The first were the British of Team Ineos UK, who found themselves a part of common ownership with the team Mercedes AMG F1, acquired for a third by Jim Ratcliffe. Brackley’s designers already tried to revive the fortunes of the English team in the last America’s Cup, taking it from last classified in the World Series and leading it to dominate the Round Robins, only to be stopped in the Prada Cup final by the enormous progress in performance put in place. water from Red Moon. However, the challenges and partnerships did not end at the last Cup and now that the lights begin to come back on for the next edition, the finals of which will be held in 2024 in a location yet to be decided, the “arms race” has restarted. Thus, after announcing his return to the oldest sporting trophy in the world already won twice, Ernesto Bertarelli, patron of Alinghi, surprised everyone again by announcing the RedBull as title sponsor of the team and how technical partner of the Swiss challenge. The same Christian Horner he connected, still voiceless for the celebrations of the Verstappen world championship, to the launch press conference of the sailing team, underlining the great importance of a technological sharing of this level. It is also known as one of the dreams still in the drawer of Adrian Newey both to compete with an America’s Cup challenge, and although Horner reiterated that the attention of the RedBull aerodynamic genius will be entirely directed to the new single-seaters, it is easy to think that Newey will also want to be an active part of the Alinghi design team. James Allison will again be against him, who has officially assumed the role of Chief Technical Officer also for Team Ineos, as well as for AMG Mercedes F1. The former Ferrari in more than one interview did not hide his enthusiasm for the challenge of the America’s Cup, saying that the thing that fascinates him most is how difficult it is to be successful in this trophy, just as it is difficult to excel in a series like this. competitive like Formula 1. Still Allison against Newey therefore, looking for performance beyond all limits even on the sea after the track. But where can they still find performance already amazing boats of the last edition and how the Formula 1 teams will be able to intervene to bring the sailing competition towards new technological peaks? We tried in collaboration with The Journal Of The Sail to reflect on the areas for improvement and the fields of intervention most suitable for collaboration with the designers of the cars of the top motorsport series.
Data already impressive, but destined to improve further – The first edition of the racing cup with the AC75 showed impressive numerical data, but also one growth curve of teams and means that promise a surefire performance leap notable with the new generation of boats. The boats will be lighter to facilitate flight in light winds and there will be the return of “cyclists” on board to provide human energy even with their legs for those who choose this path. But the technical and technological fronts to work on are particularly numerous and the collaborations of the America’s Cup teams with those of Formula 1 represent a possibility to develop synergies across the board, from which the designers of the new generation of boats will benefit greatly. The challenges facing the designers of the 2.0 version of the AC75 will range between the aerodynamics of the hull, the dynamic fluid on the foils And materials engineering. It starts from hull shapes, in the past so fundamental for obvious reasons, that, together with those of the blanket, they will become one component of the aerodynamic package (we will probably have to start using this term also in the Cup) of boats. In the latest edition, just Red Moon was the first to show a thorough research on the subject, with the deck plan forming the cutting plane of the mainsail airfoil and for this reason it was called “end-plate” by the same team members, just like the side bulkheads of the ailerons of Formula 1 cars.
The flight arrangements and related aerodynamics will also be the subject of extensive research, with a hull that can become active part in generating lift to remain raised and reduce the need for foil surface (the “underwater wings” that allow boats to fly), and at the same time produce the lowest possible resistance to advancement, perhaps trying to form a sort of aerodynamic cushion between the surface of the sea and the hull of the boat. Te Rehutai, the New Zealand Cup winner, featured a hull shape with two large air channels under the two sides of the hull, a concept similar to the 2022 cars, which will use two longitudinal tunnels under the car to reintroduce the ground effect.
Although the purposes will be different, with the Formula 1 cars committed to generating downforce and not lift, an in-depth knowledge of the behavior of the flows in that configuration will certainly bring innovative solutions e new territories to explore for both Cup and Formula 1 engineers. There is, however much more, first of all materials engineering, a field where you can literally challenging the limits of physics and in which the synergy with the top motorsport series will perhaps find its maximum climax. Just think of what we have seen in Formula 1 this year as regards the controlled deformation of the profiles under load. Imagining the same technology applied to foils (the fins that support the boat during the flight) the possibilities that open up are innumerable, both in terms of reduction of resistance to running, and therefore of the highest possible speeds, both in terms of lift of the profileupward and in the wind axis, with less effort from the boat to maintain flight and better sailing angles upwind and downwind.
Even the field theoretically farther from the world of sailing, that of the Power Units, will be an opportunity for technology sharing between Formula 1 and sailing teams. The hybrid component of the propulsion units in Formula 1 is managed by software extremely sophisticated and optimized, a know-how that can be transferred into the electronic management package of the boats, where a system optimization it can lead to a more fruitful use of the crew’s energies and to one more accurate management of the boat’s flight and adjustment parameters, with evident gains in terms of absolute performance, as Gilberto Nobili had told us in his interview.
Many automatic systems are prohibited by the regulation America’s Cup, but this does not mean that they cannot be implemented by the teams to validate the various solutions tested or to provide a benchmark for sailors during workouts. It goes without saying that for the latter aspect the development of simulators accurate will be fundamental, a reality that Formula 1 had to get used to with greats after the reduction of track tests.
However, all this will have to be accompanied by what it could become the most challenging limit, namely that of sail plan. Already in the first Cup played with the AC75 the apparent wind angles upwind with medium wind were just above 10 degrees, around 16-18 in the stern. Thinking about upwind, increase the speed without the sail plan being able to “absorb” reductions of apparent angle would risk limiting the usefulness of the progress, so the development of the aerodynamics of the sails will remain one of the fundamental points, in which an approach profitable computer simulations will be of great value, in order to develop roads immediately profitable, without wasting precious time and large capital in non-optimal solutions. The world of Formula 1 is particularly used to this reality too, given that the known limitations on CFD and wind tunnel hours imposed by the Federation.
It is therefore difficult to find two worlds so apparently different but at the same time so synergistic and it is not only Ineos and Alinghi who have undertaken this type of collaboration. Team New Zealand’s chief designer is Dan Bernasconi, who joined the multi-cup winning team after 6 years driving the McLaren Formula 1 vehicle modeling, and for Red Moon there is talk of a collaboration (almost natural) with Ferrari even if managed in a much more reserved way. However, the latter remains one corridor entry unverified that we report only as such.
After a particularly successful last edition, there were dark months for the future of the America’s Cup. The New Zealand team lost the support of the national government, and therefore found themselves without a location for the next Cup and without adequate financial coverage to organize the defense. The kiwis had to turn their attention elsewhere and the definitive location for the 2024 Cup it will only be revealed in early 2022, but the lights seem to be able to return to illuminate the future of the holy grail of sailing.
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