Fulcrum wrote:I feel the current starting legislation is fair. It requires driver involvement, i.e. skill, to maximise the chance of a good outcome. Get it wrong, even slightly, and you lose out. The fact that the margin of error is small shouldn't detract from the ability to get it right.
Is it possible to get the perfect launch? Of course it is. The question is, how much is it down to skill of the driver to know all the variables and set them perfectly?
A.) temperature of the clutch / engine = dependent on the formation lap and how long the car sits at idle
B.) the grip on his starting position = somewhat predictable as the driver can test this for the formation lap
C.) state and temperature of tires = dependent on the formation lap
D.) perfect rev range = dependent on the temperature of the clutch and the engine as well as the grip on the surface & tires
E.) reaction time, perfect throttle application etc = all down to the skill of the driver
My feeling is that a large part is dependent on A and this is something that affects the cars starting at the front more so than the cars behind, because they are in an idle position on the grid for around 20-40 seconds longer than the rest.
The temperature of the clutch is crucial (obviously) and depending on what temperature the clutch is in, it will either slip or grip better. This is a component that is probably extremely hard to manage, given the temperature increases with every second that the car is longer within its position as the rest of the grid completes the formation lap and lines up. This might make the starts more 'difficult' to manage for the front-running cars (they are sitting and waiting there the longest) than the cars further down the grid. This is probably also something that the team itself has to consider when they set up the cars; e.g. predict how hot the clutch is when the driver is on the grid and ready to go.
Other factors that probably also influence how well the car gets off the line is probably heat-soak. These cars are not meant to be standing still. They are optimally cooled when in motion, ideally under race speeds. This also includes the temperature state of the tires. When the car is immobile, waiting for the lights to go off at the start, it's sitting there, heating up and heat building up inside. I would imagine this heat also has an impact on how the engine copes when the throttle is floored and supposed to get off the line quickly. An engine operating outside its ideal temperature range will be more sensitive. This might be a cause why for instance, some cars bog down more at the start when slightly below the ideal rev range (e.g. the driver under-revs slightly).
Jolle wrote:I don't think the V8's have anything to do with it.
The V8s had a very different power delivery and characteristics. High revs, most power made high up within the rev range. A turbo, especially with added KERS system will produce a lot more torque lower down in the rev range, effectively resulting in more power at a lower rev-range (relatively speaking). For argument sake, you can compare an engine with a perfectly linear power-curve to that of a car that produces more torque lower down, but then trails off. Both cars will produce the same power at maximum revs, but the car with more torque lower down will produce more power at say 30% of the rev range. This effectively means that from idle to 50% of the rev range, one will accelerate harder than the other.
So yes, I fully expect the V6T to be more challenging to drive and more challenging to perfect standing starts in because the power delivery is different.
