Tried and tested

With Formula E demanding ultimate effi ciency, transmission manufacturers are investing in new dyno technology to test gearboxes long before they get to the track. Yet as Racecar discovered, designing and using a rig that can cope with the peculiar challenges of FE requires some serious engineering

- GEMMA HATTON

Despite the abundance of modern racing technologies, component failure can still end a driver’s race and even their chances in a championship. In the 2019 F1 season alone, there were a total of 58 retirements, 25 of which can be attributed to either component or pit stop issues or failure (not including crashes). Although with 20 cars running in 21 races, that’s a failure rate of only 5.6 per cent, which is a huge improvement over seasons in the past.

Yet failure is still a part of motorsport, and this is because racing is such a brutal environment for any component or system to endure. However, as the regulations continue to restrict the number of components a team can use within a season, for both cost and equality reasons, parts are being pushed to their absolute limits. This is why motorsport has entered an era where reliability is more important than ever. Or, as the old saying goes, to finish first, you first have to finish.

Test case

The most effective way to ensure reliability of a part is to test, analyse and refine its design. Each iteration of this loop will further increase a component’s reliability. Testing now comes in many forms including both virtual and physical experimentation. The task then becomes a lot more complicated when testing and optimising a sub-assembly of components, and even more complex when testing a major unit such as a transmission.