McLaren Wheel Nuts

[Nando]

@ Nando

What else could they do?

Replaced the wheelgun as a start, and maybe done a thorough investigation right after China and not wait for disaster at Bahrain.

They have shot themselves in the foot now almost every race one way or another.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Replaced the wheelgun as a start, and maybe done a thorough investigation right after China and not wait for disaster at Bahrain.

They have shot themselves in the foot now almost every race one way or another.

What if they didnt have a solution to the wheelgun problem? What if its a general design flaw that had no quick fix?

Assumptions are being made without full details of the problem.

Im thinking a team as thorough as McLaren investigated all the possible solutions and went with what it thought best.

[Nando]

What if they didnt have a solution to the wheelgun problem?

Looks to me they did not even invesstigate it after China despite numerous problems with it. Only in Bahrain where the matter got serious they said that they would look into it.

What if its a general design flaw that had no quick fix?

It looks like it´s the right rear hub that is causing problems.
a design fault would mean more random failures in all four corners i would think.

Assumptions are being made without full details of the problem.

Im thinking a team as thorough as McLaren investigated all the possible solutions and went with what it thought best.

Yea i´m not stating anything as fact here, just expressing my opinion of the bad job done by the pitcrew for several races.

Yea now they probably have investigated the problems. After Bahrain, but it did not look like it after China.

I don´t know it just seems like the only way Mclaren will lose this championship is because they consistently put sticks in their drivers wheels.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Its plausible its an oversight on McLaren's behalf.

But first you have to ascertain exactly where its gone wrong and why. With this particular issue it's difficult.
Was the Mechanic at fault?
Was the wheel gun not released?
Did the driver hit his blocks without locking up?
Was the exhaust heat dissipating into the wheel making the wheel nut harder to remove/add.

I think we will see more of it as the season unfolds.

[Tufty]

BBC's Gary Anderson on McLaren pit stop problems

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_91T_6u4Kw[youtube]

Ooh, interesting. Thanks!

The debate about solutions is also interesting, but the rest of the grid are running steel nuts and steel axles, right? While McLaren are running aluminium/titanium. So why have McLaren gone a different way when it's obviously hurting them?

[mzivtins]

Ooh, interesting. Thanks!

The debate about solutions is also interesting, but the rest of the grid are running steel nuts and steel axles, right? While McLaren are running aluminium/titanium. So why have McLaren gone a different way when it's obviously hurting them?

Very cool info! given all the other points in this thread, i really am starting to believe this could be a thermal issue of the aluminium/titanium mix that McLaren are using, just seems to much of a coincidence when you take everything into account?

[Nando]

I think we will see more of it as the season unfolds.

This is my biggest fear. I will literally hang myself if Mclaren fails to capitalize on stopping RBR to getting one more title.
It´s bad enough to see Ferrari not knowing what they are doing for the last 3 years.

[thearmofbarlow]

What holds the wheel to the car in that system, willpower?

Off the top of my head you could use hydraulically actuated clamps. The system's there for power steering anyways so it wouldn't add too much to the complexity. It would be trivial to have it fail safe as well.

[Dragonfly]

Nothing is fail-safe.

[marcush.]

but elimnating the human error is a possibility to reduce the element of risk....

I think no team has made a thorough risk analysis yet..otherwise these things would not persist at the rate they do for years now.

A simple material mismatch -i don´t buy this .Mclaren aare detail freaks obviously and at least appear more scientific in their approach than others.Might be only perception due to the clinical attention to detail due to ron running the show though.

[GrizzleBoy]

Hire the world greatest (apparently) moto engineers to design car.

Spend hours critically carving out every piece of body work to millimeter precision.

Create wings capable of withstanding tonnes of force.

Create bodywork that can withstand almost 1000 degree temperatures.

Fail to use heat resistant materials in areas succeptible to brake disks and exhaust gases putting out temps of around 800 degrees each?

You couldn't write it, could you? I don't think that's what it is in my opinion as I too cant see how something like that could be overlooked, but if that is indeed the case, it just compounds the criticisms of incompetance/something seriously going wrong within their ranks.


[controversial mode]
They obviously just switched Lewis' car with Jensons that was having problems in China.

It's a perfect explanation of why they had the same persistant problem over two different races with two (apparrently) different chassis.

Jensons last stop in China = broken rear left.

Lewis' first stop in Bahrain = broken rear left.

Lewis' second stop in Bahrain = broken rear left.

Lewis' last stop in Bahrain = broken rear left.

Meanwhile Jensons wheel nut all of a sudden has no problems *plays with chin hairs*

[/controversial mode]

Probably best you ignore that.


Would be funny if we saw wheel gun men replaced with robotic arms in the future.

[marcush.]

i think it´s about time to rethink the wheel attachment method in formula 1 .

[Lycoming]

Why would they give their championship leader the worse car? Completely baseless statement (AKA BS), but people are going to jump on it and run with it.

In any case, its worth remembering that even though there is a minimum weight, there is a large benefit to reducing component weight on moving things. Small changes to the rotational inertia of the wheel have a big effect in the context of the overall weight restrictions. This is what motivates this choice of materials. That said, they SHOULD understand how the heat from the brakes and tyres radiates in the area and how it affects the expansion of those components.

In any case, there isn't really enough information to make a judgement about their design and decision process; I don't think any of us are in their offices on a regular basis.

Whats obvious is that the system does need work, of course.

[Trocola]

The thing I do not understand about this is that they did one of the best pre-season test sessions that I can remember and, apparently, there was no sign of this problem. One could say it is because in Bahrain is more hot than in Montmelo on March, but China was also quite cool and they had the same problem.

So I would say it is probably a pit-stop problem with the gun or the mechanic.


Trocola

[Nando]

Why would they give their championship leader the worse car? Completely baseless statement (AKA BS), but people are going to jump on it and run with it.

I would not say completely baseless.
Just by looking at the numbers it is either a problem Jenson had that magically disappeared for the next event.

Or this magic problem that bothered Jenson´s car transferred over to Hamilton´s car.

I´m not saying any of it is true but just look at the numbers and i think we can agree they do look a bit fishy.
and prone to start conspiracies.