Formula 1 is one of the most amazing races that people can watch both live and on TV. However, the live audience has a big advantage over the people who watch these races from home. The advantage we are talking about is the fact that the live audience can hear exactly how ferocious these cars are. The terrifying but amazing sound that comes out of the exhaust of F1 cars make these races even more awesome than they already are.
New Exhaust Microphones
Luckily, it seems like F1 is looking to balance this by adding a new exhaust microphone which will make cars sound better on TV. This is great news for F1 fans who love to catch up with the latest races on TV because they will finally be able to hear how a V8 engine rages when the driver is pushing it to the max.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Obviously, this new exhaust dedicated microphone has gone through a lot of testing phases. However, it seems like F1 has decided to finally use it and this will happen during the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Heat Resistant Microphones
The reason why F1 never used microphones for exhausts until now is that they can’t handle intense heat. For example, F1 first tried using microphones and placing them next to exhausts in Brazil but this didn’t work out since the heat was too powerful. The F1 then decided to place them six inches further away from the exhaust but this caused the sound to be too silent.
As we all can tell, this issue proved to be quite problematic. In fact, Steve Smith who is the lead engineers of on-board cameras in F1 said the following: “When the new power units were introduced, there were lots of discussions about the sound not being emotion enough – lacking the crisp roar of the engine”.
Fortunately, the engineers managed to create heat-resistant microphones which weigh only 100 grams and can capture high quality audio while being located six inches away from the exhaust. Nonetheless, we are going to be able to hear them during the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
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