How Ferrari Got Better without Cheating

- A portion of this video is sponsored by Constant Contact. - In the 2020 Formula 1 season, Ferrari finished sixth out of tenth in the Constructors' Championship, its worst performance in 40 years. According to their own test driver, they had the worst engine on the grid. And that's partly because in 2019 they broke the rules or, as some would say, cheated. And unfortunately the FIA ​​reached a confidential agreement with Ferrari. So no one really knows how they cheated. Well, today on B2B, we'll look at the science on how they cheated and then look at how Ferrari redesigned its engine in 2021 to not suck again.

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And soon enough, maybe you'll have your own secret office like me. Nolan, what are you doing here? - Jerry, what is this place? - Thanks to Constant Contact for sponsoring that part of this video. - Ferrari is the most successful Formula 1 team of all time. They have more pole positions, more Grand Prix victories and more constructors' championships than any other team. So if anyone can come back from a disastrous season, Ferrari can do it. But why do they have to return? What the hell happened to make his 2020 season so terrible? Well, Ferrari's worst season since the disco era began in 2019 with a

cheating

scandal.

Ferrari's 2019 car, the SF90, seemed unusually fast, especially on high-speed, power-hungry circuits like Monza and Spa. Other F1 teams suspected that Ferrari was gaining extra power by flouting fuel supply rules. The FIA ​​limits fuel consumption to 100 kilograms per hour and installs a sensor in each car to monitor it. The sensor is called a fuel flow meter and its job is to do exactly that. Monitor the fuel rate so the FIA ​​can ensure you are not injecting more fuel into the engine than allowed by the rules. And this gauge is placed between the low pressure pump inside the fuel tank and the high pressure pump mounted on the engine.

Fuel flow meters use the ultrasonic time-of-flight principle to measure the speed of fuel flowing through a straight section of fuel line. It begins with a short burst of ultrasound generated by a transducer located at one end of the tube, traveling in the same direction as the fuel. Shortly thereafter, an identical burst is sent from a transducer at the other end of the tube in a direction opposite to the direction of fluid flow. In one direction, you have the speed of sound plus the speed of fluid. In the other direction, you have the speed of sound minus the speed of the fluid.

A sensor then measures the time it takes for that ultrasound wave to reach the sensor in each of the two directions and subtracts one from the other. This ends up giving a value that is proportional to the speed of the fuel. And if you know the cross-sectional area of ​​the line, you can calculate the flow rate. And they connect this meter to the car's wiring harness, where the data is shared between the team, its ECU and the FIA. But let's say you want to put more juice into your Italian stallion to make it go faster without this fuel flow meter giving you away to the FIA.

Well, there are a couple of ways to do it. You can run at maximum flow, even when you don't need it, and then store that fuel in a separate tank for later use. You charge for fuel upstream of the meter or you can trick the meter itself. When these fuel gauges first appeared on the scene, there were technical directives and rule changes to prevent teams from using the first method. But what about option two? Will it be complicated and fool the meter? Now, any sensor that is in an F1 car has a sample rate. How many times per second a sample is taken.

For fuel flow meters, that speed is 2.2 kilohertz, which means 2,200 samples are taken per second. We actually plotted it and this is what it looks like here. Every 0.00045 seconds, we get a piece of data. And the amplitude of that single data point corresponds to the flow. If it exceeds 100 kilograms per hour, then you are ruined. But I'm Ferrari and I need more fuel. I need it. I need that fuel. So could I hide those pesky spikes that are telltale signs I'm

cheating

? If you can cheat on the test, you can beat the rest. All MLB players in the 90s.

Lance Armstrong. He said it, not me. And you can hide those spikes in several ways. You can alter the signal by jamming or scrambling it so much that it produces inconsistent and unreliable data, or you can alter the fuel flow itself. The electric pumps in F1 cars do not supply a constant flow of fuel. They are pressed. It is similar to how a fuel flow meter works. Those data points go down and up again. They are on, off. And that on and off is super fast. It's 2200 times per second but there is still time when it turns off.

If we were to make a similar graph of the fuel flow from the pump that is pulsing, it would create a graph similar to the gauge waveform. Now, what if we could stagger those pump pulses to deliver more fuel when the gauge is in the off stage? Then, when the gauge comes back on, the fuel pulse has dropped back down to its maximum allowable rate, fooling the sensor into believing that the maximum flow rate never exceeded 100 kilograms per hour. Remember, the fuel flow meter is connected to the equipment's ECU, so they can synchronize the sampling rate with the pump pulse rate, constantly adjusting the pump output to the meter.

Pony boys cheaters, cheaters and amateurs. Now, I don't know how, but the Red Bull team smelled something suspicious at Ferrari. So, doing what Red Bull does best, they designed several possible systems that could fool or bypass the mandatory fuel flow sensor and submitted these designs as a request for clarification to the FIA. His thought was, "We have a good idea they're cheating." So we will show this to the FIA ​​and then ask them if it is allowed. Then they will have to comment on it. They are going to draw a line in the sand between what is and what is not legal.

They snitched, but they did it in the dirtiest way possible. Now, the FIA ​​responded with several technical directives. These are updates or changes to the technical regulations. That is the main regulation of Formula 1. That is what the formula represents. It was these directives that said the systems described by Red Bull were prohibited by the rules on fuel supply. Any team using these systems would be violating Formula 1 rules. And interestingly, immediately after the directives were published, the Ferrari car became noticeably slower. The FIA ​​began an investigation into Ferrari, but after several months they reached an agreement that would remain confidential.

This was to protect Ferrari's intellectual property from public disclosure and in return, Ferrari agreed to help the FIA ​​improve monitoring of all Formula 1 power units, as well as assist the FIA ​​and other regulatory tasks. It's like the FBI hiring a hacker, except the hacker is a billion-dollar luxury car company. In total, there were seven technical directives stemming from the scandal, including greater fuel flow monitoring and new sensors to monitor the power of the hybrid system. The new rules also limited the maximum amount of oil that could be consumed during racing or be present in the intake, in case that was what Ferrari had been doing.

It is normal for there to be a small amount of oil in the intake of most turbocharged engines because oil is used to cool the turbo. But one of the proposed theories about Ferrari's extra power was that they engineered a controlled oil leak into their intercooler. The flammable oil provided a small boost of additional fuel when it reached the engine. This was now also explicitly illegal. But come on, this is an Italian car. Sure, there was an engineered oil leak. That's how it's supposed to be. No one knows for sure if any or all of those technical directives forced changes that affected Ferrari's power output.

But what we do know is that its power took a hit for 2020. In pre-season testing, the SF90's replacement, the SF1000, was almost a second slower per lap than the previous year's car. Which means it had an estimated loss of about 65 horsepower. That loss of power was bad, but the main problem slowing the car seemed to be the relationship between the engine and the car's aerodynamics. The 2020 body had been designed around the previous, more powerful engine. The revised, less powerful engine could not overcome the resistance of that body. Ferrari struggled throughout the 2020 season, unable to find the right setup for the SF1000 within the allowed settings.

But in the break between 2020 and 2021, Ferrari engineers got to work. They extracted more power from their SF100's engine, or more specifically, its power unit. An F1 power unit or PU is a hybrid system that uses a 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline engine and two electric motor-generator units or MGUs. The MGU H recovers heat from the exhaust and uses that energy to burn the turbo, reducing lag. The MGU K, formerly called Kurz, recovers kinetic energy when braking. It is connected to the drive shaft of the gasoline engine and supplements the power reaching the wheel. A complex system like an F1 power unit must be designed so that everything works in harmony.

And if you change one thing, the entire system suffers. So, hypothetically, let's say you raise the total fuel flow above 100 kilograms per hour, the maximum allowed by the FIA. Then other parts of that power unit would have to be changed to take advantage of that extra fuel. If that extra fuel were not removed, the power unit would not function properly as a system and would generate less power as a complete unit. The biggest change they made this year was using the super fast head. The super fast head increased the speed of the air and fuel flow, not the volume of the fuel flow, which is what got them into trouble to begin with.

That additional speed increases fuel atomization. That means the hydrocarbons in gasoline and oxygen molecules in the air mix more completely and evenly when they reach the cylinders. Greater atomization leads to faster combustion, because the flame can spread more quickly through a uniform mixture. The super faceted head also increases the pressure in the combustion chamber, meaning more fuel and more air is burned, producing... James! - More power, honey. - Of course, for the super-fast head to work, Ferrari has to maximize the amount of air entering the engine. And for this, much attention has been paid to the turbo system.

They revised the compressor and made it smaller to make it easier to turn. This means that the energy of the MGU H is used more efficiently. They also repositioned the intercooler, so the intake air will be colder, making it denser. Colder air is denser, which means you get more. You have more air, you have more fuel, you have more power. While none of these changes are revolutionary on their own, they add up to an increase of about 20 horsepower. It may not seem like much, but it's a start. Ferrari claims it will put them on par with Renault and the Honda-powered Red Bull.

Of course, as we talked about before, once the engine makes more power, there are other parts of the car that need to be adjustedto match. Now, the development freeze for 2021 did not include everything. Therefore, side impact structures, small aerodynamic components such as vortex generators, basic suspension components such as wishbones, which are control arms, and cooling systems can still be worked on. All of that can be modified. Numerous small parts have been changed for the SF21, all with the goal of reducing drag and improving overall aerodynamics. One of the main sources of resistance in 2020 was the side radiators.

The intake of these has been reduced to reduce resistance and has been refined to make

better

use of the incoming air. For anything other than small checks like these, the FIA ​​introduced a token system. Each team receives two tokens to spend on specific parts of the car, which they can then redesign. Different parts have different symbolic costs, depending on their importance to performance. Individual parts include the clutch, DRS, brakes and pit stop equipment. If a team wants to alter more important parts, they must spend two tokens. For example, they could choose to redesign interior suspension components, such as shock absorbers and springs, or the electrical system or driver's cabin.

It's like when you're at Chuck E. Cheese's and you're all booked up and you walk up to the booth and say, "I can get a pencil eraser or a package of shortbread. Or I could just walk behind." "The counter when you're not there and steal whatever I want." Do not do that. Ferrari has been having major problems with aerodynamics. So guess what they chose? The gearbox. Hope for? Well, it turns out it was actually a genius move. By choosing to modify the gearbox, they are also allowed to redesign sections of the bodywork around it at the rear of the car.

That includes the rear suspension attachment points, which were modified to move the car rearward. And they did it because they saw the success Mercedes had with that suspension design. The choice of gearbox meant that engineers could sculpt its rear bodywork to minimize drag while maximizing downforce on the rear ring. The FIA ​​implemented mandatory reductions in downforce for 2021, which has slowed down all cars on the grid. Every team has been struggling to make up for that, with teams like AlphaTauri and Alpha Romeo spending their token specifically on aerodynamic redesigns. Ferrari's LeClerc had major issues specifically with rear-end grip in 2020, and by re-sculpting just the rear of the car around the gearbox, Ferrari can make aerodynamic improvements that affect everything from the rear ring to the step air under the floor without specifically spending chips on aerodynamics.

Very smart, friend. So the million dollar question is: will it all work? Enrico Gualtieri, head of Ferrari's power unit department, says the new engine improvements alone are worth a tenth of a second per lap. Binotto is cautiously optimistic and says that Ferrari needs three or four races to fully realize the true potential of its 2021 Formula car. And I don't want to give any spoilers, but so far they are doing quite well this season. There have only been two races since we filmed this episode and they are number four in the standings. Will that change when this comes out?

I don't know. I don't have a magic ball. In the fifth round of this season, the Ferrari cars are going to be... - Second. - AND? - It didn't start. - At the pace Ferrari is going, it looks like they are going to have a successful 2021 season, but who knows? Leave a comment below. Let me know if you think Ferrari is back. Did they redesign your car better? Did they cheat? Are they cheating in another way? I don't know. Maybe they are. Maybe they focused us on one thing so we could venture into another part of the car.

Leave some comments below. Let me know what you think. Thank you all so much for watching this episode of "B2B". Follow us on Instagram @DonutMedia. Follow me @JeremiahBurton. Until next week, goodbye for now.