Lewis Hamilton - in a class of his own

astsmtl · Post 24 Oct 2007, 09:55

checkered wrote: PitPass, without naming

the source of their information, states that Lewis mistakenly hit the "Start" button.

Ha-ha, that's a real bullshit!

First of all i don't believe that there is a "Start" button on the wheel. You can check this here and here. I think F1 car simply cannot be started without external influence.

naknak_56 · Post 24 Oct 2007, 10:19

Would have thought they were meaning race start , as in launch control so neutral then start sequence

modbaraban · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:02

well I've found one.

astsmtl · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:09

modbaraban wrote: well I've found one.

Wow! I didn't think that the area with large Mercedes logo is a button. Can someone confirm this? If this is really a button, what exactly it does?

P.S. Hope i was not fooled by modbaraban!

johny · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:17

No, it's not a button. Dunno who wrote "start" above merc logo, here's another pic of the cockpit, blame the horn.

edit: after watching it, it would be a dream for alonso having the horn pressing in that logo, at least his waving hand will rest for a while.

astsmtl · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:22

johny wrote: No, it's not a button. Dunno who wrote "start" above merc logo, here's another pic of the cockpit, blame the horn.

modbaraban did it! I checked other photos of the wheel and made sure that there is no "START" word on them. Then i thoght that modbaraban either jokes or knows more than me.

modbaraban · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:30

johny · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:31

is paint your favourite software?

modbaraban · Post 24 Oct 2007, 11:45

johny wrote: is paint your favourite software?

Arhhh.... got me on this one

I don't have photoshop installed here at work atm.

ben_watkins · Post 24 Oct 2007, 12:18

As well as it being a fairly complex procedure, as I'm lead to believe, to put the car into start sequence, the following quote from Ron Dennis would dispell any question about Hamilton causing the 30s malfunction with the gearbox..

“We realised that instead of calling for an upshift, Lewis needed to depress the clutch and call for a downshift. But that was not his problem. It was our ability to see what would actually reset this condition.

“When you are looking at the phenomenal amounts of data coming forward off the computers, I don’t think you can be severe on our engineers.

“From the fault first developing to realising what was muddling the computer’s brain, to saying pull the clutch and select a down gear was a pretty speedy action.

“And it was not one that was intuitive for the driver. It needed to be understood by the engineers."

Oh and nice try Modbaraban!

johny · Post 24 Oct 2007, 13:11

according to marca, the spanish newspaper, he pushed the pit lane speed limiter, anyway in this video he doesn't touch that one

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnsQfDaaaw

captainmorgan · Post 24 Oct 2007, 13:33

Kind of OT, but how awesome would it be if there were actually horns in F1? Horns that were loud enough of course

basrawi · Post 24 Oct 2007, 13:42

well i think he did,,,, the only button is that area is Pit Speed limiter, Drink & (ok + System override)

so its possible that he was oking something and pressed Pit limiter insted watch it again.

heres a detail functions of the steering wheel
http://www.mclaren.com/features/technic ... _wheel.php

checkered · Post 24 Oct 2007, 14:31

Here's how Whitmarsh

pondered different possibilities for Autosport (McLaren deny Hamilton caused gearbox error - link, Autosport):

Autosport, interviewing Martin Whitmarsh wrote:It was a gearbox problem, and it went into forced-neutral and changing down seemed to rectify it - it might be mechanical, but we doubt it.

If it was something mechanical, they usually don't fix themselves. It could be electronics software - but there's no evidence in the analysis to support that. Could be a sensor - but again, there's no evidence in the data recordings.

So it would appear that the barrels that change gear went out of control - and out of control of the driver - and that's probably hydraulic.

That could be either a very small Moog servo control valves that were interfered with by a tiny piece of debris or they are sensitive to magnetic interference - something generated a magnetic field which caused the valve to misbehave.

Should you want to examine the website of the manufacturer of those components here's a link to Moog's website.

On a largely unattached technological side note, Ron Dennis seemed to blame the "internet" for some of the team's troubles this season. Dennis says internet increased pressure in 2007 - link, F1-Live. I wonder how often Ron dares to fire up a browser of his own and head into the abyss of countless cheesy IP addresses and endless lines of badly written code?

F1-Live, quoting Gazzetta dello Sport's interview with Ron Dennis wrote:The internet is an unregulated source of information that is a nuisance. I have said it before and will continue to say it. I am not a critic of the media, but it is a difficult situation when you spend so much time refuting falsehoods and correcting inaccuracies.

Image linked from autoblog.com

Yeah, I can see how that can be unsettling. But to me, certainly not more or less so than anything else to do with life.

modbaraban · Post 24 Oct 2007, 14:35

johny wrote:according to marca, the spanish newspaper, he pushed the pit lane speed limiter, anyway in this video he doesn't touch that one

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnsQfDaaaw

It looks like instead of pushing the [DRINK] button he pushed the [HAND THE TITLE TO KIMI]...