The McLaren MP4-X Is A Safer, Slicker, And Faster Vision For F1

McLaren unveiled their concept for the future for Formula 1 and it is definitely well ahead of the curve and gives us hope for the possibility of safer and faster racing. 

With the 2014-2015 Formula 1 season all but wrapped up and many of the teams (believe it or not) prepping for winter testing and getting ready for next season, that leaves their marketing department with a bunch of free time to come up with some awesome visions for the future of Formula 1. McLaren went ahead and unveiled their vision for Formula 1 and gone is the open-cockpit and internal combustion engine and we bid hello to a slick closed cockpit future with electric engines and sleek active aero.

First of all McLaren stressed that although these ideas and concepts might only exist on CAD drawings and in renderings, they are actually real working concepts that are in the initial stages of infancy and aren’t all that out of the realm of possibility.

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As far as the powertrain goes, say goodbye to internal combustion engines and say hello to electric motors and batteries. McLaren thinks that specially placed induction coils embedded in racing circuits can not only charge an F1 car whizzing past but also provide a much-needed boost. We think they’ve spent enough time playing Mario Kart to come up with that genius idea.

Then there’s the canopy. Plenty of deaths and serious injuries linked to open-air cockpits have pushed many officials to reconsider closing things up. McLaren went ahead and did that for us. The windscreen won’t only protect a driver but can enhance vision like a giant Ray-Ban lens, except fancier.

Next there’s the possibility to add solar cells. This one’s a bit of a stretch seeing as copious amounts of sunlight would have to be captured in a such a short period of time to gain any significant charge benefit for the batteries over a short race, but we get it. There’s energy shining from up above, why not use it.

And those wheel covers aren’t just for aero. Sensors inside the wheel housing would allow engineers to monitor how a tire is performing and can provide crucial information to the team and driver to better prevent against possible blowouts or just normal wear and tear. If you’ve watched F1 races long enough, you know that proper tire management can make or break a race.

Talk about next level sort of thinking as literally McLaren imagines a future where a driver could possibly control a car with just the electrical signals from his brain. This also is a bit of a stretch but theoretically there is research and technologies being developed (by surprise, surprise..GSK in partnership with McLaren) that would allow driver control without tactile touch.

Active aero has always been a touchy subject in Formula 1 as the benefits of streamlined aero in the straights and hunkered down aerodynamics in the corner are undeniable. An F1 car with active aero can enable and disable downforce automatically thus achieving lap times never achieved before.

Safety doesn’t stop at a closed cockpit as the materials of the chassis themselves can be made to have more resilient properties upon impact. In layman’s terms, in the event of an impact, some of the energy absorbed by the car can be sent back out instead of being transferred to the driver.

And the improvements to the future of F1 also extend to the driver. Real-time biotelemetry can allow the team to monitor a driver’s health parameters and better understand energy levels and stress. A new smart suit can be used by the driver that would display where an injury occurred and real-time driver performance parameters can be analyzed and possibly uploaded to a virtual world where others can match their performance to.

Finally, there’s the banned question of ground-effects. Venturi tunnels underneath would provide massive amounts of aerodynamic effect that would not only increase speeds but traction around corners. McLaren says, “lift those bans altogether. ”

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This is all a lot to chew on and some technologies may never see the light of day but McLaren’s MP4-X does present a viable future of Formula 1 that’s not only safer but more interactive and with the possibilities of higher speeds. It seems the only thing stopping any such development are the governing bodies that be.