F1 at 1500FPS

[timbo]

All I am saying is the guy has got sensational speed in the slow stuff.

Once the aero kicks in it is all about the car, but in the slow stuff it is more about the mechanical grip, and the driver can have a greater influence. Especially if its a bad car, a driver can work around the problems at slower speeds when the cars inherent lack of grip is less apparent. Your a Jenson fan like me arnt you Timbo?? Look back to France 07. Jenson was pulling sector times comparable to the leaders, I am still amazed to this day how he managed to be so damn quick that day! Its similar to this

We have seen it occasionally with Alonso this year too, in the slower stuff he has been up there. Im not saying success is down to either him or the car, nothing of the sort, just that he has impressed me on several occasions this season.

Well, actually I'm a fan of all of them. Even Piquet
With a little more sympathy towards Massa .
However, my point was - we don't know so many variables (was it flying lap for Vettel, how cars are set up, general car capability for riding the curbs) that there's a little basis for conclusions on who's better.

[outer_bongolia]

I wonder how much of the wing vibration the aero engineers take into account while designing the car. Is it large enough to create a loss of downforce? Any insights?

[PlatinumZealot]

That is what i was thinking about too.

The Toyota wing looks like it could loose performance the way it was flexing.

[RacingManiac]

my guess is that the mid-chicane condition is not what they are designed for, this kind of high amplitude, high frequency event don't happen that often on F1 track...

[Jon124]

For Vettel vs Hamilton.

It says the video is from Friday practice and Hamilton ran less fuel then Vettel in this session (unless you think McLaren is faster then RB5?), and what parts of a circuit does less fuel help with? Besides it's been said all season that the McLaren is a fine car is the slow corners. Like in S3 at Spanish GP, Whitmarsh said they were among the quickest in S3, it's just that they are really bad in the other two faster sections.

It's always hard to make comparisons in these videos. They need to be in Q1 or Q2 to have any validity, and even then it's hard to seperate the car from the driver (it's strengths and weaknesses). I guess Hamilton fans are a bit desperate this season and will take whatever they can get. This "the driver has more impact in the slow corners" theory is a new one :^o , it's the car it's always the car. Wheelbases, weight distribution and a thousand other factors. The driver makes a difference, but it's a very small one. Two good drivers will always be within a tenth of each other.

[paused]

For Vettel vs Hamilton.

It says the video is from Friday practice and Hamilton ran less fuel then Vettel in this session (unless you think McLaren is faster then RB5?), and what parts of a circuit does less fuel help with? Besides it's been said all season that the McLaren is a fine car is the slow corners. Like in S3 at Spanish GP, Whitmarsh said they were among the quickest in S3, it's just that they are really bad in the other two faster sections.

It's always hard to make comparisons in these videos. They need to be in Q1 or Q2 to have any validity, and even then it's hard to seperate the car from the driver (it's strengths and weaknesses). I guess Hamilton fans are a bit desperate this season and will take whatever they can get. This "the driver has more impact in the slow corners" theory is a new one :^o , it's the car it's always the car. Wheelbases, weight distribution and a thousand other factors. The driver makes a difference, but it's a very small one. Two good drivers will always be within a tenth of each other.

Welcome! Even more so after reading you very logical and insightful comments! The curious thing about fans is that we are often blind and sometimes quite provocatice when discussing the pro's and cons of our favourite drives. FYI I'm in the Webber camp so you can call my bias if it rears its head.

[ISLAMATRON]

The video being from FP does take away from its informative qualities. They could have indeed been on different fuel loads... furthermore Hamilton attacked the curbs much harder to make the chicane straighter and thus putting much more stress on the chassis, not an advisable thing to be doing during practice or all race long... especially for SV in a notoriously fragile Newey designed car.

[PlatinumZealot]

Suspension takes care of that.

Hamilton definitely had a better line, he knows when to take the curbs. (He is like the best line taker in the business)

Vettel even braked later, but because he had a bad line he came out slower as a result.

[ISLAMATRON]

I dont think it can be written off that easily by saying "suspension takes care of that", especially with the other super slow mo vids showing the stresses going thru the cars when they bang those curbs.

[PlatinumZealot]

Some drivers such as Michael Schumacher do it a lot (especially cases where its unavoidable) so they must have designed the chassis to go over bumps of that nature.

E.g 57 seconds into this video, this is even more aggressive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G1bkNFvnYk
even though this is of a qualifying lap, that can to happen 78 times in a row!

[ISLAMATRON]

Monaco's curbs are pretty tame, maybe the tamest of the entire calender.

[jddh1]

The video being from FP does take away from its informative qualities. They could have indeed been on different fuel loads... furthermore Hamilton attacked the curbs much harder to make the chicane straighter and thus putting much more stress on the chassis, not an advisable thing to be doing during practice or all race long... especially for SV in a notoriously fragile Newey designed car.

I agree.
Besides, people forget that in Germany, both Seb V and Webbo mentioned that they took it easy on certain corners' curbs.

On an added note, I think Seb V is on softs while Lewis is on hards. Did anybody spot this or am I looking too much into this?

[ringo]

Vettel tried atleast 3 times to pip hamilton in sector 3.
His line is clearly not better, suspension or fuel load. I also believe whoever composed the video may have used the best sector time for either driver, i could be wrong.
The car is designed to take high speed crashes, it can handle a few bumps, as long as the driver is not scrubbing the floor of the curb its fine.
Plus i like when drivers wring everylast drop out of the car.
Maybe Vettel doesn't want to be viewed as a woman beater why he is gentle with Kate's other sister. Lewis can flog his mule MP4 all day.

Why don't the RBR fans admit Lewis is the BOSS in the slow stuff?

[ISLAMATRON]

Sector 3 is not just NGK, Coca-cola is a huge part of that time and Vettle seemed to be struggling there all weekend. Seemed like not being there before may have affected his weekend after all.

Vettle is no longer driving KATe's dirty sister, and wringing every last drop out of the car is an unnecessary risk during FP.

But really all some of us are saying is that the video comparison may not be truely representative of the reality, I'm still a Hamilton fan and not much of a Vettle one, but I wouldnt take this video as proof of anything.

[NormanBates]

wow the tyres in the ferraris swing side to side like crazy (best seen on rear-inside)