- 499
There are many differences between CART and F1. The first is that you have to understand that CART(Championship Auto Racing Teams) and F1(Formula One) are the names of the series/championship. F1 is a global championship whereas CART is more of an American series even though they have, over the past ten years branched out to Austrailia, Japan, Canada and this year, Engand and Germany. The cars used in the two series are very different. F1 cars are more highly developed aerodynamically and technologically. This is because different teams produce and develop their own cars with extremely large budgets. CART teams have there chassis produced for them by either Lola or Reynard. CART cars have to be versatile because they have to race on ovals and circuits and they do this with very little structural change to keep the costs down. Engines are also very different, F1 engines are limited to 3000cc and are normally aspirated. They are also more technologically developed than the engines used in CART which are turbocharged. F1 engines range from about 740 bhp of the Renault engine to 840 bhp of the BMW. Most rev to about 18 000rpm. Teams either make there own engines, have them supplied by a manufacturer or have them supplied by another team. CART engines are a bit more powerful but don't rev as much. CART teams have their engines supplied by either Ford, Toyota or Honda. F1 cars use a lot of drivers aids such as traction control, launch control and fully automatic gearboxes the help the driver. CART cars don't have these although some teams have been rumoured to have found a way to have legal traction control. They also have sequential gearchange. F1 cars run on groved slick tyres which reduces grip to encourage overtaking whereas CART cars use full slick which provide much more grip. Aerodynamically, when on circuits or road courses, CART cars will have or generate more downforce than F1 cars. F1 cars are much smaller in width and have higher front wings and smaller rear wings with less elements to give them less downforce than previous years to encourage overtaking. F1 is [seen as] the cream of motorsport and is very hard to get into (unless you have a big title sponsor willing to pay $10m). It is also very hard as a team to get into F1 and be succesful. Over the last seven years, Simtek, Pacific, Forti, Lola, Stewart (now Jaguar) have all entered F1 and only one survives today. CART is a much easier series to set a team up in or to drive in because there is little costs compared to F1. Many drivers who have failed in F1 drive in the CART series - Alex Zanardi, Tora Takagi, Shinji Nakano, Michael Andretti, Roberto Moreno, Max Papis, Christian Fittipaldi, Mauricio Gugelmin all have failed in F1 and drive in CART today.
I will carry on with this post tommorow - The Sopranos is about to start :smile:
(Edited by Phil at 5:15 pm on July 1, 2001)
I will carry on with this post tommorow - The Sopranos is about to start :smile:
(Edited by Phil at 5:15 pm on July 1, 2001)