F1 Ignition Systems

[JohnC]

Just curious what ignition technology is favored in F1 and other high end racing these days?

Back around 2000 the F1 teams were pretty evenly split between capacitive discharge and inductive (transistor). Each has its strengths.

Does anyone know what's being favored now?

 

[David Morton]

This response from Pat Symonds at Renault F1:
Dave,
<FONT face="Gill Sans MT"><FONT size=3><FONT color=blue><FONT color=blue>I didn’t answer this initially as I didn’t know much detail about the answer!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com

I had meant to ask someone at the race a bit more about them.<o></o>
What I do know is that they are not capacitive discharge systems and everyone uses coils built into the spark plug caps now.<o></o>
The ECU controls the low voltage power output to the coils and then normal inductance produces the high voltage.<o></o>
If I can get some more info I will forward it.<o></o>
Regards<o></o>
Pat<o></o>

 

[JohnC]

Cheers David, much appreciated. There was some speculation in some other hotrodding circles that the F1 teams had gone 100% to CD ignitions, however it would appear just the inverse is true.