Virgin Racing VR-01 Cosworth

[Skunk0001]

Fuel tank not big enough for Virgin to finish races?

Virgin has been given a green light by the FIA to make a substantial change to its 2010 chassis.

Although the chassis is homologated for cost reasons and therefore not able to be modified, it has emerged that the new British team discovered that the fuel tank in the VR-01 car is not big enough.

In fact, with normal engine settings, the Cosworth-powered car - if sufficiently reliable - currently would not make it to the end of a race, according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

It is believed Virgin has been permitted to make the change, which will not be ready for a few more events, on the grounds of the 'cost or reliability' test...

Source: http://f1complete.com/2010-news/16464-f ... nish-races

[RacingManiac]

I guess its not surprising, they have no real performance data for the engine(according to a friend, they are running default Cosworth mapping and tuning), and they have not been running long enough to really find out in detail what the consumption figure will be.

[Callum]

I'm surprised. I thought fuel consumption would be one of the most basic things you could get from an engine manufacturer.

[RacingManiac]

I think though consider the fact that it relates a lot to how the car is made in terms of aero and maybe even driving style, you don't get realworld figure until you actually run it...

[Imagineer]

Driving style would bairly effect the fuel consumption but aero figures would. Although Cosworth would have done a race distance on their dyno with simulated aero load so it should be easy for them to work out the fuel tank size, no?

[forty-two]

Driving style would bairly effect the fuel consumption but aero figures would. Although Cosworth would have done a race distance on their dyno with simulated aero load so it should be easy for them to work out the fuel tank size, no?

I would tend to disagree with the above statement. I know myself in a road car, the way you drive can have an enormous effect upon fuel economy. Taking it to an F1 arena, we've all heard teams commenting about how safety car periods allow them to use a lot less fuel than at full chat.

"Driving style" as a term might not be entirely descriptive of the point being made, but to say that "Driving style would bairly [sic.] effect the fuel consumption" is incorrect in my opinion.

[Imagineer]

I take your point but just to explain mine; in my opinion there is no comparison to driving a road car to an F1 car.

When a racing driver puts his foot down, it is on the floor almost like a switch, on or off, flat out all the time. The same with the brakes. They're either on the brake or throttle, therefore the difference between drivers is point of off throttle/on break and off brake/on throttle. Not a lot because they're all on the limit.

As far as safety car periods are concerned, yes they will allow for an amount of fuel conservation but no engineer will factor that into calculating the overall capacity of a fuel tank.

[sticky667]

Driving style would bairly effect the fuel consumption but aero figures would. Although Cosworth would have done a race distance on their dyno with simulated aero load so it should be easy for them to work out the fuel tank size, no?

I would tend to disagree with the above statement. I know myself in a road car, the way you drive can have an enormous effect upon fuel economy. Taking it to an F1 arena, we've all heard teams commenting about how safety car periods allow them to use a lot less fuel than at full chat.

"Driving style" as a term might not be entirely descriptive of the point being made, but to say that "Driving style would bairly [sic.] effect the fuel consumption" is incorrect in my opinion.

gotta love the [sic] quote. ROFL!!

[thestig84]

I take your point but just to explain mine; in my opinion there is no comparison to driving a road car to an F1 car.

When a racing driver puts his foot down, it is on the floor almost like a switch, on or off, flat out all the time. The same with the brakes. They're either on the brake or throttle, therefore the difference between drivers is point of off throttle/on break and off brake/on throttle. Not a lot because they're all on the limit.

As far as safety car periods are concerned, yes they will allow for an amount of fuel conservation but no engineer will factor that into calculating the overall capacity of a fuel tank.

Driving style can make a massive difference. We hear Martin Brundle talk about coasting into corner instead of throttle straight on to brake. I also remember Hamilton using this technique in Hungry to eek an extra lap before his stop.

That said I think Cosworth would only be able to give a rough figure. They may have aero figures but how would they know how much drag the Virgin produces. That might have caught them out if they were pushing it with a tank close to the limit.

[horse]

Virgin fuel tank is 12 litres too small for race distance.

[Pierce89]

I take your point but just to explain mine; in my opinion there is no comparison to driving a road car to an F1 car.

When a racing driver puts his foot down, it is on the floor almost like a switch, on or off, flat out all the time. The same with the brakes. They're either on the brake or throttle, therefore the difference between drivers is point of off throttle/on break and off brake/on throttle. Not a lot because they're all on the limit.

As far as safety car periods are concerned, yes they will allow for an amount of fuel conservation but no engineer will factor that into calculating the overall capacity of a fuel tank.

Scince the ban on traction control, the throttle is no longer used like a light switch especially below 4th gear. If you listen, the drivers are very gradual with the throttle through center of the turn, then gas it when there is less lateral load.

[raceman]

Virgin fuel tank is 12 litres too small for race distance.

goddamn CFD



I wonder how Richard Branson might be feeling.....

[conni]

probably trying on his dress as he and tony fernandess have a bet and who ever does worst this year has to dress up as a woman and fly on the others planes

conni

[raceman]

Virgin allowed to increase fuel tank capacity

there you go: new chassis, repeat the crash tests!

[tok-tokkie]

Being allowed to do a new tub will allow them to apply everything they have learned about the current one. In the case of Mercedes it is thought that their wheelbase is too short so they would increase that if they had the opportunity. It will be very interesting if they leapfrog Lotus when the new tub is introduced.