Not all carbon fiber compounds are created equal.
In its video series "Access All Areas," the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team is showing viewers everything there is to know about the lightweight material.
The first video gave a brief overview of how carbon fiber is turned into race car parts. For the next installment, the team's composites experts explain that there are different types of carbon fiber.
"There's numerous different carbon fibers and there's numerous different resin systems," Barry James, the AMG Petronas team's head of composites, explains.
He shows five swatches of carbon fiber, including plain, unidirectional, and checkerboard weaves. They're combined with different resins depending on what type of part they're being made into.
Certain components, like bodywork, need to be as light as possible, while structural elements and suspension pieces need to be tougher and stiffer.
That's why there are so many different carbon fiber and resin variants; it's how engineers fine-tune the behavior of parts.
That's a lot to take in in just 53 seconds.
Stay tuned for more videos from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, and watch Part 1 here.
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