2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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timbo
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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Interesting to see braking distances increasing dramatically.

beelsebob
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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timbo wrote:Interesting to see braking distances increasing dramatically.
Not hugely surprising, they're trying to slow a larger mass, with less grippy rubber, with less force pushing down on it, with breaks that require minute tuning to get them to feel right.

Hopefully that's exactly what will lead to more overtaking opportunities – the breaking zones had got much too short in the past.

timbo
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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beelsebob wrote:
timbo wrote:Interesting to see braking distances increasing dramatically.
Not hugely surprising, they're trying to slow a larger mass, with less grippy rubber, with less force pushing down on it, with breaks that require minute tuning to get them to feel right.
Sure. Just interesting to see by how much. When (if) we get that Brembo press releases we can workout the grip reduction overall.
beelsebob wrote:Hopefully that's exactly what will lead to more overtaking opportunities – the breaking zones had got much too short in the past.
That's what I hoped, however I think that most guys are on top of the braking all the time, so genuinly outbraking somebody would still be rare.

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megz
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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This thread has been a little quiet these last few days but we've seen a lot of talk throughout the Malaysian GP thread about who's got what in the way of engine power/efficiency etc and who has the chassis all together.

At present the "consensus" is that the Mercedes power unit is the king of both power and efficiency, one assumes through more use of ERS when and where possible.

Red Bull are said to be hampered by a significantly down on power and efficiency Renault power unit but have a cracking chassis to make up for it.

10 years ago we saw something that could be considered similar.



Alonso didn't officially set a full qualifying time on this weekend due to not setting a time in Q2 but here he is "hampered" by a 6 speed gearbox and an engine revving to just over 17,000rpm and sets a lap time of 1.33.193



Massa has almost 2000 more rpm available frequently hitting 18,600+rpm and a 7 speed transmission. He sets a 1.35.132. One assumes the Renault is heavily down on power and yet goes nearly 2 seconds faster.

Sure, we can argue Alonso is almost certainly a better driver, but that is an insane deficit of power, can a chassis make up that much?

Are we seeing something similar at the moment? This analogy is terribly flawed I'm aware. I'm just quite baffled at how big a difference the Mercedes power unit seems to make.

And baffled by that old Renault - how the hell did it compete against those rip-snorting BMWs that year?!

mrluke
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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Just because the bmw is revving higher does not mean it has more power available.

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megz
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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That isn't the implication, that Revs were the be all and end all. I'm aware the Renault V10 was often considered to be the most driveable or most torquey back then but you have to admit - revs were important back then, why else were teams chasing them so much?

myurr
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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@megz - the Red Bull has a great chassis but the engine isn't as bad many, including the team, make out. It's not the most drivable as the power delivery isn't entirely linear, ERS has been a bit problematic, and they're tending to switch the engine down to lower power settings early to preserve it, but it's still got plenty of grunt.

Renault themselves say that there are no hardware problems only software issues that hamper the teams from getting the absolute most out of the engines. Red Bull may lack straight line speed but that's as much setup as anything, with them always preferring a draggy high downforce car to play to their strengths. Other Renault powered cars do not suffer in a straight line. Off the line in Malaysia Vettel pulled away at the same rate as Alonso and Ricciardo got a better launch than both. Their fuel efficiency also seemed a shade better than Ferrari's during the race.

My belief is that the Renault engine is just as good as the Ferrari's even if it is behind Mercedes, and that any refinements Renault bring are only going to close the gap to Mercedes not switch it around into a Red Bull advantage. RBR have a great chassis but I believe Mercedes are just as strong, hence Merc's advantage over the other teams running their PU which is about the same as RBR's advantage over the other Renault teams.

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Juzh
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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This again? Seriously? Other renault cars didn't suffer the same lack of speed? Are you for real? I told you probably 10 times now that you should re-watch the race on F1 live timing app and keep an eye on speed traps troughout the race, where you will see the lack of power renault PU has. Are you trying to tell me you can pull 2 car lengths on someone before this supposedly extra drag RB is carrying even starts to have an effect (at least 250 kmh+)?? Because that's exactly what rosberg did off the line, despite missing the start significantly. RB was also the most slippery car at the end of last year, pulling insane amounts of time on cars around it on the straights (particularly obvious in interlagos' 3d sector), so there's 1 more reason I'm not buying this "drag" thing.
As I said, renault MAYBE has a good peak power, but can't achieve it with consistently without self-destroying itself to pieces.

mrluke
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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megz wrote:That isn't the implication, that Revs were the be all and end all. I'm aware the Renault V10 was often considered to be the most driveable or most torquey back then but you have to admit - revs were important back then, why else were teams chasing them so much?
If your engine can run higher rpm and you optimise the power train for it then yes you "should" get more peak power.

However if your engine has a lower rpm limit, then you likewise optimise the power train to run at the lower limit. Considering there were a myriad of differences between the different engines in this case it does not follow that a lower rpm meant a lower peak HP. Infact it could be that the "area under the curve" for the Renault engine was larger than for the BMW, resulting in more useable power for more of the time although that is purely hypothetical.

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thedutchguy
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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To get back on topic: "F1 lap times slower than ever in Malaysia"

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/04/02/f ... -malaysia/

JimClarkFan
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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beelsebob wrote:
timbo wrote:Interesting to see braking distances increasing dramatically.
Not hugely surprising, they're trying to slow a larger mass, with less grippy rubber, with less force pushing down on it, with breaks that require minute tuning to get them to feel right.

Hopefully that's exactly what will lead to more overtaking opportunities – the breaking zones had got much too short in the past.
Hamilton talked about braking in his BBC column last week
There are all sorts of ways to affect that: how late or early you change gears, what gear you take a corner in - and in particular, when you're braking and using a technique called 'lift and coast'.

Despite the name, 'lift and coast' does not mean cruising. You're trying to be as fast as you can, and you're still going through the corner on the limit, but you have to approach the corner slightly differently otherwise you won't make the end of the race.

You save most fuel by lifting and coasting in the heavy braking zones at the end of long straights into slow corners.
When you're driving absolutely flat out, such as on a qualifying lap, you would brake at, say, 80m from the corner, come straight off the throttle and get on the brakes, almost instantly together.

But on a fuel-saving lap in the race you'll lift at, say, 200m, and coast to the braking zone. In an F1 car, just lifting off the throttle decelerates the car by 1G, so you still slow down quite a lot.

That means you start braking at a different place - you have to brake later than before or you'll slow down too much.
So the trick is to know how much later you have to brake depending on where you lifted.

You're trying to get that to the optimum so you're not locking the brakes, and so you're losing as little time as possible with the lift and coast technique. That is the challenge and it is not easy.

It has a knock-on effect on how you set the car up, too, because its behaviour changes between qualifying and race day.
In qualifying, you are stabbing the brakes, getting the car to move and pitch when you're in the braking zone. It's right on the nose into the apex of the corner.

But when you lift and coast, it feels different. You are trying to be on the limit. But it is like doing it handicapped, so it's really difficult.

You're still pushing, but when you hit the brakes the weight transfer is different, and it changes the way the car behaves going into the corner. The balance shifts.

CHT
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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Aonso

"The fastest lap in Malaysia was 1m34.8s with Vettel some years ago (his pole time in 2011), and Hamilton did a 1m43.0s [fastest race lap last weekend], so that's nine seconds."

"And behind the wheel, when you drive nine seconds slower, you don't enjoy as much as driving the fast car."

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Blackout
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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CHT wrote:Aonso

"The fastest lap in Malaysia was 1m34.8s with Vettel some years ago (his pole time in 2011), and Hamilton did a 1m43.0s [fastest race lap last weekend], so that's nine seconds."

"And behind the wheel, when you drive nine seconds slower, you don't enjoy as much as driving the fast car."
Comparing a qualy pole lap with a race fastest lap... :|
AFAIK, Webber fatsest lap in the 2011 race was a 1:40... so just 3 seconds... and those cars had 70kg less + EBD...

bonjon1979
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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Blackout wrote:
CHT wrote:Aonso

"The fastest lap in Malaysia was 1m34.8s with Vettel some years ago (his pole time in 2011), and Hamilton did a 1m43.0s [fastest race lap last weekend], so that's nine seconds."

"And behind the wheel, when you drive nine seconds slower, you don't enjoy as much as driving the fast car."
Comparing a qualy pole lap with a race fastest lap... :|
AFAIK, Webber fatsest lap in the 2011 race was a 1:40... so just 3 seconds... and those cars had 70kg less + EBD...
and no fuel restriction. The overall time for malaysia 2013 v 2014 was around a minute and a half slower. So on average about 1.5 seconds per lap which I don't see as a huge amount considering how much they've had taken away and how much quicker these cars will get by the end of the year. We should also remember that the fastest car wasn't pushing at all and could have gone considerably faster. I also sense that all the teams are being cautious with their cars as they're not confident on reliability. That is to say, they're not confident on the reliability of everyone. The common consensus at the beginning of the season was that during the first few races, you'd just have to finish to get decent points. Teams are finding that this approach isn't necessarily bagging them the huge points they thought it would and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone starts to get more racy as the season goes on.

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Juzh
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Re: 2014 too slow? (or not, as the case may be)

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bonjon1979 wrote:
Blackout wrote:
CHT wrote:Aonso

"The fastest lap in Malaysia was 1m34.8s with Vettel some years ago (his pole time in 2011), and Hamilton did a 1m43.0s [fastest race lap last weekend], so that's nine seconds."

"And behind the wheel, when you drive nine seconds slower, you don't enjoy as much as driving the fast car."
Comparing a qualy pole lap with a race fastest lap... :|
AFAIK, Webber fatsest lap in the 2011 race was a 1:40... so just 3 seconds... and those cars had 70kg less + EBD...
and no fuel restriction. The overall time for malaysia 2013 v 2014 was around a minute and a half slower. So on average about 1.5 seconds per lap which I don't see as a huge amount considering how much they've had taken away and how much quicker these cars will get by the end of the year. We should also remember that the fastest car wasn't pushing at all and could have gone considerably faster. I also sense that all the teams are being cautious with their cars as they're not confident on reliability. That is to say, they're not confident on the reliability of everyone. The common consensus at the beginning of the season was that during the first few races, you'd just have to finish to get decent points. Teams are finding that this approach isn't necessarily bagging them the huge points they thought it would and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone starts to get more racy as the season goes on.
It doesn't matter why they're slower, just that they are. And a lot.
2013 race was semi wet for first 5 laps.