“Lets take a look at the power unit first!” That’s when the family members at the dinner table stop paying attention. They will ask the same exact question next year. Great video, these are so informative for the short video length!
Another purpose of preheating the engine is that the tolerances the internal combustion engine is built to are quite extreme, and when cold, won’t even turn over. The heat in the motor keeps the parts from rubbing on one another- and the tolerances are designed to be optimal at 80C.
I also heard the the sylinders in the engine expand slightly more than the pistons when heated so the engine is actually seized up when it's cold, the pistons being under pressure from the sylinder sidewalls
This is oft cited but it isn’t actually true. It’s one of those perpetual myths. The engines absolutely will turn over when cold; but because the tolerances are so tight, wear will be high.
You should have explained the pre-heating reasons in more detail: An F1 engine is so precisely manufactured, that it literally will not move when it is cold due to the metals actually being stuck together. Through warming the engine up the seals on the pistons are able to move because they soften up just enough. And since F1 engines are meant to run at several hundred degrees there is no point in having this any other way.
Ah yes, thank you for this wonderful tutorial. I shall now proceed to follow this tutorial with my non-existent F1 car used in my non-existent F1 career Edit: So many salty people in the replies LMAO guys it’s a joke
I really enjoy these informative short videos. They satisfy my never ending desire to learn more about these amazing cars. Appreciate it so much y’all! Much love from the US
The engine tolerances are so small and measured at operating temperature, so when it's cold, it seizes solid and won't so much as twitch, which is why they need to get the engine warmed up before starting because they literally cannot start it cold. The car basically needs to be on life support before it can perform.
Didn't mention that when the engine is cold it really can't be turned over because the tolerance on the pistons and cylinder walls is so tight that it's basically seized. When they warm the engine everything expands to the proper size and they can spin it over easily.
re: preheating or not, depends on the food, if you're heating up something that's already cooked then yeah just throw it in there while it's heating up. but if you're COOKING something you gotta wait till it's heated up to the right temp first.
Gentlemen. A short view to the past. Thirty years ago, Nicki Laura told us “take a trained monkey, place him into the cockpit of a car and he is able to drive the car”. Thirty years later, Sebastian told us “I have to start my car like a computer, it’s very complicated” and Nico Rosberg said that during the race - I don’t remember what race - he pressed the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you both. Is formula one today too complicated with 20 or more buttons on the wheel, are you too much under effort, under pressure? What are your wishes for the future concerning the technical program during the race? Less buttons, more? Or less and more communication with your engineers?
I'm 100% sure that may be they could perhaps do something about something while they were doing something that could or could not be the right thing to do in the future.
It was like this with the DFVs already... I once was in a garage in a classic f1 race and the firing up from saying "ok let's fire up the egnien" was like an hour
so this video was great and the complexity surprised me as a new fan. What I got from this video is the driver cannot restart the car on the track- if the engine( powerunit) quits its the walk of shame back to pits. I find that surprising.
I’m now just picturing Matt hovering over his oven with anticipation and when the preheating light goes out he exclaims, “LIGHT’S OUT AND AWAY WE GO!” (The apostrophe represents contraction for the apostrophe police.)
No actually. Basically this is somekind of S.O.P that you need to do before turning the engine on because they are in a very competitive racing. F1 racing is all about precision. So if they want to make it simpler just using key to turn the engine on of course they can.
One correction: The MGU-H doesn’t recover the energy from the heat of the exhaust, it is generated from the turning of the turbo. That‘s also why during energy deployment the turbo can be spooled up electronically
You do know that the turbo is driven by exhaust gasses? Otherwise it would’ve been called a supercharger (driven by the engine itself) or a compressor (driven by electricity).
I do the same procedure on my truck when in winter, I warm up the engine oil pan, turn the engine without starting it and put a hot air blower on the turbo intake.
you stay comin in with the heat!! one of those things i had the general idea of how it was started off of quick video clips. great content always thinking outside the box
On another note, people ask about starting aircraft engines a lot too. Small planes tend to have keys to operate the ignition/magnetos, but airliners have nothing of the sort. They can be started by one person at nearly any time. Far simpler than F1 cars but, despite both wanting to save weight by eliminating heavy, complex systems (like a a car carrying around all that weight for the race when it was only needed to start the engine before the race), aircraft are expect to not need a maintenance crew to get the engines turning. Definitely to safely operate one over time, but not to just start one.
Awesome video! There is a possibility to the driver itself turn the engine on if he's on track, right? If I'm correct, Leclerc did this in Catalunya 2020 when his engine suddenly switched off mid race and his engineer told him to turn it on using the MGU-K
Yep! However in that case the engine is already fully up to temperature and all the oil is where it's supposed to be, so it's technically already in its ideal starting configuration. Since it was literally just running a short time ago. I'm not sure where, exactly, the MGU-K is connected to along the gearbox/crankshaft system. Might vary slightly from team to team and design to design. But as Mateus points out, put the gearbox in neutral and dump the clutch, and everything's connected and you can rev up the MGU-K to get the engine rotating, where the ignition and fuel systems will handle it from there. Incidentally a lot like how a Toyota Prius starts its engine ...
You forgot to mention that most manufacturers can kick start their engine when not in the pits using the eleconics as everything is already warm. I think it's the MGU-H? they spin up and it cranks the ICE over and gets it fired up. I think Merc is the only engine not to have that
It's the mgu-k, it moves the car until a certain speed with the clutch disingaged, then the clutch engages and the engine is literally jump started and comes back to life. Since all car have an mgu-k and a clutch, they should all be able to do it
All this while I really thought all you need is a motor and you just have to stick the rod in and fire it up. Turns out it is more complicated than that. Thank you for the insight.
It is indeed more complicated than I thought, but I knew it wasn't simple. I just didn't know it was a long process. Starting a jet engine is simpler than this (at least from the cockpit). Cool stuff to hear and the steps all made sense; I just didn't think they had to do all of that each time. I guess most of it is handled by production vehicles with automation and aren't built to be stressed the same way as these are, so if you considered all of that being moved to a racecar, it starts to seem more logical that it's essentially a team sport to fire it up!
FYI, the MGU-H is the turbocharger. Specifically the electric motor attached to the shaft between the turbines. It harvests energy under boost and spools the turbo to eliminate lag.
I'll have to admit I did not know all that. I thought it was just the starter in the back and done - but then again this was like 30 years ago and things have changed A LOT specially since the hybrid era...
I shove the food into the oven right after I’ve turned it on! The pre-heat only takes a minute or so, so my food won’t have cooked oddly since its going to be at full heat in a matter of minutes :)
I'm the without pre-heating guy, since it doesn't make a difference on the food (unless, I guess You'd have some insanely slowly heating up oven). That said, I'm pretty experienced at telling when a particular meal is done, but if You're trying out something completely new and different, especially with a strict timing in a recipe, like certain fish, or deserts, then of course have the oven preheated, to match the timing.
Is mgu any different than als, like is it using the exhaust gas to combust or is it just harvestijg heat, and if its just heat does it also convert the ambient ice waste heat
So no flywheel starter engagement, just a direct couple to the crank? Or the gearbox? Would think the gearbox had nothing to do with startup unless it had to help the external starter spin the crank fast enough. Figured that was why they always start em on stands because its in gear when starting then kicked back once started with the air clutch deal..
Once in a qualifying cars roll to the pit exit too early, but it was red and some drivers just turned off the engine, except Mercedes and the commentator said, probably the Mercedes's engine can't be started from the cockpit.
Just wondering, since the MGU-K is afaik a Motor/Generator directly mounted onto the crankshaft: Can the MGU-K be used to hot-start an F1-engine if it stalled? And if so, is that allowed if a driver stalls during the session? Iirc in the V10 era stalling your engine was game over, but that was because the cars didn't have an internal starter
Haven’t the teams been able to start the cars using the MGU-K and battery? Using the electronics to start up the car. If I recall correctly, Charles did that in Barcelona (that one time he went around 4Billion laps without seatbelts on and the FIA didn’t do shit)
An F1 car can be REstarted using this method as the only time its started up in this way is if the engine cuts out mid-race so the engine is still at optimum working temperature and only stopped for a few seconds before it gets going again. This doesn't really affect anything too much, they're reliable and strong units that don't need nannying (relatively speaking of course) and the fuel and ignition systems can handle the rest of the complex computer gubbins. Trying to start it up in this way the first time you turn the engine on (say on a Friday morning preparing for FP1) will get you nowhere because everything is so precisely engineered it is essentially seized and won't start unless all procedures are followed. So to restart using this method after a momentary cut out or loss of power - fine, To start up using this method for the first time when it's cold - not fine
@@spaceshuttle8332 No problems :) yeah cold starting an F1 car with that method won't work, the materials need to be at the correct temperature, too cold the metal won't expand and the pistons will be fused, once the engine is warmed the metal will expand just enough for those pistons to start working how they should
“Lets take a look at the power unit first!”
That’s when the family members at the dinner table stop paying attention. They will ask the same exact question next year.
Great video, these are so informative for the short video length!
Another purpose of preheating the engine is that the tolerances the internal combustion engine is built to are quite extreme, and when cold, won’t even turn over. The heat in the motor keeps the parts from rubbing on one another- and the tolerances are designed to be optimal at 80C.
I also heard the the sylinders in the engine expand slightly more than the pistons when heated so the engine is actually seized up when it's cold, the pistons being under pressure from the sylinder sidewalls
The engineering in them is insane
@@fredrikpedersen2254 expand when hot?
@@NH10059 yeah both the pistons and cylinder expand with heat, but the cylinder expand slightly more to make them a perfect fit at temperature
This is oft cited but it isn’t actually true. It’s one of those perpetual myths. The engines absolutely will turn over when cold; but because the tolerances are so tight, wear will be high.
You should have explained the pre-heating reasons in more detail:
An F1 engine is so precisely manufactured, that it literally will not move when it is cold due to the metals actually being stuck together. Through warming the engine up the seals on the pistons are able to move because they soften up just enough. And since F1 engines are meant to run at several hundred degrees there is no point in having this any other way.
@@nayla9353 Shut
Ah yes, thank you for this wonderful tutorial. I shall now proceed to follow this tutorial with my non-existent F1 car used in my non-existent F1 career
Edit: So many salty people in the replies LMAO guys it’s a joke
We wish you the best of luck on your adventure
Don’t sell yourself short, mate
Bet you’re a blast at parties.
@@WasleySchultz I bet you are as well
Don’t try too hard to find the car
Just imagine that a team can’t race an F1 Weekend because they have lost their car keys
I´m pretty sure there would be room in the budget for a locksmith lol
I guess it would be Bottas' fault then
Oh man, that would be especially bad luck for Alex Albon. He is known for misplacing keys and other important things.
I really enjoy these informative short videos. They satisfy my never ending desire to learn more about these amazing cars. Appreciate it so much y’all! Much love from the US
Same here. I love F1 and Iove technical stuff in general. Keep those videos up!
Greetings from Germany
Same
same🥰
Ditto. From the U.K.
From Finland
How do you start a F1 car?
"A short view back to the past..."
Niki Lauda told us.
Thanks for the tips 👍 imma try this out tommorow
@Fania Grace 👇💋 stop spamming these on every comment
Can we have a go too pls?
@@WTF1official brug moment
@@lukyboi_4450 PLEASE🥺
I wouldn’t be surprised is the Haas just uses a key though
They actually have a hand crank in the front of the car like the Model T
@@usernamesSux9 pha ha ha
Not even a key its some naked wires they short it and it starts
@@bandi_TEE Starting their car in budget style.
LOL
I literally googled this a week ago looking for a wtf1 video on how an f1 car starts but I couldn’t find one. And then today they post this! Thanks
Frick my dyslexic brain! I read ICE as IEC and instantly thought “ah yes, internal explosion… wait a minute”
The engine tolerances are so small and measured at operating temperature, so when it's cold, it seizes solid and won't so much as twitch, which is why they need to get the engine warmed up before starting because they literally cannot start it cold. The car basically needs to be on life support before it can perform.
Didn't mention that when the engine is cold it really can't be turned over because the tolerance on the pistons and cylinder walls is so tight that it's basically seized. When they warm the engine everything expands to the proper size and they can spin it over easily.
ITS LIGHTS OUT AND MUFFINS ARE A GO!!
These short videos are amazing. Thanks for making them
Thanks for watching them!! :)
re: preheating or not,
depends on the food, if you're heating up something that's already cooked then yeah just throw it in there while it's heating up. but if you're COOKING something you gotta wait till it's heated up to the right temp first.
Knowing this definitely make me more appreciate the engineers and crews for all the hard work they have in the garage.
With a key
Edit: Matt said it wasn’t keys, so I’m gonna guess it is a fancy button
Edit 2: it wasn’t fancy button, I give up on guessing
im gunna guess its an external motor
Edit: i just finished the video and I was right 😊😁
Keep trying
it is a lot of fancy buttons and alike
Not a normal key, a fancy key
A key would be hilarious.
Gentlemen. A short view to the past. Thirty years ago, Nicki Laura told us “take a trained monkey, place him into the cockpit of a car and he is able to drive the car”. Thirty years later, Sebastian told us “I have to start my car like a computer, it’s very complicated” and Nico Rosberg said that during the race - I don’t remember what race - he pressed the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you both. Is formula one today too complicated with 20 or more buttons on the wheel, are you too much under effort, under pressure? What are your wishes for the future concerning the technical program during the race? Less buttons, more? Or less and more communication with your engineers?
Classic
Can you repeat the question please? 🤣
Who's the question for?
Pardon?
I'm 100% sure that may be they could perhaps do something about something while they were doing something that could or could not be the right thing to do in the future.
As a mechanic I really appreciate this video. Great info!
It was like this with the DFVs already... I once was in a garage in a classic f1 race and the firing up from saying "ok let's fire up the egnien" was like an hour
so this video was great and the complexity surprised me as a new fan. What I got from this video is the driver cannot restart the car on the track- if the engine( powerunit) quits its the walk of shame back to pits. I find that surprising.
This is SERIOUSLY the BEST damn F1 channel on TH-cam or anywhere else for that matter
I’m now just picturing Matt hovering over his oven with anticipation and when the preheating light goes out he exclaims, “LIGHT’S OUT AND AWAY WE GO!” (The apostrophe represents contraction for the apostrophe police.)
I already know ❄️ice ice baby❄️ is going to be stuck in my head for the coming week...
(awesome vid btw, very useful for my very existant f1 career)
This also answers the question of why you cant put an f1 engine in a street car
Though you can base a street car engine on an F1 engine, as is the case with the Mercedes AMG One.
@@Skidracer21 wait that's a real car? I thought it was a concept. But that's cool
No actually. Basically this is somekind of S.O.P that you need to do before turning the engine on because they are in a very competitive racing. F1 racing is all about precision. So if they want to make it simpler just using key to turn the engine on of course they can.
No, but a lot of the technology of an F1 engine is making its way to road cars
What I meant was taking an engine directly out of an f1 car, and putting it in a road car
Close to 1Mil Matt. Let’s go! 🔥
One correction: The MGU-H doesn’t recover the energy from the heat of the exhaust, it is generated from the turning of the turbo. That‘s also why during energy deployment the turbo can be spooled up electronically
You do know that the turbo is driven by exhaust gasses? Otherwise it would’ve been called a supercharger (driven by the engine itself) or a compressor (driven by electricity).
1 million subs are just around the corner u can do it!
I do the same procedure on my truck when in winter, I warm up the engine oil pan, turn the engine without starting it and put a hot air blower on the turbo intake.
I didn't think it would be that complex to start an F1 car engine, but I'm not surprised. Thanks for another great video!
Thanks for the videos WTF1!!
You know you’re quick if you’re here before Matt posts this on his Instagram
Thank you, I have been curious about starting an F1 car for a long time
Sounds like a cold blooded velociraptor. Just like reptiles, they need to be raised up to temperature before moving around.
you stay comin in with the heat!! one of those things i had the general idea of how it was started off of quick video clips. great content always thinking outside the box
On another note, people ask about starting aircraft engines a lot too. Small planes tend to have keys to operate the ignition/magnetos, but airliners have nothing of the sort. They can be started by one person at nearly any time. Far simpler than F1 cars but, despite both wanting to save weight by eliminating heavy, complex systems (like a a car carrying around all that weight for the race when it was only needed to start the engine before the race), aircraft are expect to not need a maintenance crew to get the engines turning. Definitely to safely operate one over time, but not to just start one.
0:20 Juan must congratulate Juan's favorite TH-cam Channel for putting in a Juan-difful reference!
I love F1 but love it even more because of these videos. How do you know so much about F1?
I am so bored in the winter break that I ended up watching a video that answers a question I already knew the answer to😭😭😭
Awesome video! There is a possibility to the driver itself turn the engine on if he's on track, right? If I'm correct, Leclerc did this in Catalunya 2020 when his engine suddenly switched off mid race and his engineer told him to turn it on using the MGU-K
Pérez did it as well. I am wondering how can that be done as well
@@felip0n._ as the MGU-K is connected to the crankshaft, the driver put the gear selector in Neutral and the MGU-K start the engine
Yep! However in that case the engine is already fully up to temperature and all the oil is where it's supposed to be, so it's technically already in its ideal starting configuration. Since it was literally just running a short time ago.
I'm not sure where, exactly, the MGU-K is connected to along the gearbox/crankshaft system. Might vary slightly from team to team and design to design.
But as Mateus points out, put the gearbox in neutral and dump the clutch, and everything's connected and you can rev up the MGU-K to get the engine rotating, where the ignition and fuel systems will handle it from there.
Incidentally a lot like how a Toyota Prius starts its engine ...
@@FerralVideo Perfect!
@@felip0n._ I think if the car is still in motion he can just pop into 2 second gear and it will crank the engine over without the external starter.
I had no idea it was this complicated. Great video
You forgot to mention that most manufacturers can kick start their engine when not in the pits using the eleconics as everything is already warm. I think it's the MGU-H? they spin up and it cranks the ICE over and gets it fired up. I think Merc is the only engine not to have that
Mercedes can also do it.
It's the mgu-k, it moves the car until a certain speed with the clutch disingaged, then the clutch engages and the engine is literally jump started and comes back to life. Since all car have an mgu-k and a clutch, they should all be able to do it
Always love the sound when the engine is fired up ne it the current V6 hybrid turbos or the naturally aspirated V8 and V10s
Man deffo trryna win an argument with his lass abt the oven there
All this while I really thought all you need is a motor and you just have to stick the rod in and fire it up. Turns out it is more complicated than that. Thank you for the insight.
I personally like the Jeremy Clarkson way of doing things. Get a hammer and hit the engine hard untill it turns on. And then just say SPEED AND POWER
And if it doesn't start blame it on james and try to kill hammond
@@bandi_TEE that's the way to do it 😂😂
It is indeed more complicated than I thought, but I knew it wasn't simple. I just didn't know it was a long process. Starting a jet engine is simpler than this (at least from the cockpit). Cool stuff to hear and the steps all made sense; I just didn't think they had to do all of that each time. I guess most of it is handled by production vehicles with automation and aren't built to be stressed the same way as these are, so if you considered all of that being moved to a racecar, it starts to seem more logical that it's essentially a team sport to fire it up!
I always wait for the red light to go out before i put my things in the oven
Ngl i didn’t think it wasn’t as complex to start an f1 but still this video was really good and very informative
I race pro late models and I'm happy about how easy it is to start them after watching this video
Really helpful video, thanks!
Definitely more complicated than switching it off :D That is when Magic fancy button cames up :D
Cold oven if its not cooked when I taste it put it back in or eat round the raw bits .I do let the engine warm up though.
This video exists :
physics class horrors INTENSIFIES ...
PRE-heating is an absolute MUST!!!!
FYI, the MGU-H is the turbocharger. Specifically the electric motor attached to the shaft between the turbines. It harvests energy under boost and spools the turbo to eliminate lag.
Codemasters games:
Selects 'drive out'
Engine revs couple times
Jeff on the radio, "Engine fired, car ready for leaving.."
0:44 What is Freddie from RocketJump doing there? From what video is that?
Nice! I loved this video, very interesting and good to know, so it's nice that I know, far better than before for sure!!
Thanks a lot for this video. OMG, I haven't thought it would be that hard to start an F1 car. ;)
I'll have to admit I did not know all that. I thought it was just the starter in the back and done - but then again this was like 30 years ago and things have changed A LOT specially since the hybrid era...
"How do you start an F1 car"
"With heat, lube, and a long stick. Like all beautiful things"
I worked in Indycar recently. It is almost exactly the same process.
Valtteri Bottas watching this video trying to figure out his new mercedes so he can take it to the shops
Matt and elgato back together again
I shove the food into the oven right after I’ve turned it on! The pre-heat only takes a minute or so, so my food won’t have cooked oddly since its going to be at full heat in a matter of minutes :)
Food straight in
Kinda dashed my dreams of breaking into a track and taking one for a joyride. Thanks.
The ice ice baby joke was realy funny 😄
I was waiting for this video forever
If you've watched Richard Hammond driving the formula one car, You already knew what was coming.
If someone said an F1 cars starts with a key, Niki Lauda would be like "Are you nuts!!??"
It would also drive me crazy too
Where can I find that gif you used when you said "saviour". That was great
I'm the without pre-heating guy, since it doesn't make a difference on the food (unless, I guess You'd have some insanely slowly heating up oven). That said, I'm pretty experienced at telling when a particular meal is done, but if You're trying out something completely new and different, especially with a strict timing in a recipe, like certain fish, or deserts, then of course have the oven preheated, to match the timing.
I’d like to think each of the engine components have a go/ no-go for launch like NASA do with rocket launches 😂😂
No I was literally wondering about this yesterday😭😭🤣
Fascinating! Think I’ll stick to my MX5!😂
When an F1 car is harder to start than an airplane
Thanks for video man, i’ma go steal a f1 car using this guide
Rod goes up the rear to lubricate the shaft... gonna nail explaining this at family dinner
Is mgu any different than als, like is it using the exhaust gas to combust or is it just harvestijg heat, and if its just heat does it also convert the ambient ice waste heat
I been watching long enough to know all this!
What about the ones that can start from the onboard Electronics? That is a magic button :P
Thanks guys I've always wondered
But I'm a massive fan
Alright now I just have to go to a race weekend and take one of the cars
Don’t forget your laptop 😃
Could you do a video on how the steering wheels get designed if you know?
The Honda engine can be started by the driver if he has to. Thats because Honda fitted a small starter-motor to the flywheel
So no flywheel starter engagement, just a direct couple to the crank? Or the gearbox? Would think the gearbox had nothing to do with startup unless it had to help the external starter spin the crank fast enough. Figured that was why they always start em on stands because its in gear when starting then kicked back once started with the air clutch deal..
Love your videos WTF1
If I wanna steal a f1 car now I know how to start it
Thanks for the information buddy
I was asking at night until TH-cam recommend ms this.
F1 engineers are mad scientists
Once in a qualifying cars roll to the pit exit too early, but it was red and some drivers just turned off the engine, except Mercedes and the commentator said, probably the Mercedes's engine can't be started from the cockpit.
Thank you🍻
Just wondering, since the MGU-K is afaik a Motor/Generator directly mounted onto the crankshaft: Can the MGU-K be used to hot-start an F1-engine if it stalled? And if so, is that allowed if a driver stalls during the session? Iirc in the V10 era stalling your engine was game over, but that was because the cars didn't have an internal starter
Simple answer, yes. It can be used
Wait so before the formation lap is the car engine still on or do they turn it on
In the grid
Haven’t the teams been able to start the cars using the MGU-K and battery? Using the electronics to start up the car. If I recall correctly, Charles did that in Barcelona (that one time he went around 4Billion laps without seatbelts on and the FIA didn’t do shit)
An F1 car can be REstarted using this method as the only time its started up in this way is if the engine cuts out mid-race so the engine is still at optimum working temperature and only stopped for a few seconds before it gets going again. This doesn't really affect anything too much, they're reliable and strong units that don't need nannying (relatively speaking of course) and the fuel and ignition systems can handle the rest of the complex computer gubbins.
Trying to start it up in this way the first time you turn the engine on (say on a Friday morning preparing for FP1) will get you nowhere because everything is so precisely engineered it is essentially seized and won't start unless all procedures are followed.
So to restart using this method after a momentary cut out or loss of power - fine,
To start up using this method for the first time when it's cold - not fine
@@GlockGrippa ahhh okay I see, thank you. That makes sense. I thought it could be done even on a cold start that way. I appreciate the info!
@@spaceshuttle8332 No problems :) yeah cold starting an F1 car with that method won't work, the materials need to be at the correct temperature, too cold the metal won't expand and the pistons will be fused, once the engine is warmed the metal will expand just enough for those pistons to start working how they should
Thanks for this. Also shows how overcomplicated F1 is thus pushing costs up.
I literally searched this on TH-cam 2 days ago and here they are with a video about it