Technical contributors：Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola

技术顾问：马克·休斯和乔治·皮奥拉

TECH TUESDAY: The very different Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes solutions to one of F1’s key performance areas

「技术周二」红牛、法拉利和梅赛德斯在F1关键性能领域的解决方案截然不同

In assessing the respective performance patterns of the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes this season, a lot of attention has been focused on their differing aerodynamic traits and how these are better or worse suited to each track layout. But relatively little has been discussed about a performance factor that’s at least as significant: how each of the RB18, F1-75 and W13 uses its tyres.

There are myriad factors feeding into tyre behaviour – notably weight distribution, suspension geometry, tyre pressures and brake bias – but perhaps the most crucial of all is how the brakes are used to indirectly control the tyre temperature via the wheel rims. It is an incredibly complex subject.

在评估红牛、法拉利和梅赛德斯本赛季各自的性能模式时，很多注意力都集中在它们不同的空气动力学特性上，以及它们如何更好或更差地适应每种赛道布局。但是，关于至少同样重要的性能因素的讨论相对较少：RB18、F1-75和W13的轮胎使用方式。

影响轮胎性能的因素有很多，特别是重量分布、悬架几何结构、轮胎压力和制动偏压，但最关键的可能是制动器如何通过轮辋间接控制轮胎温度。这是一个极其复杂的课题。

The tyre’s optimum temperature (depending upon compound) is between 100-150 degrees C. The carbon brake discs around six inches away run at between 500-1,000-deg C. The requirement is to keep the tyres within their quite narrow operating temperature window, which is trickier to do with the undriven front tyres than the driven rears.

轮胎的最佳温度（取决于化合物）在100-150摄氏度之间。六英寸外的碳制动盘在500-1000摄氏度之间运行。要求是将轮胎保持在相当窄的工作温度范围内，这对于未驱动的前轮胎比驱动的后轮胎更为棘手。

The focus with cooling of the rear tyres is simply to divert the brake heat out and away from the wheel rim, but at the front sometimes it is advantageous to transfer more of that heat into the tyres in order that they come up to temperature in time for a qualifying lap, a race start or restart.

Brake ducts are used to channel the air as required. Those at the front, because their task is more complex than those at the rear, tend to be of a more intricate design – and this is where we see a big variation between the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

冷却后轮胎的重点仅仅是将制动热从轮辋上转移出去，但在前部，有时将更多的热量转移到轮胎中是有利的，以便它们在排位赛、比赛开始或重新开始时及时达到温度。

制动管道用于根据需要引导空气。前面的那些，因为他们的任务比后面的那些更复杂，往往设计得更复杂——这就是我们看到红牛、法拉利和梅赛德斯之间巨大差异的地方。

Furthermore, the complexity of demands for the ducts has increased this year because of the regulation stipulation of a standardised wheel rim. Previously, teams designed their own rims, with differing patterns of indentations on their inner surface to give different surface areas and therefore different rates of heat absorption, according to the demands of the track and the car itself.

Also new in the 2022 regulations is the requirement to exit the brake cooling air through a single rearwards-facing outlet rather than out through the wheel spokes, where it would previously help accelerate the out-washed airflow coming around the front tyres.

此外，由于规则规定了标准化轮辋，今年对管道的需求也增加了。此前，车队设计了自己的轮圈，根据赛道和汽车本身的需求，在轮圈的内表面上有不同的凹槽图案，以提供不同的表面积和不同的吸热率。

2022年规则中的另一项新规定是，制动冷却空气必须通过一个面向后方的出口排出，而不是通过车轮辐条排出，这将有助于加速前轮胎周围流出的气流。

The channels within the ducts apportion how much of the incoming air goes directly to the brake disc, to keep it below the critical threshold at which the carbon would oxydise. There will be another channel directing the air to the brake caliper. Both flows then exit through the same rearwards-facing outlet.

Encasing these channels is a big carbon fibre drum which is there solely to contain the heat within the brake area, preventing too much of it seeping through the metal wheel rim and into the tyres. As a rule of thumb, every 10-deg C of rim temperature increases tyre temperature by around 1-deg C.

管道内的通道分配了多少进入的空气直接进入制动盘，以使其低于碳氧化的临界阈值。将有另一个通道将空气引导至制动卡钳。然后，两股气流通过相同的后向出口流出。

包围这些通道的是一个大的碳纤维鼓，它仅用于将热量控制在制动区域内，防止过多的热量通过金属轮辋渗入轮胎。根据经验，轮辋温度每升高10摄氏度，轮胎温度就会升高1摄氏度左右。

Ferrari’s solution to this complex set of demands appears simpler than that used by Red Bull and Mercedes in that they have left the brake disc exposed within the big drum. On the other two cars, there are fairings within the area inside the drum which can be varied to apportion different flows to the disc, caliper and directly to the outlet.

From the respective performance patterns of the cars this season, it would seem that Ferrari’s system puts more heat into the rims and tyres, in that it almost never struggles for instant first lap front tyre performance – and the other two often do.

This could well be an important part of Ferrari’s super-strong qualifying performances this season. The downside, however, is that the rim temperature can continue to increase during a race stint, thereby overheating the tyres.

法拉利对这一复杂需求的解决方案似乎比红牛和梅赛德斯使用的更简单，因为他们将制动盘暴露在大鼓内。在另外两辆车上，滚筒内部区域内有整流罩，可以改变整流罩的大小，以将不同的流量分配到圆盘、卡钳和直接到出口。

从本赛季赛车各自的性能模式来看，法拉利的系统似乎将更多的热量投入到轮辋和轮胎中，因为它几乎从未为第一圈前轮胎的即时性能而挣扎过——而其他两辆车通常都是这样。

这很可能是法拉利本赛季超强排位赛表现的重要组成部分。然而，不利的一面是，在比赛期间，轮辋温度会继续升高，从而使轮胎过热。

We saw this trait as recently as Japan, where Charles Leclerc managed to hold onto Max Verstappen’s Red Bull for three laps, both lapping two seconds faster than the rest of the field, before the Ferrari’s front tyres then began to overheat, allowing Verstappen to pull easily away and Sergio Perez’s Red Bull to catch up to the Ferrari by the end.

The phenomenon was also a factor in Verstappen’s defeat of Ferrari in the Imola Sprint race, Miami and Hungary.

我们最近在日本看到了这一特点，查尔斯·勒克莱尔（Charles Leclerc）在法拉利的前轮胎开始过热之前，成功地将马克斯·维斯塔潘（Max Verstappen）的红牛保持了三圈，两圈都比场上其他地方快了两秒，让维斯塔潘轻松拉开，塞尔吉奥·佩雷斯（Sergio Perez）的红牛在终点追上了法拉利。

这种现象也是维斯塔潘在伊莫拉-斯普林特、迈阿密和匈牙利比赛中击败法拉利的一个因素。

For much of the season it seemed as if Mercedes had the best front tyre temperature cooling, typically with strong pace towards the end of stints. But the downside was that often the front tyres would not be up to temperature by the beginning of a qualifying lap.

Red Bull seemed to straddle the positions of Ferrari and Mercedes: better than Mercedes in qualifying but not as good as Ferrari, with better tyre life than Ferrari in the stints but not as good as Mercedes. Both Red Bull and Mercedes have improved their respective brake cooling compromises as the season has progressed.

It all underlines just how these differences have, under the new regulations, been accentuated in their importance to determining the competitive order.

在本赛季的大部分时间里，梅赛德斯似乎拥有最好的前轮胎温度冷却，通常在比赛结束时速度很快。但缺点是，在排位赛开始时，前轮胎往往无法达到温度。

红牛似乎跨越了法拉利和梅赛德斯的位置：排位赛上比梅赛德斯好，但不如法拉利，轮胎寿命比法拉利短，但不如梅赛德斯。随着赛季的进展，红牛和梅赛德斯都改进了各自的刹车冷却折衷方案。

这一切都突显了在新规则下，这些差异在决定竞争方面的重要性。