“Apart from this,” says Brian O’Rourke, chief composites engineer at WilliamsF1, “production time has to be kept as short as possible. Our parts have to be supplied to us very quickly. Indeed sometimes modifications have to be ready for use at the next race. This means the parts have to be made quickly. Overall, meeting this requirement profile means that we have a hi-tech level that is comparable to that of space research.”

High load-bearing capabilities, fast availability and reliability at low weight – this combination can only be achieved by using hi-tech materials.

The best example is that of the composite material carbon: roughly 60 percent of a Formula 1 car consists of carbon fibres, embedded in epoxy resin (also known as CFRP). This includes the monocoque, nose assembly, wings, parts of the suspension, as well as the clutch and brake disks. This list makes it clear that one of the main advantages of carbon is its versatility. The carbon-fibre layers, consisting of individual fibres that are woven together, can be shaped to suit almost any requirement. The carbon layers are formed and then baked to match the intended application. Carbon only weighs one quarter of a comparable quantity of steel, but it can bear twice the load and has an impressively high rigidity.

Similar properties also make titanium popular as a material with Formula 1 designers. The main advantage is that titanium only weighs half as much as steel, but when used as an alloy it can reach the strength of steel and it is almost corrosion free. Titanium, also popularly known as ‘wonder metal’, is used in engine manufacturing, as well as parts of the suspension and gearbox.

Even lighter and also mainly insensitive to external influences is magnesium. For example, Formula 1 wheels are made solely of this light alloy, because it guarantees maximum strength with minimum weight. Apart from this, magnesium is also used in gearboxes or in combination with aluminium for the on-board computer’s casing.

The example of aluminium, which is primarily used in power units, but also in combination with carbon fibres in the chassis, demonstrates that the transfer of technology from Formula 1 into passenger-car production works, although it also highlights where the problems lie. Aluminium, because of its low density (2.7 g/ccm in comparison to iron’s 7.86 g/ccm) and its durability, is a popular material. In the meantime, passenger cars are now also available with bodies made completely of aluminium. Next to the longer service life, economy is also an essential reason: lighter cars consume less fuel. However, aluminium is much more difficult to process, because it has a lower melting point than steel, and it can only be welded when air is excluded. This requires a painstaking and costly design, which in turn increases costs.

This brings us to the essential difference between Formula 1 and passenger-car production: a Formula 1 car is a limited edition and money is not a factor. By contrast this is a decisive factor in passenger-car production because even minor added expenses for individual parts can add up to massive amounts. Take, for example, a brake disk: the carbon version in a Formula 1 car costs between € 1300 and € 4000; several times the price of a steel disk used in passenger-car production.

In spite of that, this expensive, high-performance material will make its way into passenger-car production in the coming years. Aluminium, for example, has the advantage that it can be easily recycled: it can be remelted and used again for qualitatively high-grade parts. Even carbon, which is extremely expensive because of its production method, is now being used in the manufacture of normal cars, although mainly in sports cars.

Safety experts from the Allianz Centre for Technology (AZT) in Munich expect carbon-fibre materials to make their way into low-volume passenger-car production soon.

“Examples here are ceramic brake disks, which are reinforced by carbon fibres, or individual carbon-fibre components, ranging from plenum chambers up to roof modules, as used in sports cars,” says Dr Christoph Lauterwasser from the AZT. “Progress in production technology is naturally decisive in terms of mass production, although fundamentally carbon fibres have a series of highly appealing properties – next to weight, these include crash behaviour and corrosion resistance.”

Both are properties that enable hi-tech materials to become vital elements of the safety package in passenger-car production.

Titanium also excels in terms of corrosion resistance and high strength. Indeed the use of such materials is inhibited more by the difficulty in mechanically processing it than the expense factor. After all, this material is already being deployed in medical technology or for spectacle frames. Motorcycle tuners are also fitting exhaust pipes made of titanium. Therefore, one need not be a clairvoyant to see a bright future for hi-tech materials: then all car drivers will benefit from those materials, which are subjected to the ultimate test at every Formula 1 race.