Aero shake down: Formula E versus Formula One

Formula E is the new kid on the block: it's electric, it's clean, it looks spectacular, and there's tons of action. In contrast, Formula One is sticking to dirty combustion engines and exciting overtakings are becoming a distant memory of the past. It's the daddy of racing, singing old Beatles songs at the birthday party of the kids.

But don't write off the daddy just yet (and Beatles songs simply are great): in the end, racing is about entertainment, so not everything points purely to performance. In this article, we want to compare the design choices that were made in terms of aerodynamics and see how these affect the cars, but also the entire sport by extension.

Let's start with a brief of history on aerodynamics in racing. Long ago, when aerodynamics weren't exploited yet, the maximum cornering performance was limited to about 1G, dictated by the friction coefficient of the tires - you could take about as much lateral force as the weight (or gravity force) on the car itself. But with the advent of aerodynamics, designers started using the air to push the car down, and not just a little: the extra vertical push downward easily surpasses the weight of the car itself - so yes, theoretically a Formula One car ís able to ride upside down (once it has reached a critical speed, so you'll need a cool helical loop or something :) ).

To achieve this, they apply large front wings, rear wings, diffusers and so on. But this comes at a penalty: it also greatly increases the aerodynamic drag, or the forward driving resistance of the car. If you have a powerful car, you can overcome the drag penalty and just go for the high down force gains. If you have a less powerful car, you do the opposite: tweak for less down force and reduce the drag penalty. Let's compare the kid to the daddy.

Formula One is going nuts in terms of aerodynamics, with lateral forces exceeding 5G's at times. To achieve that, their setup is optimized for high down force values, and they simply overcome the drag penalty with their powerful engines. We analysed a generic Formula One 3D model on AirShaper at 50 m/s and got the following results: 1799N of drag and 3294N of down force.

Formula E, in contrast, also run at 50 m/s on the simulation platform, featured very different results: just 1053N of drag and a down force of 1030N. Quite a logical result, given the car doesn't have the massive front & rear wings of Formula One for example. But why did they do this?

Well, it's a combination of things. First of all, electric (race) cars face the challenge of range, so saving energy is important. They achieve that by a.o. reducing the drag coefficient (and loosing down force in the process) and racing on street circuits (lower top speeds reduce power consumption. Another reason for the aerodynamic setup is likely the entertainment value: lower down force also means the air behind the car is less turbulent, making it easier for the chasing opponent to stay close (as he or she still gets enough clean air to get enough down force).

So in conclusion: the new kid will have to exercise a few more years to outperform the daddy in terms of raw aerodynamics performance. But it made very mature choices towards offering high entertainment value which is, after all, one of the most important aspects of racing!

Download the full simulation reports: Formula One - Formula E

For more information on race car aerodynamics, click here.