An F1 cockpit can look more like a Video game. Thanks to the China team for setting their removable dashboard and steering wheel out for this photo! The wheel goes in after the driver! Every boat is thoroughly inspected before it's allowed in the water. UIM Commissioner Ziggy Boettle's (L) eagle eye checks every detail of the boat and all safety equipment. One of the teams told me, "We all call him Santa Claus. But he don't give us any presents!" Sami Selio's crew prepares his boat. Sami won this year's Shenzhen F1 race, and he and his crew were real happy about it!

About F1 Boat Racing

Formula 1 Powerboat racing is the most spectacular water sport in the world. It has been described as driving an F1 race car at full speed over a ploughed field. Formula 1 Powerboats accelerate faster than even the most state-of-the-art F1 cars; they are capable of going from standstill to 160 kilometers per hour in only 4 seconds.

If you're really interested in the technical details, at last year's race I did several pieces for "boatdesign.net" which is a community of boat designers and builders. You can find them here (Click BACK to get back ..)

Introduction: About F1 (CLICK)

Boats, Teams, Time Trials: (CLICK)

Race Day! (CLICK)

F1 racing uses tunnel hull catamarans that are capable of both high speed and exceptional maneuverability. Overall, the boats weigh 860 pounds (390 kilogram), including 260 pounds (118 kilograms) of engine. They are 20 feet (6 meters) long and seven feet (2 meters) wide, keeping weight low through extensive use of carbon fiber and kevlar. The tunnel hull design creates an air cushion under the hull, so that at speed only a few inches touch the water, leading to the high speed possible with these hulls.(From WikiPedia: search "F1 Powerboat Racing")

These boats look more like aircraft than boats, and indeed are flying on air down the straightaways.

Trask team tests their engine with a "Load Disc" in place of the propeller. This gives almost the same load VS RPM of a propeller, and allows something close to dynamometer testing. Calibration runs are done with the crew chief sitting in the cockpit with his laptop computer hooked up to the boat. The green flag waves to start practice laps. This is the first time boats actually move in the lake. 		I talked about engine details with Ron Anderson, the legendary designer at Mercury who conceived and pushed this V6 design over 30 years ago. Here Ron, who works for the Abu Dhabi team, is tuning an engine with a "load disk" in place of a propeller. The Trask Brothers team prepares a boat for racing. Here they do last-minute checks on a Merc V6 of almost 400 HP. The lower units have no clutch or reverse: you start the engine and you GO! The propellers run with their tops above the surface of the water. There is so little water drag that 5 seconds after a boat goes by at 100 MPH, there is no wake to be seen.

Anatomy of an F1 boat:

(Photo Credits: F1boat.com)

What's it like to drive an F1 Boat??

Jay Price is a big, rugged guy from Louisiana in the USA, where he's had hurricanes to contend with the last few years. He is in the lead for the F1 World Championship for 2008.

It was a privilege to talk with top drivers like Sami Selio and Jay Price, and ask them to describe handling these boats in a race, and those incredible turns. Here are my notes from talking to Jay Price about what it's like to control an F1 boat in a race:

TK: These turns are incredibly sharp ... many of them more than 90 degrees, and they must come at you awful fast. What are you thinking about, heading down the straight, into the next turn?

JP: Jeez.. That's a question ... It's not so much thinking, it's more like reacting.

TK: Well, what are you, and your boat and your reacting and your experience doing in that turn?

JP: You're gonna set a quick mental picture of how you're going through this corner and where the buoy is in your eye. Unless there's sudden traffic or something, you stay on full throttle all the way through. You're gonna trim the nose down just right, and turn the wheel at just the right time, to set the left side of the hull down into the water, and grab.

 

And when it's right, you get that 5 or even 7 G's of side force, and turn the wheel just right and come out of the turn pointed just right at the next straight, and you're already trimming the nose up, going for speed. And all that happens in one second. Maybe two. And you're ready to change your path a little if the water is rough in just the wrong way, and you're thinking about the traffic, and if you're not out in front, you can have so much spray on your windshield that you're doing this blind.

TK: Wow. Well, what about (sorry).. a bad corner?? JP: Ahh... There's 65 laps, 5 or 6 corners, you want to do every one perfect. But stuff happens. Traffic happens, you're lapping someone and you're not sure he's going to go wide enough. Or you're right beside someone and you both have to give each other room. Or you hit a bad wave, bad ... and the boat bounces and rolls to the right, and when your right side is grabbing, it wants to roll more, and if you don't control that fast enough then you roll .. barrel roll .. at 100 MPH. Or maybe someone just plain hits you in the turn. If you're lucky you end up right side up. If not, you're depending on all the safety stuff to bring you up and the Ospreys to get you out ..

And what CAN go wrong??

TRAFFIC - inches away at 100 MPH

(Photo credits: F1boat.com)

Can lead to THIS! Guido Cappellini crashes. Traffic can be WICKED, like this (CLICK) (Use BACK button to get back) At an aerodynamic 100 MPH, a gust of wind, or wakes of other boats can cause the dreaded airborne BLOWOVER! Like this (CLICK) (Use BACK button to get back)

Crashes are not all there is to Boat Racing or Car Racing, but they are an extreme test of the boat designs, drivers and rescue crews. The 2007 race had a significant crash in the last laps, and I was in a position to capture some of what happened. This happened in turn 2, and one boat ended up 'stable 2' upside down.

Here's what it looked like to me, just as the spray fell, and the water still boiled around the boats. About 5 seconds later: notice that Jonas Andersson's boat (red) is no longer level upside down because his safety airbag has started to deploy. Automatic vents also quickly sink the stern. Now you can see the yellow airbag, as the Osprey Rescue guys roar in from the inside of the course. Jonas's head is now above water and he's opening the canopy.

After earlier fatalities and injuries, a lot of engineering has gone into making these boats safer. There is a strong Crash Box around the drivers compartment, those sharp nose sections are collapsible, and the air bag system allows a driver to escape an inverted boat. Just in case that fails, every driver has to practice and pass a test where they invert him in a simulated cockpit box, with full gear and restraints on, and dunk him upside down in a pool. He has to get out by himself within 30 seconds AFTER a diver taps his back! Details are here: (CLICK) ..The Osprey Powerboat Rescue Team's website is here: (CLICK) [Click BACK to get back] Let's watch the rest of this rescue, below:

2 rescue divers help Jonas Andersson from his boat. The overall boat buoyancy and the sunken stern have positioned the cockpit just clear of the waterline. Both drivers have been recovered by the two Rescue Teams. The Rescue boat has a drop-front like a landing craft, and an injured driver can be slid gently into the boat on a stretcher. No more pulling someone over the gunwale. Both Rescue boats head for shore to the Emergency Medical crews. Tow boats arrive to bring the boats in. He's up and off the Stretcher, as they check him out. He was not seriously injured. The recovered Andersson boat. The collapsible nose and pickle forks have done their job. So has the airbag system.