Xtrac Project 1044 Gearbox
- Xtrac Project 1044 Gearbox
Xtrac Project 1044 Gearbox
Along with the Cosworth engine, the FIA have tendered for specification gearbox to be made cost effectively available to all teams. The British firm Xtrac won the tender and hence have returned to F1 as a complete transmission provider after an absence of over ten years. While the internals of the seamless shift gearbox are still secret (aside from the presence of a twin selector shift mechanism) the external details have been published through these pictures. Project 1044, as its known to Xtrac is was developed with the assistance Dallara, who gave input onto the external features for installation, aerodynamics and suspension. As the external case is used by both Hispania and Lotus we now have a clear idea of their rear suspension installation. Largely conventional in its layout, all of the features are common to those seen on other teams gearboxes. Despite the single specification of outer case, the gearboxes can be machined slightly differently to accommadate the chassis designers exact suspension geometry.
Xtrac: The different mounting points for the rear suspension
The aluminium case features cast mounting points for the; wishbones, Anti Roll Bar, torsion bars and dampers. These are all highlighted in the attached image, although the suspension rocker linkage is absent, but this is a team designed part, so it will vary slightly between the two teams. We could expect that the teams have a heave damper mounted between the rockers and passing across the top of the case, possibly in tandem with an inerter if the team have reached the stage where they have developed a set up to incorporate the device.
In this bare guise Xtrac quote the complete units weight as “approximately 40kg”.
Xtrac: The ancillaries are typical example of a conventional F1 gearbox
Scarbsf1's Blog 
Craig, nice work as ever. I was wondering, are all the gearboxes cased in Al at the moment? I remember Arrows dabbling with a Carbon Fibre gearbox back in around 2001.
Also, on another note…remember the c.2002 Benetton had a strange front end drive shaft
Craig, nice work as ever. I was wondering, are all the gearboxes cased in Al at the moment? I remember Arrows dabbling with a Carbon Fibre gearbox back in around 2001.
Also, on another note…remember the c.2002 Benetton had a strange front end drive shaft for a couple of races that, I think, distributed torque between the front tyres…do you have any information on this and whether other teams have picked this up on the way?
Fascinating post about the Ferrari suspension btw.
No the teams are split between Alu, titanium and carbon fibre or are hybrids of two of those materials.
Here’s a quick summary
Carbon
Ferrari
Mercedes
McLaren
Red Bull
Force India (McLaren)
Sauber (Ferrari)
Aluminium
Williams
Hispania
Lotus
Virgin
Toro Rosso
Titanium
Renault
I just hate to see more of this coming from the FIA. In the US they went to a spec car with IRL and CART. BORING! You can fool most of the masses with different paint colors and stickers (ooooh, pretty) but for anyone interested in this site it just sucks hearing the same cars making the same noise lap after lap. I hope the FIA can get its head our of its ARSE and ditch this common gearbox. If they want to save costs – quit making major rule changes (refueling) year to year. I’m sorry, I don’t want a driver’s series – Thats what GP2 is for. Lets get back to the days of a simple formula. Weight, wheelbase, displacement and turn the real minds in F1 loose.