If for some magical reason, this race were to happen right now, when we are still using piston engines, I am guessing the engine balance would be a bit off as well.
Also, the track could probably easily incorporate a loop the loop, which would be pretty cool.
I considered this a few years ago myself, and the answer is that it would be impossible for a number of reasons, all to do with the lack of air.
Without air, the engine would not be able to cool itself, and would overheat.
Also, from my memory of thermodynamics, heat engines require a temperature difference between two substances in order to work. I can't see what the lower temperature substance would be on the moon.
Thirdly, F1 engines need a source oxygen, which again is absent.
To make it work you'd need to either use battery-powered cars cooled by radiation only, or run the event in an artificial atmosphere.
If that happened, everything would be the same except the cars would have much less grip, and lower rolling resistance for any given tyre.
Whoops, missed that bit. Basically as above then. ^
At very low speed (or in the absence of downforce for whatever reason), bumps would pose problems, as would crests. If a car flipped (eg Webber 2010) it would stay airborne much longer and further, too.
angusf1t wrote:If a car flipped (eg Webber 2010) it would stay airborne much longer and further, too.
Good point. That would actually be safer for the driver. The aero drag would be the same so the car would slow down more before impact on the ground. It could be a problem for spectators though.
Not sure gravel traps would work, the cars would skim over the top.
Since there are at least two different wheeled vehicles still on the surface of the moon, a lunar GP race might be possible. There is the Apollo Lunar Rover which needs a driver, and the Soviet Lunokhod which is unmanned. Both have electric AWD drivetrains.
Getting new cars to the lunar surface for a race would be quite expensive. A moon shot currently would cost about $200,000 per pound of payload, or more than $300 million for an F1 car.
"Q: How do you make a small fortune in racing?
A: Start with a large one!"
firstly, long time reader, first time poster here. Got bored and had 5 min so I thought I would register and post on this for a bit of fun. o/
Several things I would expect to change, assuming normal everything (aero,temps,humidity,tarmac) but just 1/6th gravity.
1: Rolling starts, because have fun getting traction from a normal start hehe. Imagine the power of a F1 car, but in a car that only has a mass of 110-120kg as that on earth will have the same amount of weight and hence similar traction.
2: Higher speed tracks in general, to avoid almost stop start chicanes.
3:More aggressive cars in general (in terms of looking for more DF, ofc with more drag)
4: Possibly softer tyres, depends on how well the mixture of the above work for avoiding/helping with major traction zones from low speed.
I nominate this post for post of the year
The moon people are notorious tightwads. They'd never pay Bernie's fee.
