http://www.f1inschools.co.uk

Last year we were involved in the Bloodhound competition, where we had a similar task, just with MUCH simpler rules, where we won our regional finals at the Nissan plant when we then went forwards to the NEC, where we competed with the other winners in the country, where we finally came 2nd! This year we competed again, just on Monday, as the F1 class, with the Best Engineered Car, Fastest Car, and then Overall Winners, meaning we will be going through to the National Finals at the Silverstone GP Circuit in just 6 weeks. This means that we have only a short period of time to get prepared again, and this is why I need your help

As Design Engineer for our team, I am tasked with making the car faster than it was at regionals, as the competition will be MUCH greater. Our car achieved 1.209s at regionals without the use of LERS (Launch Energy Recovery System - a device to increase air pressure behind the car when the seal is broken on the CO2 canister powering it), which should improve our time by about 10.4% - I need to try to make as many designs as possible, which we will be testing within the next few weeks, and I am open to any advice about this, as I am only 15, and dont fully understand it..... Our car also need to be improved and any advice will be welcomed, although it needs to stay within the VERY strict regulations, available on the F1 in Schools website. I am very happy with the body of our car, and therefore only need advice on the front and rear wings. Attached is an link to an interactive model of our regional finals car, though for nationals I have already created a rear wing that is dihedral, and swept back, as research shows this is better...

https://sketchfab.com/models/790034dd27 ... 9168ac26be

Just to recap, front wing, rear wing and LERS advice would be amazing, and just some tips, we are not looking for downforce, it is a straight tract, we want to reduce friction on the wheels with lift

Below is a clip of the National competition last year - ours starts at around 46:00