598 days after the BMW Group board decision and 188 days after the roll-out, the BMW M Hybrid V8 completed its first endurance test at the 24 Hours of Daytona (USA). The season-opener in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Daytona International Speedway marked the start of a new era for prototype motor racing. It was the first time hybrid-driven LMDh cars competed in the GTP class, meaning that the BMW M Hybrid V8 completed its baptism of fire under race conditions. Philipp Eng (AUT), Augusto Farfus (BRA), Marco Wittmann (GER) and Colton Herta (USA) gave a consistent performance in the #24 car. The quartet was within striking distance of a podium finish for some time before issues with the hybrid system resulted in a brake problem in the race’s final quarter that cost a substantial amount of time. Final driver Philipp Eng crossed the finish line in sixth place.

The #25 car had to be pushed to the pits to make an extended repair stop in the BMW M Team RLL garage after about an hour. A number of components had to be replaced after the failure of the hybrid powertrain – a common component used by all manufacturers. That took around two and a half hours and meant that Connor De Phillippi (USA), Nick Yelloly (GBR), Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) and Colton Herta, who was racing in both cars, were forced to drive right at the back of the field. They still managed to finish the race, chalking up kilometres of testing that will prove valuable considering the short preparation period and the remainder of the season ahead.

The Board of Management of the BMW Group gave the green light to the development of an LMDh car on 10th June 2021. Just about one year later, on 25th July 2022, the BMW M Hybrid V8 completed its roll-out in Varano de‘ Melegari (ITA). The development and testing stages of the complex hybrid car were correspondingly brief, making preparations for the race debut particularly challenging.

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, said, ‘As expected, the 24 Hours of Daytona proved to be a great challenge but provided valuable experience. Of course, we would have liked better results. It was looking good for the #24 car for a long period. We focussed on retaining concentration, driving consistently and making no mistakes. The drivers, the BMW M Motorsport engineers and BMW M Team RLL managed to do that. Unfortunately, it was primarily the common components of the hybrid system that caused us problems which we had to analyse together – especially with the #25 car, as we fell back a long way after having to replace numerous components early in the race. It is a real shame that our hard work over the past weeks and months was not rewarded with a better result. Nonetheless, I am proud and grateful that we managed to make extensive progress with the project in such a short space of time and crossed the finish line with both BMW M Hybrid V8s. Our ambition is to record wins and podium finishes. We are extremely motivated to draw the right conclusions from this race and come back even stronger at Sebring. Congratulations to the Acura team on the first win of the new GTP era. Sadly, our teams also endured some bad luck with the BMW M4 GT3 in the GTD classes. Due to the classification, they had a tough job from the start and also suffered some technical problems. However, we will analyse these in detail and do it better next time.’

The latest in a line of successful Acura endurance racing prototypes, the ARX-06 features Acura-specific bodywork and aerodynamics based around an all-new ORECA LMDh chassis, which utilizes an electrified hybrid power unit featuring an equally new, bespoke twin-turbocharged 2.4 liter V6 internal combustion engine designed, developed and manufactured by Honda Performance Development [HPD] the racing arm for Acura Motorsports in North America. In preparation for the 2023 IMSA season, Acura and HPD work on the prototype race car ahead of its premiere at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The prospect of fielding a vehicle in both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship proved to be enticing enough for Porsche AG’s executive board, who, on 16 December 2020, announced its commitment to developing an LMDh prototype for racing from January 2023.

Less than five months later, Porsche divulged its close partnership with Team Penske. The new Porsche Penske Motorsport team for international racing was born. The squad operates out of two locations: The IMSA headquarters is in the American team’s home of Mooresville, North Carolina, with the WEC operations run from Mannheim, Germany.

After an active testing phase for the new prototypes throughout 2022, the new Porsche 963 makes its official race debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the US state of Florida (28/29 January 2023). Prior to this, the hybrid vehicle covered more than 33,000 kilometres at tests and the so-called Roar at Daytona.

In an interview with The 10 Group, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s two most senior figures reflected on the origins of their professional relationship, how working together for a common goal formed a bond, and how successes – plus the lean times in between – have shaped the team into a modern-day F1 powerhouse.

Christian Horner is the only Team Principal Oracle Red Bull Racing (ORBR) has ever had, playing an instrumental role in taking what he describes as a ‘party team’ to the lofty heights of winning 2022’s F1 Driver and Constructor Championship.

It’s been a long journey full of twists and turns since the team first competed in the world championship back in 2005 when a relatively green Horner was trying to turn an unproven team into serious competitors. Reflecting back on the period, Horner says it was clear to him what was needed, or more specifically who he needed: Adrian Newey.

Hagerty Media is a media platform aimed to illuminate the joy of driving, the wonder of mechanical components, and the bond drivers share with their machines. It fuels the automotive enthusiast — reporting the car stories that matter most, providing exclusive market insights, and igniting conversation. Hagerty Media Inside Track and Radio Le Mans’ host John Hindhaugh teamed up with Racecar Engineering’s Andrew Cotton and Sportscar365’s John Dagys for an episode on what’s to come in the new prototype sportscar racing world. Check out the conversation here!

One of the most effective performance-differentiating systems onboard the Formula 1 power unit is the turbocharger shaft-mounted heat energy recovery system (MGU-H). The MGU-H uses exhaust gas entropy (the heat energy remaining in the exhaust gas as a function of its temperature, expansion, and mass flow rate) to spin the turbine during the energy recovery phase converting the energy from the exhaust gases into electrical energy.

The electrical energy is then used to power the car’s electrical driveline (either charging the battery or directly deploying to the kinetic energy recovery unit) to boost the power unit’s performance. Being a motor, if electrical energy is supplied, it will drive, and if it is being rotated inside the magnetic field, it will create electrical power.

The MGU-H is an area of the regulations which isn’t heavily tied down. It must be a minimum of four kilogrammes, but in terms of the energy and the power, it’s allowed to have as much as the teams can extract. The FIA left this freedom to encourage manufacturers to use it well and aid power unit efficiency. In Formula 1 power units, the MGU-H is part of the turbocharger assembly.

As seen in the video below, Mercedes AMG HPP’s managing director, Hywel Thomas, explains that their MGU-H sits between the compressor and the turbine. The whole assembly is then fitted into the centre of the vee of the 1.6-litre V6 internal combustion engine. Thomas goes on to explain how the MGU-H interacts with a large number of other parts in the power unit, especially with the turbocharger.

During energy recovery, the electrical energy produced from the MGU-H can go into the battery to be stored for later use or directly from the MGU-H to the kinetic energy recovery system (MGU-K) to increase the power unit output. When used as a motor, the MGU-H solves the problem of turbo lag. It spins the turbocharger when there isn’t enough entropy in the exhaust gas at the right time to ensure that the power unit delivers available peak performance in the given condition.

The primary driver for the introduction of the MGU-H was the motivation of the FIA to have very power-dense power units in Formula 1 by increasing the brake thermal efficiency and, therefore, improving the performance. The MGU-H system will not be available in the next generation of Formula 1 power units. As such, teams will have to find other ways to maintain and improve the power unit efficiency under the new regime.

The ‘formula’ behind Formula One is a series of complex rules and regulations that must be adhered to by the competing drivers and teams. The rules frame a technological window within which each team produces a car, all within a maximum permissible budget. The regulations create a fiercely competitive landscape where fractions of a gram here, a micron or two there, and the overarching speed of development separate podium finishers from the ‘also rans’. To help excel in this harsh competitive environment, McLaren deploys Stratasys‘ stereolithography 3D printing technology through a suite of five Neo®800 3D printers — producing full-size aerodynamic surfaces to high-accuracy embedded sensor housings — to chase the ideal design for the road ahead.

Formula One is synonymous with aerodynamics. While computer-aided design (CAD) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are keys to the design and development of a Formula One car, wind tunnel testing is still the gold standard when assessing how every surface works together, either as an assembly or as a complete car. McLaren uses only the FIA permissible 60% scale models of parts in its wind tunnels to optimise the aerodynamic package and find more downforce – which provides more aerodynamic grip – and balance the front and rear aerodynamic loads on the car.

PerFORM Reflect was developed specifically for wind tunnel models. It creates strong, stiff parts that, when combined with the surface finish achieved by the Neo800, can reduce post-processing by more than 30%. Using Stratasys Neo800 3D printers and Somos® PerFORM Reflect resin material, the team produces thousands of parts for numerous front and rear wing programs and large parts of the side bodywork. The parts combine with a machined aluminium spine to make the final wind tunnel ready scale model. Wind tunnel testing will regularly see multiple iterations of front and rear wing designs, sidepods (including large swathes of bodywork to the rear of the sidepods themselves) and the complete top-body of the car.

Tim Chapman, Head of Additive Manufacturing at McLaren Racing, explains: ‘Our new Neo series of 3D printers have dramatically helped to reduce the lead times of our aerodynamic wind tunnel components and projects. The large bed size of the Neo800 allows very large parts to be built quickly and to a very high level of detail, definition, and repeatability. We find the high-definition components from our Neo machines require minimal hand finishing, which allows much faster throughput to the wind tunnel. Finishing cycle times have also been reduced dramatically.’

The process for creating a 60% scale top-body from start to finish is also now much faster. With its stereolithography 3D printers, the McLaren team can turn a top-body project around — from receiving the CAD data to delivery of the finished part — in just 3 to 4 days. ‘Previously, to produce a 60% scale top-body, we would have first glued up the tooling block and rough machined this to the approximate top-body shape,’ says Chapman.’ Then, using hand-shaped templates from a technical drawing, we would have hand-finished the top-body shape, effectively creating a pattern, before shuttering up the edges and taking a carbon mould from this pattern.

‘Once the carbon mould had been autoclaved and removed from the pattern, the actual carbon component (i.e., the model scale top-body surface) would then be laid up in the mould and autoclaved again. Once removed from the mould, this component would form the top body for the scale model Formula One car. In contrast, the Neo800s allow us to completely sidestep that tooling and carbon fibre manufacturing process and 3D print the modular parts instead.’

Around 60 air pressure housings are embedded within McLaren’s car to enable air pressure readings of the various surfaces. This information is then fed back to the race engineers to aid development. The small pressure tapping running through these components requires a highly accurate and high-definition 3D printing process. After post-processing, these parts are integrated directly into the car. The large bed size of the Stratasys Neo800 3D printers (800 x 800 x 600 mm) allows for producing either large single parts or many smaller ones. The process means intricate details are always preserved with industry-leading repeatability and reliability.

Mclaren tries to manufacture in-house wherever possible. McLaren’s Technical Partnership with Stratasys has been instrumental in reducing the cost and time to manufacture components. With the FIA deciding to bring the budget cap down from $175 million to $145 million for its first year of operation in 2021, then down to $140 million for 2022 and $135 million in 2023, this significantly focuses teams on the efficiency of the design to production processes.

With the Neo800 3D printers, McLaren can now manufacture all aerodynamic wind tunnel models at its base in Woking, UK, saving subcontractors and the associated quality assurance costs. The team can also 3D print jigs, templates, and small moulds that would have previously been machined from metal billets. Not only does the speed of the Neo800 stereolithography process save considerable time, but it also saves on costly metal material by not wasting large amounts of swarf removed from the subtractive machining process.

As stereolithography 3D printing technology and materials have evolved, so have the ways in which McLaren exploits the technology. While wind tunnel models and prototypes are still crucial use cases, the team also produces a lot of full-scale components and production tooling. This improved speed and the lower cost make it easier to run a responsive feedback loop where the team can produce new iterations in response to design issues at any point in the season.

For example, using Somos DMX SL-100 resin with the Stratasys Neo800 3D printers, the team is printing sacrificial tooling to allow composite lay-up over the mould. Then, through a unique extraction process, the resin is removed after autoclaving leaving the cured composite part ready for use. This process allows designers to quickly realise hollow or convoluted composite parts without needing costly and time-consuming complex moulds and core manufacturing.

‘The Neo800 is very much at the heart of our vehicle development process – from design to production,’ continues Chapman. ‘We tend to make four car sets of most components before the next iteration is released, which supersedes the previous version. That is why 3D printing is so good for many components; you can make parts extremely quickly and remove the need for tooling and moulds. That is vital in Formula One, with super tight deadlines to deliver cars to the next race. The smallest design iteration can make all the difference between winning, losing or making up positions on the grid.’

Multimatic Motorsports has completed an initial aerodynamic evaluation test at Catesby Tunnel, a newly-opened aerodynamic testing facility owned by ARP (Aero Research Partners). It is the first facility of its kind in the UK and only the second in the world.

The team ran its Mazda DPi race car up to 120mph through the tunnel, measuring its aerodynamic behaviour. The team compared the results to a comprehensive data set previously gathered from 40% scale and full-size wind tunnel testing, Computational Fluid Dynamics development and five years of competition in IMSA’s top-level championship. It found a high correlation to the existing performance data.

The Catesby facility began its life as a dual rail Victorian railway tunnel, with the first steam locomotives running through it in July 1898. It closed to trains in 1966. A multi-million-pound transformation has turned Catesby into a state-of-the-art aerodynamic vehicle testing facility. The tunnel still carries vestiges of soot from coal-burning trains, which has stuck to many of the approximately 30 million bricks required to construct the perfectly straight 2.7 km long tunnel, boasting a massive cross-section, 8.2m wide and 7.8m high.

Catesby Tunnel turns the traditional practice of using a wind tunnel on its head; as Multimatic Motorsports boss, Larry Holt, explains, ‘Compared to conventional wind tunnels, this is better because it’s real. In a moving ground plane wind tunnel, the car is stationary, the wind is blown over it by a massive fan and flow conditioning set-up, and a belt is arranged to move under the car at a coordinated speed. It’s a very sophisticated configuration, but the car is still stationary. Catesby facilitates measuring the aerodynamic performance of a vehicle moving through the air.’

‘The car is subjected to influences like gusting wind, rain and other changing environmental conditions that affect air density; all of the variables that come with driving in the real world. Catesby provides the real world without the weather. You have a moving car, a road surface, a controlled environment, and we can run 24 hours a day, whatever the season – it is a perfect 2.7kms of controlled atmosphere. That’s the kind of consistency you need when you are chasing incremental gains.’

Multimatic driver, Andy Priaulx, was behind the wheel of the Mazda RT24-P throughout the test. He commented, ‘When you’ve been a racing driver for as long as I have, you don’t often get to experience anything new. ‘When it comes to pure aerodynamic testing, I’m used to engineers studying static car models in wind tunnels with no driver involvement. At the start, jumping into a race car and driving flat out through a 2.7km tunnel felt odd, but the team assured me that the end was very clearly marked! Catesby Tunnel is an incredible facility, and it doesn’t surprise me at all to know that Multimatic chose to be an early adopter and primary client of the facility.’

Located just a few miles from Daventry in rural Northamptonshire, Catesby Tunnel situates in the UK’s Motorsport Valley. It is just a short drive from Multimatic Motorsports’ UK headquarters in Brackley. Holt understood the advantage of the tunnel before it was completed and has locked down a significant amount of Catesby’s available tunnel time for the development of future race, road and track-day cars created by Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations.