Red Bull RB6

[marcush.]

Well Ron Dennis say that its possible for the ECU software to shut down cylinders to save fuel.
Also I read this on Diario AS:
"The investigation to identify the reason for Vettel's engine problem is ongoing," he said.(Renault engineer)
"A small problem with the spark plug was found, but we have no reason to suspect a defect in the component itself."
Apparently there was a small issue with the spark plug but not enough to shut down the cylinder.

I Think Red Bull have overestimated the Renault V8's fuel saving qualities and have designed a smaller fuel tank. The low exiting exhausts point to this(smaller tank) as everyone was scratching their heads to know how Newey did it this way.

If it is the case Red Bull will either have to redesign(unlikely) or conserve fuel at some stage in the race(most likely given RB6 pace).

i´m not sure how to interpret the statement coming from Renault..the component itself ,is that the sparkplug or the engine? maybe if the statement was translated from french something was lost or misinterpreted there.. what is a small issue on a sparkplug? and in anayways the sparkplug itself was not defective this is clear,as it is a component of the whole engine...

Come on be real now. A small problem with a spark plug!
What else but a miss fire can it be?
Of course they are not going to compromise the plug supplier.
It is just one of those unfortunate faults that could happen at anytime to any plug.

Isn´t it somewhat quirky that Ron Dennis comments on a engine related problem of Redbull ,the team that his outfit effectively denied of getting mercedes power for 2011? ...would he want to say they actually switched off that cylinder accidently
unnoknowingly by using a feature on the ECU ? Of course as you cannot actively
work the problem from the pitwall you have to look on as this happens...
so maybe there was a misfire occuring from this plug (maybe a sharp edge or whatever causing it) and the ECU turned down the cylinder because of a too close set sensivity for switching of the ignition ?

[ringo]

. sorry

No need to apologize your post was very informative.

yeah, i was going to rephrase it.

[segedunum]

It did look like Vettle ran out of gas on the parade lap.

Unlikely. Red Bull and Renault would have wanted Vettel to pull over and shut down the engine as soon as possible to preserve any evidence of what went wrong.

[marcush.]

It did look like Vettle ran out of gas on the parade lap.

Unlikely. Red Bull and Renault would have wanted Vettel to pull over and shut down the engine as soon as possible to preserve any evidence of what went wrong.

he was so damn quick in those last laps..he was definitely not conserving fuel..

if the speed reserve RB holds in hand is so big 8as mentioned by Hamilton etc) why on earth was Webber not overtaking?even if this would have cost him 1 second per lap on ultimate performance to squeeze by he would have had button and possibly schumacher behnd him..quite strange..

[djos]

To overake another F1 car you need to be /a at least 2 seconds a lap quicker and /b be on a circuit that is conducive to overtaking - Bahrain has never been condusive to over taking!

[Giblet]

they say 1.5 seconds, but close enough.

We all know as soon as you are behind you lose your down force and then you are driving a squirrel. Hard to pass a car in a squirrel.

[marcush.]

To overake another F1 car you need to be /a at least 2 seconds a lap quicker and /b be on a circuit that is conducive to overtaking - Bahrain has never been condusive to over taking!

of course you need 2 seconds of an advantage to set the indicator ,pass and wave friendly before completing the pass...
honestly speaking ,if you are working button or schumacher you will not receive any invitations to pass...you have to make it happen.

[Pup]

It did look like Vettle ran out of gas on the parade lap.

Unlikely. Red Bull and Renault would have wanted Vettel to pull over and shut down the engine as soon as possible to preserve any evidence of what went wrong.

he was so damn quick in those last laps..he was definitely not conserving fuel..

if the speed reserve RB holds in hand is so big 8as mentioned by Hamilton etc) why on earth was Webber not overtaking?even if this would have cost him 1 second per lap on ultimate performance to squeeze by he would have had button and possibly schumacher behnd him..quite strange..

But if the ECU was governing his pace, then it's possible that it switched back to an aggressive program towards the end, when it could calculate more accurately how long the fuel would last. That's what Dennis is suggesting at least. And I think it's plausible, especially now that we know the spark plug didn't fail.

As for RB asking him to shut the car off on the parade lap, I just wouldn't think that 1/2 of a lap at parade lap speed would make any difference to the engine after 49 laps of punishment.

[segedunum]

As for RB asking him to shut the car off on the parade lap, I just wouldn't think that 1/2 of a lap at parade lap speed would make any difference to the engine after 49 laps of punishment.

They wouldn't take that chance. Getting throuugh the race was essential but getting through the parade lap wasn't. They wouldn't have wanted pistons possibly scattered all over the place before they got it back.

[Pup]

We've gone from a cracked exhaust to pistons scattering about? Well, if RB were being that cautious, then they never for a second thought the problem was merely a cracked exhaust or an intermittent spark plug. That, or the Renault engines are in dire need of those 'reliability' changes the FIA is allowing them.

[segedunum]

he was so damn quick in those last laps..he was definitely not conserving fuel..

The car is just that quick when it comes to downforce. Hamilton mentioned in his interview how quick it was in the middle sector when he was closing in on Vettel, and his current estimates on how much downforce they actually do have is pretty damning. He should certainly have saved some fuel with the lack of straight line speed he had versus how much they would have needed to get throught the race at normal speed, but it would depend on what the engine problem was.

if the speed reserve RB holds in hand is so big 8as mentioned by Hamilton etc) why on earth was Webber not overtaking?even if this would have cost him 1 second per lap on ultimate performance to squeeze by he would have had button and possibly schumacher behnd him..quite strange..

Not really. You need a huge amount of downforce to get close through the corners and then a straight line speed advantage to really make it count. The Red Bull would need to have been a good couple of seconds faster per lap than anyone else, and not even it is that fast.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Is it actually possible for the driver to shut down a cylinder(s)via the ECU from the cockpit?

[segedunum]

We've gone from a cracked exhaust to pistons scattering about? Well, if RB were being that cautious, then they never for a second thought the problem was merely a cracked exhaust or an intermittent spark plug.

Well, no, that's what they 'thought' it probably was initially, but given that Vettel's engine obviously wasn't firing on all cylinders then that assessment would quickly have changed. They would have wanted to preserve the car and engine as quickly as possible. It's a sensible thing to do when they realised they didn't know what was going on otherwise they might never have had a chance of finding out.

[marcush.]

Is it actually possible for the driver to shut down a cylinder(s)via the ECU from the cockpit?

maybe by a sequence of map changes ? Feasible but i doubt they would go that risk for a freak issue like that.
i´d think the ecu would trigger a shutdown of cylinders when something goes out of preselected windows of plausibility...

[BreezyRacer]

As for Webber not being able to pass keep in mind that much of the race he was behind Button. The McLaren has a massive top speed advantage with it's blown rear wing so even though you could bury Button in the twisties you couldn't do anything about it, as any kind of drafting down the straights was out of the question.

So it's much more than the typical 1 and half seconds faster on a lap. It's where each of them was fast.

Maybe Webbo will "get on with it" this weekend and show us some of his historic qualifying performance for which he is renowned. Who knows? Maybe RB will show up with a blown wing of their own .. with that Renault lump they could certainly use some straight line speed.