Chinese GP 2011 - Shanghai

[Giblet]

Any idea why Vettel took such a long time to get out of the car? Is he trying to hide something?

Nothing to see here at my car, move along

THey have something in the cockpit allright and waited everybody to leave

Brundle said he was likely sitting there getting a radio briefing as to why he was brought in so early. Sounds completely normal, not everything in F1 has to be, is, or was a conspiracy.

[Caito]

On the on board lap I noticed some things:

With DRS on the pit straight, he almost hits max speed(315kph, he did 312). Are the ratios set up for quali?
Given that the DRS distance is almost as large as the pit straight, this would suggest that the gear ratio is setup to just hit the limiter when overtaking with DRS on.


Turn 7, he starts with the DRS on, full throttle. transitioning to turn 8 the DRS deactivates with no measurable input of brake. Is the DRS being deactivated by other means?


Also notice how although he is in 6th gear and full throttle the car doesn't gain speed at all. That's a lot of cornering drag.

[marcush.]

what to do with the gearing ...If you want to make use of a tow /DRS you must allow for the engine to rev as high -fact of life ...it will inevitably nurse your engine in all those circumstances when you are not below 1 second behind your frontman...You cannot have everything...but a slightly tall final gearing is not really a problem IF you don´t have to compromise the gearspreads in the lower gears because of that...

[manchild]

Renault confirmed that Petrov is using another chassis for this race, but I fear that the reason for his problems was same engine and gearbox from damaged chassis they've used to prevent engine/gearbox replacement penalties.

Am I right?

[Caito]

[raymondu999]

Turn 7, he starts with the DRS on, full throttle. transitioning to turn 8 the DRS deactivates with no measurable input of brake. Is the DRS being deactivated by other means?

Probably a button/lever of some sort. I believe the brake-to-turn-off only applies in the race mode, and they can do it by other means in qually/fp

[Pup]

So what was the benefit of Vettel's crew showing up with the leaf blowers and turning them on his radiators two minutes after the car had been turned off? What exactly are they supposed to be cooling? Do the cars have electric pumps to keep the coolant flowing, or is there something else in there they were trying to cool off?

Or were they just dumping a load of ballast back into the car?

[PlatinumZealot]

Maybe they have moved the kers cooling units into the front of the sidepod.

[Pup]

But the coolant would still need to be circulating for that. I think the unit itself would have to be in there for that to be the case; but even if so, they'd only need to blow the side where the unit is located.

[CHT]

So what was the benefit of Vettel's crew showing up with the leaf blowers and turning them on his radiators two minutes after the car had been turned off? What exactly are they supposed to be cooling? Do the cars have electric pumps to keep the coolant flowing, or is there something else in there they were trying to cool off?

Or were they just dumping a load of ballast back into the car?

I think it is just a precaution to prevent over heating because vettel didnt do an in -lap to cool his car down.

[Pup]

Yeah, but my point is that with the car turned off, the coolant isn't flowing, so blowing the radiators doesn't do anything but cool the radiators.

Smikle is probably right that it's KERS related, but it still seems strange. I thought, too, that no mechanics were allowed in that area anyway, since the cars are in parc ferme.

[CHT]

In case anyone wanted to see: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-kckJx8IA[/youtube]

I am just curious why the KERS can recharge itself at 0.11sec? or is it to reset the counter to indicate the KERS usage time left for the lap

[raymondu999]

Actually, did anyone catch during Q3, that on the 2nd runs, Button went first, then Vettel. But by the T14 hairpin's exit, Vettel was ahead of Button. Anyone know what happened?

I am just curious why the KERS can recharge itself at 0.11sec?

It's not actually the power in the battery that it's displaying. It's displaying how much energy he is allowed to use for the lap. So when he crosses the line, he's allowed the full 1400kJ or whatever it is for the next lap. See what happens at 1:44 for reference

[Sean H]

In case anyone wanted to see: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-kckJx8IA[/youtube]

I am just curious why the KERS can recharge itself at 0.11sec?

it's the line in the track that he passes that resets the use of KERS for each lap.

[Caito]

Button aborted the lap.

"After Q2 I thought it was possible to get pole position. Obviously that was way out of reach but I thought there was an opportunity and I felt that it was better to use both tyres in Q3 and get the best out of the car. Unfortunately the end of Q3 I couldn’t actually go any quicker. I actually lost time on my last set so we aborted it. But we are in a good pace for the race and I look forward to it around here. It is always a fun place to race."