Brakes

When it comes to the business of slowing down, Formula One cars are surprisingly closely related to their road-going cousins. Indeed as ABS anti-skid systems have been banned from Formula One racing, most modern road cars can lay claim to having considerably cleverer retardation.

討論到讓車子減速的部分，F1賽車和一般市售車的相似程度會讓你大吃一驚。沒錯，因為ABS防鎖死系統已經被禁用，大部分的車子可以宣稱它們有更為靈巧的煞車系統。

The principle of braking is simple: slowing an object by removing kinetic energy from it. Formula One cars have disc brakes (like most road-cars) with rotating discs (attached to the wheels) being squeezed between two brake pads by the action of a hydraulic calliper. This turns a car's momentum into large amounts of heat and light - note the way Formula One brake discs glow yellow hot.

煞車系統的目的很簡單，將動能轉移來減慢物體的速度。F1賽車使用碟盤剎車(就像大多數的市售車一樣)，有轉動的碟盤(與輪子鎖在一起)，以液壓方式由卡鉗推動兩片煞車片夾壓煞車碟來減速。這樣的方式將車子的動量大部分的轉變為熱和光，注意F1賽車剎車時，碟盤變成黃色的高溫狀態。

In the same way that too much power applied through a wheel will cause it to spin, too much braking will cause it to lock as the brakes overpower the available levels of grip from the tyre. Formula One previously allowed anti-skid braking systems (which would reduce the brake pressure to allow the wheel to turn again and then continue to slow it at the maximum possible rate) but these were banned in the 1990s. Braking therefore remains one of the sternest tests of a Formula One driver's skill.

過多的動力傳導到輪子上會產生空轉打滑，同樣的，附加超過輪胎抓地力的剎車力道會造成輪胎鎖死。F1先前允許使用防鎖死系統(可以控制煞車力道在可能的最大範圍內，讓輪胎不鎖死繼續轉動又減慢速度)，但是在1990年代就勁只使用了。煞車變成F1車手技術的嚴格考驗。

The technical regulations also require that each car has a twin-circuit hydraulic braking system with two separate reservoirs for the front and rear wheels. This ensures that, even in the event of one complete circuit failure, braking should still be available through the second circuit. The amount of braking power going to the front and rear circuits can be 'biased' by a control in the cockpit, allowing a driver to stabilise handling or take account of falling fuel load. Under normal operation about 60 percent of braking power goes to the front wheels which, because of load transfer under deceleration, take the brunt of the retardation duties. (Think of what would happen if you tried to slow down a skateboard with a tennis ball on it).

技術規則也要求一輛賽車要有兩套的液壓剎車線路，前、後輪各有一個分離的油杯。目的是為了即使有一條線路失效，還有第二條線路可以剎車。駕駛艙內不能控制、分配前、後輪的煞車力道，來改善操控性或是利用分配油料重量來改變煞車平衡。在一般運作情形下，大約60%的煞車力道傳往前輪，因為在煞車過程中荷重的轉移，前輪承受了較大的減速衝擊(試想你嘗試把一個放著網球的滑板停下會發生什麼情況)。

In one area Formula One brakes are empirically more advanced than road-car systems: materials. All the cars on the grid now use carbon fibre composite brake discs which save weight and are able to operate at higher temperatures than steel discs. A typical Formula One brake disc weighs about 1.5 kg (versus 3.0 kg for the similar sized steel discs used in the American CART series). These are gripped by special compound brake pads and are capable of running at vast temperatures - anything up to 750 degrees Celsius. Previously different sized discs would be used for qualifying and racing, but the 2003 changes to the rules means that all cars enter parc ferme after qualifying - and so therefore set their one-lap time on their race brakes.

在材料方面，F1賽車的煞車系統就比市售車更為進步。場上所有的賽車都使用碳纖複合碟盤，可以節省重量而且比金屬更可以承受運作時的高溫。一個典型的F1煞車碟重1.5公斤(美國CART系列賽車使用相似大小的金屬碟盤，重量是3公斤)。碟盤是由特殊配方的來令片夾持，可以承受非常高的溫度 - 攝氏750度。之前在排位賽和正賽可以使用兩種大小的碟盤，2003年規則改變，所有的賽車在排位賽後停入parc ferme (不知道是啥 = =，應該是封存不得修改賽車)，這就表示必須要使用正賽的配置去做排位時間。

Formula One brakes are remarkably efficient. In combination with the modern advanced tyre compounds they have dramatically reduced braking distances. It takes a Formula One car considerably less distance to stop from 160 km/h than a road car uses to stop from 100 km/h. So good are the brakes that the regulations deliberately discourage development through restrictions on materials or design, to prevent even shorter braking distances rendering overtaking all but impossible.

F1的剎車效率是很驚人的，結合現在進步的輪胎配方，已經大幅度的縮短剎車距離了。F1賽車從時速160公里煞停的距離比市售車在時速100公里還要短。如此驚人的剎車能力，所以在技術規則裡謹慎的規範了剎車系統的材料和設計來限制發展，防止剎車距離縮短而很難超車(怪怪的，可能翻錯)。

From 2009 teams have the option of harnessing the waste energy generated by the car’s braking process and reusing it via a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to provide additional engine power, which can be made available to a driver in short bursts to help facilitate overtaking.

2009開始車隊有了新選擇可以控制剎車過程中所產生而浪費掉的能量，就是經由動能回收系統(KERS 詛咒 XD)，它可以讓車手在短時間內提供引擎額外動力來超車。