Yep Berg is totally correct on this. Current Formula One engines do not have any kind of flywheel since it's not really necessary, and even more would hinder acceleration.
Energy would be needed to accelerate the flywheel as well, where that can better be used to get the car at higher speeds.
The 10 cylinder configuration also justifies this. We already got an evenly rotating motion. Instead, with a three cylinder engine for example, a flywheel is of great use to create a constant rotation.
The Mac F1 had little or no flywheel. Are you sure that's not the Mac you mean? I thought the SLR was supposed to be a bit more friendly than the Mac F1...
Its like Tomba said:-
The 10 cylinder configuration also justifies this. We already got an evenly rotating motion. Instead, with a three cylinder engine for example, a flywheel is of great use to create a constant rotation.
Imagine a one cylinder engine in neutral.
For part of the cycle, the piston is coming up compressing the air and petrol. If there were no inertia in the system, the pressure would just stop the piston in its tracks and it would never make it to the top. The flywheel is a store for this inertia, ensuring the piston gets to the top to fire and keep the engine running.
With 10 cylinders, there will be some on the power stroke to provide the force for compression and exhaust with the rising pistons, but that is not really the point in an F1 car. When the car is running, the momentum of the car can provide that inertia.
And to quote Tomba again.
Current Formula One engines do not have any kind of flywheel since it ... would hinder acceleration.
The engine would have to accelerate the car and the flywheel. Since when the engine is connected to the wheels and the car is running the weight of the car does the job the flywheel is just a hindrance to a running race car.
If an F1 sounds a bit rough in neutral or needs to be revved a bit faster to keep it going, who cares.
F1 is just about race performance.
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Street cars?
Antonov PLC designed a planetary gear based transmission where the engine power goes through gears to a rotating disc which can be stopped by brakes. (eg engine to ring gear, output from the planet carrier, disc attached to the sun gear.) When the car is stopped with the engine running, the disc rotates freely so no power makes it to the wheels. When the brake is applied to the disc, the engine power goes to the wheels and the car pulls off.
So when idle, the disc serves the purpose of a flywheel. When the car is moving the disc is stationary and the car's mass serves the purpose of flywheel, so its best of both worlds, flywheel at rest, and none when driving.
Another Antonov transmission design has engine power split via planetary gears between driving the wheels and driving auxiliary devices, eg oil pump and flywheel. When stopped with the foot on the brake, all the power of the idling engine would be going to the pump and flywheel. So revving the engine would build up momentum in the flywheel. When the brake is released flywheel momentum would effectively be transferred to the wheels helping the car (slightly) to accelerate.
Zero Inertia is another company with a transmission design where the flywheel forms part of the transmission. Lower gears require higher engine RPM, so when you want to overtake, you need to accelerate the engine (to higher RPM for more power) and accelerate the car. In their design, for a given roadspeed, higher engine RPM corresponds to a lower flywheel speed so the flywheel contributes to increasing engine RPM rather than hindering it. Again, they can do this because there are transmission components between engine and flywheel.
Mac f1 had a quite big clutch diametre,so there was something of a flywheel still there.SLR is automatic trans ,so no flywheel but a torqueconverter acting as such.
flywheel in f1 ?not allowed (energie storage and recovery to propel the car)
wonder if renault uses some sort of divice like this discribed flywheel for their starts or is it the engine with its low power max torque approach?
An engine flywheel is simply an engine mass with a relatively high polar moment of inertia designed to minimize crankshaft acceleration/decelerations between cylinder firings. This engine mass includes clutch, crank, flywheel, and a portion of the piston/rod assembly. To make an engine operation seem smooth (ie. a uniform output rotational speed) a flywheel with a large polar moment is required. However, an engine that requires rapid throttle response (like an F1 engine) needs a rotating assembly (crank, flywheel, clutch, etc.) with a minimum polar moment. That is why small diameter, low inertia, carbon clutches and aluminum flywheels are used. Engine smoothness is not important for F1.
