Minimum lap time trajectory optimisation of performance vehicles with four-wheel drive and active aerodynamic control

As racing vehicles become more complex, optimising the interaction between subsystems becomes critical for racing performance. In this work, we incorporate two such subsystems into a vehicle model. We investigate the performance benefits of a four-wheel-drive vehicle with independent control over its in-hub motors and active control on the rear wing flap rotation. The performance is evaluated by solving minimum lap time optimal control problems (OCP) for various vehicle configurations. The OCP is transformed into a nonlinear programming problem through direct collocation and is solved by an interior point method. The four-wheel-drive configuration performs better than rear-wheel drive in terms of lap time, finishing the Barcelona circuit 4% faster. The benefits come mainly from higher longitudinal accelerations. Active aerodynamic control improves performance regardless of the propulsion configuration, leading to another 1% of lap time improvement on the Barcelona circuit. The optimal aerodynamic control strategy is different between propulsion configurations, particularly on corner exits. This model enables the exploration of optimal torque vectoring controls and their interaction with a vehicle's active aerodynamics. This is needed to guide the design of the increasingly complex racing vehicle controllers of the future.