July 1999
Text By Redline and Tamago
Photos From CAR Magazine
MOTION Magazine
Question and Answer
Q: What is this carbon fiber I've been hearing about so often in Formula One racing? How is this material made and can it be used for regular road cars?

A: Regarding your question on chassis material for F1 cars: 

The actual material used in modern F1 cars is not carbo-steel but carbon fiber.  Of course you know that steel is an alloy of iron and carbon (0.05%-1.7% C).  Carbon steel simply has a carbon content at the higher end of the scale to make the steel stronger.  Almost all passenger cars use steel as the material for the chassis or monocoque. 

On the other hand, carbon fiber starts out as rayon or acrylic fiber, wound to frames and heated to 2600 degrees C.  This carburises the contents, producing pure carbon or graphite.  These are then woven into sheets of the material.  The sheets are glued together with adhesives and cured at high pressure to produce the various parts of the chassis. 

Carbon fiber is a polymer which is a form of graphite.  Graphite is a form of pure carbon.  In graphite, the carbon atoms are arranged in big sheets of hexagonal aromatic rings. 

The sheets, which look a lot like chicken wire are actually long and thin.  Bunches of these sheets, or ribbons are packed close together to form fibers.  Because of this special structure, carbon fiber is strong and durable.  However, it is not used by itself. 

In normal conditions, carbon fiber is used as a reinforcing material to other materials, mostly thermosetting materials such as epoxy resins.  Carbon fibers are often used in airplane parts as well as space shuttle missions.  In our case, carbon fiber's better weight to strength ratio compared to aluminum or steel makes it perfect for Formula One. 

Carbon fiber is not directly made.  Rather, it is made from another polymer called polyacrylonitrile, which is then superheated to form carbon fiber.  By itself polyacrylonitrile has no commercial value.  It's value is only realized when this polymer is combined with other co-polymers in the knitting of socks and sweaters or in the creation of super-strong polymers like carbon fiber. Polyacrylonitrile is heated and when this reaction happens, the cyano repeat units form cycles. 

After this, the resulting polymer is re-heated again, this time at an even higher temperature.  At this point, the carbon atoms kick off their hydrogens and the rings become aromatic.  This polymer is a series of fused pyridine rings.  After the removal of hydrogen atoms, the resulting polymer is re-heated again at a slow-rate of around 400 to 600 degree Celsius.  This will cause the adjacent chains to join together in a certain fashion. 

Like all other Formula One teams, the Jordan Mugen-Honda's engine bay cover uses the thinnest possible layer of carbon fiber to minimize weight.
On the other hand, the regulation winch point requires more layers of the space-age material as it is strong enough make sure a car can be lifted to safety.
Simple and yet one of the most important components in a Formula One car, the airbox feeds the engine with air intake. The right shape and machining is necessary to make sure that air is optimized.
The aerodynamically neutral camera sits on top of the air intake.
A Formula One car requires tremendous stopping force, which a normal steel brake could not handle. The solution? Carbon disc brakes. This one handles extremely high temperature, but still turns to carbon dust in some races.