reliability of F1 cars

[Fijy]

I'm looking for any informations about reliability of F1 cars, safety in F1. Generally, I'm interested in what parts of F1 cars are breaking the most often. Which of them are the most failure. Have you got any diagrams, statistics, graphs or whatever about it? Or could you give any good links?

[Carlos]

Welcome to the Forum. Would this be a personal interest or related to coursework or special assignment for educational purposes?

[DaveKillens]

Hi Fiyz, welcome to THE forum. Reliability in a Formula One car is dependant on how much weight an engineer is willing to invest in components. If it breaks, they make it stronger, and if the part never breaks, then they try to reduce weight. Careful analysis of each part is conducted, and the expected failure of the component is calculated statistically. For instance, if a ball joint is known to be reliable for ten races, then it's re-engineered to be lighter and to last for just 1.5 races (for example).
I doubt if any team will release data on parts failures. It can embarass a manufacturer, and give the competition too much information.

[Ray]

F1 cars have ball joints?

[Fijy]

Would this be a (...) coursework or special assignment for educational purposes?

Yes, it's a coursework at my Uni - project about reliability of any machine. I've chosen F1 car (BMW-Sauber's F1.06.), and now, thinking if it was a good choice

Thanks DaveKillens for this info but..

I doubt if any team will release data on parts failures. It can embarass a manufacturer, and give the competition too much information.

..unfortunately, I need to use that kind of data in my coursework because, generally speaking, the last part of project is to define probability of element's damage.
As we were said, we can choose probabilities by our subjective feelings...but I'd like to make it accurately and professional
And It doesn't matter whether info will be from particular team source or from other source eg. generally analysis in press or sth.

If you have some, share it with me, If not, forget about it

[zac510]

I vaguely recall Ciro having an excellent reliability graph...?

[Ciro Pabón]

It's not "mine", thanks anyway...

You speak, I obey, master:

I did some graphs based on the raw data I took (and corrected a little) from the incomparable Brian Lawrence that I posted here at : viewtopic.php?t=3360.

The graphs I made were for analysis of track "performance", not engine performance. So, I did not tabulated the info on the cause of the failure (I believe Mr. Lawrence only distinguishes forced from unforced engine changes, but it is a beginning).

If somebody have the time (I don't, sorry) you can start at Usenet (on rec.autos.sport.f1, you can use the portal Google Groups if you are not familiar with it), check for Brian posts (there are hundreds, since 1997 for each race) and go to his site. The post you'll find on the first page (summary of 2007 tests) it's not about engine failures, you'll have to seek it: look for posts on the dates of the last race in 2006 and check some post named something like "Engine failures".

I don't remember the name of the huge database Brian and his friends have, whose link I can't find right now with the initials of the four guys that keep it. This doesn't sound like a great help. As we say in Colombia (sorry, no offense intended), this "help" I'm giving it's "as useful as men nipples"...

Maybe some other day I'll find the time. After all, I've never seen a summary of F1 history for several years, containing the failures by brand or by engine, the data I gave for 2006 is sort of obvious. It shouldn't be hard given Mr. Lawrence carefully mantained statistics.

What really intrigues me is the info on accidents at F1 tracks, as you can imagine. I'd lease my soul to the devil for a while for that info, specially for data specifying where along the track did the accidents happened. Actually, this kind of information is routinely taken for roads, I don't understand why it's not published for racing tracks, where accidents are common. I guess the drivers know, but it would be useful for me: I'd know at which curves I should close my eyes, waiting for the crash to happen...