Actual 2014 gearing from online videos

[hollus]

A quick bump to ask people to post here or PM to me videos popping up with on-board RPM data. Specially in youtube, the lifetime of those videos might be very short, so an early warning helps.
In the current dataset most notably Ferrari is missing, but also Sauber and Caterham. For Lotus and Marussia the data came from single datapoints, and those from videos that are no longer available online.
I am also missing 8th from Mercedes, 1st from Williams, 1st and 8th from Force India, 8th from Toro Rosso and 1st from Red Bull.

Also, many of you have Sky Premium or equivalent, and can record tapes with lots of on-board time (I don't). If you want to help, I am happy to take Km/h - RPM pairs from you (even happier than if I have to do it myself). About 10 datapoints per gear are enough, so that one can detect outliers and the such, 20 datapoints per gear is better. Just send me a PM with the data in text format.
If anyone is going to do that, good datapoints come from acceleration zones without wheelspin. Cruising at half throttle is even better. Data spread over the RPM range, say, some running at 11000 together with some cruising at 7000 is much better still, and data spread over different parts of a session is just awesome. Only dry weather tires if at all possible, but with Malaysia, we'll see. Data on the pit lane limiter is not ideal but can be used, and in 1st gears might be the only data available without wheelspin. Bad datapoints to be avoided include anything with bakes on to any degree, the entry and apex of tight corners, and the moment just before or after a gear shift.

[Blanchimont]

You already have captured the 8th gear of the Toro Rosso, the ratio of 4.278 belongs to 8th, not 7th gear.

Watch at 1:55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtZ7sg6lgVs

[hollus]

Ahh, you are right. Copy-pasted in the wrong cell fo making the combined graphs. That explains the very extreme difference between Red Bull and Toro Rosso, then. It only existed in my mouse I'll change it soon.
Thanks.

[tomazy]

Here is a video you may be able to use for more data. Massa in Sepang using all 8 gears, but 1st is after the pit lane and I think it is not much of use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkbkrkbtJ4

And Alonso on board:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Slw_jyoDE

And Rosberg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82pf5QfmXc8

[hollus]

Added Ferrari from a mixture of Alonso and Raikkonen in Sepang:

It is unbelievable how short time the Ferraris spend in 5th and 6th unless a corner forces them to stay in them, just a split second under acceleration, almost like if there was some defect in them and they considered them just a necessary step to go from 4th to 7th. Also, the data for 1st and 2nd gear from Alonso's start were all useless, wheelslip extended well into 3rd gear.
Another subtle thing I noticed in the Ferrari: In the video of Alonso's start, there were two instances where he had to brake a bit to avoid hitting the cars in front. While the speed clearly dropped, the "Brake on" graphic did not light up. We know that the Brake on graphic is an on-off signal. Either it is set to a relatively high pressure, or when Alonso just feathered the brakes, it was the MGUK and not the brakes slowing down the car. Can it be that the signal is actually caliper pressure and not pedal position?

And actual data for Lotus from Grosjean in Sepang:


I also got estimates for Sauber and Force India's first gear from Blanchimont, and thus the comparison is almost complete:

Caterham is missing as are some 1st and 8th gears, but for now I can live with that! Sauber and Marussia are from Blanchimont's numbers.

After correcting the Error with gear names in the Toro Rosso, it is no longer that far from Red Bull, although still a bit longer.
More remarkable is how short and compressed Ferrari is geared, much more so than all other top teams. With the gears so close together, one has to wonder why in Malaysia, in the long straight, both Alonso and Raikkonen would spend a while on third, a longish while in 4th, jump through 5th and 6th as fast as they could, then spend a long time in 7th.

Big thanks to Tomazy for links to videos and to Blanchimont for videos and actual ratios (his estimates are typically within 1% of mine).

[hollus]

Current list of Gear ratios (assuming 660mm wheel diameter and a perfect circumference):

Gear	Merc.	Will.	McLaren	F.India	T.Rosso	R. Bull	Lotus	Marus.	Ferrari	Sauber
1	13.597		19.288	14.636						
2	11.509	11.238	12.579	11.584	12.429	13.508		11.815	11.403	11.045
3	9.577	9.600	9.347	9.519	9.305	9.913	10.173	9.333	9.425	9.025
4	7.879	8.021	7.732	7.904	7.713	7.825	8.006	7.776	7.708	7.487
5	6.299	6.824	6.344	6.293	6.486	6.460	6.725	6.642	6.628	6.586
6	5.105	5.702	5.454	5.122	5.471	5.524	5.704	5.778	5.784	5.679
7	4.299	4.953	4.839	4.399	4.723	4.886	5.039	5.141	5.113	5.128
8		4.401	4.376		4.278	4.418	4.350		4.608

[joetoml1n]

Apparently, Ferrari and RBR have used their "joker" to alter their ratios.. RB were clearly using 8th at multiple times over their qualy laps, where others weren't.. Can you confirm/upgrade the graphs if so?

[hollus]

Will do, I was planning on updating this through the year. Somebody find the videos from Bahrain or make your recorders work, it should be fast enough to see if they indeed changed their gears.

But looking at this video from Raikkonen in FP2:
http://videa.hu/videok/sport/kimi-raikk ... PAyNIXnyHd
it doesn't look so. For Raikkonen I am getting almost perfect fits to the old data from 2nd to 8th gear. If they are in their 2nd set, either they changed it after FP2 or their are really screwed for the second half of the season, and I don't see Ferrari committing Monza suicide.

Edit: After seeing Raikkonen in quali, I can confirm no changes to the gearing for Ferrari in Bahrain.
http://videa.hu/videok/sport/kimi-raikk ... ybpGp5AbKN

[hollus]

Looking at this video of Vettel in P1 in Bahrain
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1lsw8 ... on-p1_auto
there are no changes from 2nd through to 7th gear. Of course, as above, it is only P1 and they could have swapped before quali, but doubt it.

[joetoml1n]

Looking at this video of Vettel in P1 in Bahrain
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1lsw8 ... on-p1_auto
there are no changes from 2nd through to 7th gear. Of course, as above, it is only P1 and they could have swapped before quali, but doubt it.

Hmmm, thanks for checking anyway.. Heard on SKY F1 Martin and Crofty were saying they had used their one allowed change. I thought it would be odd to change it at this stage, but I guess I "saw" them changing at lower speeds because I "wanted to" after hearing the commentators.

[Pumaracing]

Outstanding work here Hollus. Also Blanchimont I see. Very useful to increase the accuracy of my computer simulations.

Something you might find interesting and will perhaps answer the question you asked in Blanchimont's thread. My computer program automatically works out the optimum gear change point in each gear as it's running a simulation and now I have the actual ratios for Mercedes I can give you those rpm. Just to restate I estimated the power curve purely from the fuel flow rules so peak power at 10,500 rpm and then falling slightly above that due to increasing engine frictional losses. Below 10,500 rpm the frictional losses will fall slightly and I've also factored in estimates for those. The car is wheel spinning in 1st and 2nd so no point worrying about where peak power is in those. From 3rd upwards the optimum gear change points if power really does peak at 10,500 are as follows.

3rd to 4th - 12,140 rpm
4th to 5th - 12,440 rpm
5th to 6th - 12,470 rpm
6th to 7th - 12,020 rpm

In all cases the rpm drops back to just about exactly 10k rpm at the start of the next gear up.

Now look at the data points you gathered on the previous page. It is noticeable from my simulation that the engine must be revved higher in 4th & 5th than 3rd and 6th. Your actual data follows this very closely. If peak power were at significantly higher rpm than 10,500 then the engines would also have to be revved higher to find the optimum change point. This confirms to me that the peak power is at exactly 10,500 as the fuel flow and basic physics predicts.

As I'm sure you're aware the optimum gear change point on any engine is where the power has dropped after peak in gear X to the same value as it will be after the change in gear X+1. The power here drops rapidly below 10,500 as the fuel flow limits start to fall but only drops slowly above 10,500 as friction increases slightly. So the engine must be revved high enough to not drop too far below 10,500 in the next gear and the calculated optimum drop point is 10,000 in the next gear up which maximises the total power delivered.

I hope this answers your question in the other thread.

[Pumaracing]

I've now run the same analysis for the Williams gearing. With the same power curve see how the gearing choice has reduced the optimum gear change point rpms compared to Mercedes and how this also shows up on your data points.

4th to 5th - 11,830 rpm
5th to 6th - 12,180 rpm
6th to 7th - 11,730 rpm
7th to 8th - 11,600 rpm

Force India seems to be an anomaly. With similar gearing to the Mercedes they are clearly revving much higher. I couldn't say why at this point.

[Abarth]

Pumaracing, I also always thought that Pmax has to be at 10'500/min.
But it could well be that it is at higher speed, due to the fact that with these fuel limited engines boost pressure demand falls above 10'500/min and to limit boost, more electrical energy can be sent from MGU-H directly to MGU-K.
In that so called "self sustained mode" pmax occurs a bit higher up.
In another thread, there are some Cosworth simulations published which are showing this behaviour.

This of course will only apply if you are not running full MGU-K from batteries. In that case, I assume 10'500/min will be npmax, but this is a mapping rather for qualifying, attacking, defending and less for "normal race".

So the gear change point could change according to the engine map they are using at that exact moment.

[hollus]

It's very nice to see my numbers put to work, Puma.
I just went back to the videos from Malaysia to check why Ferrari upshifts through 5th and 6th gear so fast in the straights. They upshift so that the engine is above 10500 in 5th and in 6th immediately after the upshift. Put that together with they not going much over 12000, and that explains the split second spent in 5th gear. 6th is a bit more puzzling, as they shift to 7th so that the engine drops to 9800rpm or so. This still I can't explain.
But that they shifts from 4th to 5th and from 5th to 6th, staying above 10500rpm, would suggest peak power to really be above 10500 rpm.
I suspect that reluctance to go anywhere near 13000rpm by most except Force India has more to do with engine life than with power to the wheels.

[Pumaracing]

I've run the Ferrari gearing for you and it is indeed a bit weird.

3rd to 4th - 11,870 (drop to 10,200)
4th to 5th - 11,660 (drop to 10,180)
5th to 6th - 11,670 (drop to 10,320)
6th to 7th - 11,440 (drop to 10,300)

Because the top ratios are spaced so closely the change point rpm is low and the drop point rpm is high. Again just as your data points show. Does this help?