Spanish GP 2010 - Barcelona

[rubbergoat]

Hey Guys,

Here is a summary of my Driver Consistency and Barcelona F1 race review post from my F1 Stats blog 'Making Up The Numbers'... Hope you enjoy it!

The full post can be found here: http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/2010/05/ ... nsistency/

Let’s have a look at the graphs, then I’ll talk some more about the race:







Unlike qualifying, I had plenty of time on Sunday to sit down and watch the race. I must say that I was really disappointed by the race itself – it wasn’t as boring as Bahrain, but this wasn’t exactly a great race either.

It was kinda like going to the Dentist for a root canal and being told you only need a filling – we were expecting a very dull race and we got a race that wasn’t terribly exciting instead.

After the last couple of races where we had rain affect the conditions, mix it up a little and give us some interesting racing, in this race we had a bone-dry qualifying with only one surprise (Barrichello going out in Q1), which led to a very processional race today.

I must say though, apart from a few small incidents, this really was an awful race. F1 this year is not exactly an exciting prospect if the race remains dry. The technical regulations have conspired to make the cars too difficult to follow with the aero turbulence, some of the tracks are frankly not suitable for racing on (like Barcelona, which is perennially boring and almost as bad as a Tilke-Drome) and no chance of any interesting strategies being employed to mix things up, as refuelling has been banned and teams only stop once for tyres.

It was also not helped today by the new teams redefining the term ‘mobile chicane’. As you can see from the graphs above, these guys (who promised to make big strides to catch up at Barcelona) are just as far behind. Frankly, seeing them driving around and just getting in the way all the time… I don’t know whether to feel sad because they have no chance, or annoyed because it’s unsafe. Either way, there’s gonna be a big problem in Monaco with traffic and backmarkers. The drivers would like to see a split qualifying session, to ensure that they don’t get stuck behind one of the slower cars and get knocked out unfairly.

As overtaking is almost impossible around Monaco, I’m dead set against this idea in the hope that the new teams drive as slow as possible in order to mix up the grid. That, or some rain would be nice…

Oh, and one final thing – my Monaco posts will appear late because I will be attending a wedding next weekend. But don’t worry, they’ll still get written and I’ll try and get to see the race…


//RubberGoat

http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/

[djos]

Fastest laps

- Hamilton almost 0.5 faster than Webber's Red Bull


Source: F1news.cz
http://f1news.cz/novinky/34682-mclaren- ... -red-bull/

If Lewis is a threat to Webber's position during the last part of the race, I am pretty sure RBR will be 0.5 sec faster than the fastest lap time set by lewis.

Exactly, Mark was on cruise control 24 seconds up the road and in conservation mode, he had nothing to gain by thrashing his car at that point in the race.

[Belatti]

I wish there had been objective posts like this instead of uninformed & unsubstantiated posts about tyre problems caused by poor driving style. This used to be a site where things were discussed based on engineering theory & evidence. Now we have many ill informed newcomers who are degrading the site. There needs to be some moderator intervention if this site is to be restored to its former glory.

Interesting post. You may know everything that becomes mainstream gets ruined. You have got 2 posibilities: you get out or you swim in sh*t trying to read something useful. Restricting the posting is something that seems out of question.

So heres what I did: I left the "general chat" a while ago and only enter to search for something in particular, like this Hamilton wheel failure. The rest of my time in the forum I spent it on aerodynamics, engines or other series threads.

After all, who can keep up with these infinite threads? They are not even threads and have no sense nor order and we are full of compulsive posters trying to make others think like them

[strad]

By rim I presume you actually mean the bead area,,and yes that's what's gone and yes it could be caused by a stone trapped and acting as a cutting tool...but it could just as easily be that they have pushed the wheels so far in search of weight reduction of the unsprung mass that they are now as thin as tin foil and they just aren't up to jumping curbs and banging wheels.

[WhiteBlue]

I can see from the lap time spread that Vettel was certainly faster at times than Alonso.

Q. (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Sebastian, can you just clarify why you came into the pits in the first place, 15 laps before the end? Were your primes finished or was it a safety option?

SV: I was braking for turn seven – boom! And then I went straight on. Obviously I saw that something flew off the car and I had some brake failures in the past, so it was extremely difficult. Every time I then touched the brakes the car was massively pulling to the right and didn't stop properly, obviously, so I knew that something was wrong. I thought at that stage that that was it. So what you do, obviously, is that you pit. They changed the tyres, they probably had a quick look, couldn't see anything and I was sent back out. The lap after I got the call to come in and retire and then I said 'is there no chance to save some points?' Obviously at that stage I didn't know I was fourth but then I was telling the team that I would love to try and keep racing and try to save some points. At that stage I thought maybe two or three points were better than nothing, but it turned out to be a lot more and I even finished on the podium.

This makes it a certainty that his second tyre stop occurred after he had the brake failure and that would most likely had taken second if the brake problem had not occurred.



A lap time comparison of Vettel and Alonso show that Vettel had Alonso pretty much covered until he started to get problems in lap 53. Than his times got briefly better on fresh tyres but went all wrong when he could not use the brakes any more. Alonso eased off immediately when he realized what had happened.

I would love to learn more about the nature of the brake problem. It sounds very strange that a brake disk or set of pads which was designed for 66+ laps performed flawlessly on three front wheels (2xWebber and 1xVettel) and on a fourth wheel the brakes fail after 3/4 of the race. This sounds to me like a manufacturing or assembly fault rather than abuse or special circumstances although the left wheel really tasks a beating at Montmelo. Poor Vettel is once again the victim of Red Bulls lack of reliability. I wonder how long they will let this go on. They lost the last championship due to reliability and it looks like it is only getting worse this season.

[strad]

This used to be a site where things were discussed based on engineering theory & evidence

Way off topic but yes...
I'm listed as a newbie but in fact I was a member here before it was closed for a long time..When I found out by accident that it had reopened after ages of waiting, I was delighted,,,But alas I find not people smarter than me, as before, but just another BS fest led in part by people I had hopped I was shed of forever.
Years ago the cat that ran this place had real insight to be shared and that attracted like minded people.

[WhiteBlue]

We still have guys like Scarbs although they are the high lights in the dark of fanboyism.

[strad]

mx_tifosi said

Rumble strips needed behind the curbs. Look at how much they cut the corner! And they were even going onto the gravel by the looks of the right side tyres.

MX, for ages and ages I have been a proponent of high curbs,,ones that could ruin the bottom of the car..ones you definitely do not want to cut across or jump. It is my feeling they should have to drive on the course..all this corner cutting and curb jumping completely alters the race course and in many cases is contributory to the problems of overtaking.

[mx_tifoso]

How about a contoured surface so that the splitter (circled part in image) is ripped off, not just damaged. The racing should be done on the track, that's why there are lines and curbs, but if there is nothing from preventing it's abuse drivers will always exploit those advantages.




If it's high but still somewhat flat all across the tyres will bounce over it and protect the splitter. With the sharp contours the tyres might go through nicely but the splitter will get caught up in it.

Althought it seems that some curbs are doing their job...

Q. Both cars were damaged during qualifying. What impact did the damage have on the drivers' one-lap performances?

Sam Michael: Rubens' car suffered heavy stone damage during qualifying. On his return to the pits, the front wing, rear wing, roll hoop, suspension fairings and his helmet were all damaged. We weren't able to measure the impact on downforce, but it would have affected it, however small. Nico ran wide over a kerb during his second run in Q1 which caused some damage to the bib splitter. As a result, we fitted a new one between Q1 and Q2 so it had no bearing on his Q2 qualifying performance.

'Some' isn't good enough?

[Pandamasque]

I agree. That's blatant corner cutting and it happened on a normal basis throughout the whole event. If the curbs allow that why isn't Charlie doing his job?

[Pup]

I think a lot of that depends on what gets discussed and agreed upon with Charlie in the driver meetings.

[WhiteBlue]

The latest clarifications were that the inside wheels have to remain on track to be legal. The pic posted by mx_tifosi appears to be outside of race control's earlier statements of what is legal. To draw the attention to it a competitor must complain about it which apparently did not happen here.

[mx_tifoso]

The inside wheels were about a meter away from the curb at the apex. That's redonkulous. But of course no one complained since everyone was doing it.

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... report.pdf

Technical report by the FiA is out with a bunch of interesting detail.

Red Bull Racing Renault:
Car 05:
Intercom box
Water system air spring assembly
Keensert in the gearbox
LHS front brake drum segment

Car 06:
Rear quarter panel
Keensert in the gearbox
Rear wing endplate infill
LHS front brake drum segment

So both Red Bulls had work done to their left front brake drum assembly.
I revise my estimate of the failure on Vettel's car from manufacturing/assembly fault to faulty assembly.

[PlatinumZealot]

so disappointed to see hamilton spliting the "1 second per lap faster" red bulls just to go into the barriers when he could almost coast to line.

no that we know (think) this is a rim failure maybe they can approach the fia to release there rim homoglation to "fix the saftey issue" and in the process design some of those trick ferrari rims.

would the fia let them do that? or just fix the rims?

Same thing I was thinking, time to get some Ferrari rims!