Paul Jeffrey
Premium
A new Assetto Corsa Competizione blog posting has arrived - this time looking at the excellent Ferrari 488 GT3.
Having gotten himself on something of a run of form recently with his excellent, informative and entertaining blog posts, Kunos Simulazioni physics developer @Aristotelis is at it again - this time giving us some insight into the inner workings of the GT3 specification Ferrari 488 that races in the Blancpain GT Series, and features heavily in Assetto Corsa Competizione.
When Ferrari decides to participate in a series, it does so without compromises. When a couple of years ago Ferrari decided to evolve and homologate the 488 GT3, everybody else was adapting road cars to the regulations of GT3 and different versions for the more extreme GT2/GTE series. Not Ferrari.
The 488 GT3 was designed from the start to be a race car able to compete in the highly demanding GT2/GTE series and with small changes to fit the rules, also in the GT3 series. The result is a highly sophisticated full blown race car. Chassis, suspension, engine and most importantly aerodynamics, everything has been designed by the highly experienced engineers of the “gestione sportiva”, the engineering department of research and development of the “Scuderia” responsible for all the racing cars and of course Formula 1 cars. All this translates to an extremely capable car in every single aspect. When the car first appeared in the tests for the Balance of Performance classification, it was instantly clear that Ferrari had build something extremely capable. Even by sandbagging and asking the drivers to keep it slow, it was evident by the tests that the car could destroy the competition. The most important aspect of the car is its aerodynamics. While the car produces a bit too much aerodynamic drag, it has also clever flow solutions to overcome this at higher speeds. The downforce is probably the best in class and the chassis and suspension offer neutral handling and very good tyre wear behaviour. The mid turn speeds are almost always the highest and the car responds even in the slightest chassis and aerodynamic setup changes.
The engine in the road car, is a twin turbo V8 that has won for four consecutive years the “engine of the year” award. It delivers over 700bhp reliably in the road car with all the emission and noise restrictions. It’s easy to imagine what it can do in race trim, properly tuned while at the same time achieving again top of the class fuel consumption. As this wasn’t enough, it’s power delivery is controlled by a first in class, traction control system, that separately control the amount of slip allowed and the amount of engine power cut for given slip, all at the disposition of the driver at any time, by two separate dials.
It really sounds like a category slayer, so how come doesn’t dominate the Blancpain GT3 grid? Enter BoP (Balance of Performance). The Blancpain BoP follows specific rules and effectively and successfully manages to balance the performance of the big variety of cars that appear in the series. It is a great equaliser but by definition it has to take some unpopular decisions to achieve the promised balance.
How do you lower the performance of a car that has great chassis and suspension design, top of the class downforce, amazing engine controlled by very advanced electronics? Turns out the most reliable method is to take advantage of the electronics of the engine management system and limit very precisely the amount of turbo boost throughout the whole power band. You can argue that the same applies for all the other cars, but if the electronics are not so advanced you can go only that far with intake restrictors until the engineers find ways to bypass this in some range of the power delivery. With the 488, you can be much more precise on what limitations you ask…
Every race results shows the same identical situation. The Ferrari 488 GT3 stuck behind one of the top cars of the series, practically pushing in the middle of every turn, digging its nose under the diffuser of whatever car at the front during the long straights, but never getting out of the slipstream to overtake. When they do, it’s almost comical to see the car losing speed because of the low power and drag caused by the high downforce. It drives almost like a prototype but then has no power to overtake in the straights. All the 488 drivers know this and really deserve our applause and reward as they fight and duel with other cars in every single race.
To be able to race and overtake, the car need to sacrifice some of the rear wing angle to generate a bit less drag. But the front splitter and diffuser generate a lot of downforce to the front, so in order to balance the car, it often needs to be run in negative rake. That means the front slightly higher than the rear. This will bring the aero balance back to the rear again making the car more stable at high speed turns. As usual for the GT cars the front suspension bump must be carefully controlled with bump stops to stop the car from pitching forward under braking and turn in and maintain stability. A bit of turbo lag might compromise occasionally the traction, but with so many options in the traction control, it’s not a big issue. The dampers are specially made on Ferrari specifics. They might not have the wide range of the Öhlins, but they do their job properly. You will also need to use them in unconventional ways. As described above, the car has a particular low CoG and race suspension geometry made specifically to save tyres life. This is a great advantage in the GTE WEC series where the tyre manufacturer creates specific compounds for every car. Unfortunately in the GT3 series the tyres are identical for everybody with just a single compound for any track, any weather combination. This is a great achievement from a tyre manufacturer and an effective cost control. Unfortunately in a combination of cold weather and slow circuit, while the other cars manage to keep the tyres in temperature, the Ferrari often finds itself not to be able to keep temperature on the tyres. Stiff springs and dampers can help with that, but obviously it badly compromises the handling of the car, which normally should be the advantage of Ferrari.
Speed at the apex is paramount so the drivers need to adjust their driving style accordingly. Late braking, smooth lines, precision and early power application are needed in order to make the car deliver lap times, but the car actually helps the driver to achieve this. It will also take more aggressive driving styles and will remain relatively sincere, but much time is lost this way, as the car doesn’t have the power to recover from sloppy driving. Lowest fuel consumption and lowest tyre wear also helps in endurance races, although Blancpain rules force pitstops every hour and thus almost eliminating such advantages, equalising all cars. Still, using less fuel than others, taking advantage of the less tyre wear as the rules give a limited set of tyres for each weekend, can make the car shine against competitors and aim for the podium in many circuits, making it definitely one of the top cars always capable of winning. Sponsors are also always keen to be on a Ferrari…
The 488 GT3 was designed from the start to be a race car able to compete in the highly demanding GT2/GTE series and with small changes to fit the rules, also in the GT3 series. The result is a highly sophisticated full blown race car. Chassis, suspension, engine and most importantly aerodynamics, everything has been designed by the highly experienced engineers of the “gestione sportiva”, the engineering department of research and development of the “Scuderia” responsible for all the racing cars and of course Formula 1 cars. All this translates to an extremely capable car in every single aspect. When the car first appeared in the tests for the Balance of Performance classification, it was instantly clear that Ferrari had build something extremely capable. Even by sandbagging and asking the drivers to keep it slow, it was evident by the tests that the car could destroy the competition. The most important aspect of the car is its aerodynamics. While the car produces a bit too much aerodynamic drag, it has also clever flow solutions to overcome this at higher speeds. The downforce is probably the best in class and the chassis and suspension offer neutral handling and very good tyre wear behaviour. The mid turn speeds are almost always the highest and the car responds even in the slightest chassis and aerodynamic setup changes.
The engine in the road car, is a twin turbo V8 that has won for four consecutive years the “engine of the year” award. It delivers over 700bhp reliably in the road car with all the emission and noise restrictions. It’s easy to imagine what it can do in race trim, properly tuned while at the same time achieving again top of the class fuel consumption. As this wasn’t enough, it’s power delivery is controlled by a first in class, traction control system, that separately control the amount of slip allowed and the amount of engine power cut for given slip, all at the disposition of the driver at any time, by two separate dials.
It really sounds like a category slayer, so how come doesn’t dominate the Blancpain GT3 grid? Enter BoP (Balance of Performance). The Blancpain BoP follows specific rules and effectively and successfully manages to balance the performance of the big variety of cars that appear in the series. It is a great equaliser but by definition it has to take some unpopular decisions to achieve the promised balance.
How do you lower the performance of a car that has great chassis and suspension design, top of the class downforce, amazing engine controlled by very advanced electronics? Turns out the most reliable method is to take advantage of the electronics of the engine management system and limit very precisely the amount of turbo boost throughout the whole power band. You can argue that the same applies for all the other cars, but if the electronics are not so advanced you can go only that far with intake restrictors until the engineers find ways to bypass this in some range of the power delivery. With the 488, you can be much more precise on what limitations you ask…
Every race results shows the same identical situation. The Ferrari 488 GT3 stuck behind one of the top cars of the series, practically pushing in the middle of every turn, digging its nose under the diffuser of whatever car at the front during the long straights, but never getting out of the slipstream to overtake. When they do, it’s almost comical to see the car losing speed because of the low power and drag caused by the high downforce. It drives almost like a prototype but then has no power to overtake in the straights. All the 488 drivers know this and really deserve our applause and reward as they fight and duel with other cars in every single race.
To be able to race and overtake, the car need to sacrifice some of the rear wing angle to generate a bit less drag. But the front splitter and diffuser generate a lot of downforce to the front, so in order to balance the car, it often needs to be run in negative rake. That means the front slightly higher than the rear. This will bring the aero balance back to the rear again making the car more stable at high speed turns. As usual for the GT cars the front suspension bump must be carefully controlled with bump stops to stop the car from pitching forward under braking and turn in and maintain stability. A bit of turbo lag might compromise occasionally the traction, but with so many options in the traction control, it’s not a big issue. The dampers are specially made on Ferrari specifics. They might not have the wide range of the Öhlins, but they do their job properly. You will also need to use them in unconventional ways. As described above, the car has a particular low CoG and race suspension geometry made specifically to save tyres life. This is a great advantage in the GTE WEC series where the tyre manufacturer creates specific compounds for every car. Unfortunately in the GT3 series the tyres are identical for everybody with just a single compound for any track, any weather combination. This is a great achievement from a tyre manufacturer and an effective cost control. Unfortunately in a combination of cold weather and slow circuit, while the other cars manage to keep the tyres in temperature, the Ferrari often finds itself not to be able to keep temperature on the tyres. Stiff springs and dampers can help with that, but obviously it badly compromises the handling of the car, which normally should be the advantage of Ferrari.
Speed at the apex is paramount so the drivers need to adjust their driving style accordingly. Late braking, smooth lines, precision and early power application are needed in order to make the car deliver lap times, but the car actually helps the driver to achieve this. It will also take more aggressive driving styles and will remain relatively sincere, but much time is lost this way, as the car doesn’t have the power to recover from sloppy driving. Lowest fuel consumption and lowest tyre wear also helps in endurance races, although Blancpain rules force pitstops every hour and thus almost eliminating such advantages, equalising all cars. Still, using less fuel than others, taking advantage of the less tyre wear as the rules give a limited set of tyres for each weekend, can make the car shine against competitors and aim for the podium in many circuits, making it definitely one of the top cars always capable of winning. Sponsors are also always keen to be on a Ferrari…
Original article HERE.
Screenshot by Richard Thompson
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