The F1 thread

Fretwired

Best excuse ever from Rosberg .. it's taken him five days to come up with this excuse for losing .. a gust of wind.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/34673836

chillidoggy

I see McLaren will be starting from the back as usual. How the hell do Button and Alonso keep calm about it? I can only imagine it's the pay packet!

boogieman

chillidoggy;836963" said:

I see McLaren will be starting from the back as usual. How the hell do Button and Alonso keep calm about it? I can only imagine it's the pay packet!

It can't be the job satisfaction can it? I suppose zero expectations for a place on the rostrum plus a nice salary must help a bit. I'm amazed that Alonso has stayed so quiet and onside with the PR this season though. I wonder if they give him ten minutes after each race in a locked, soundproofed room with Ron, the Honda engineers and a baseball bat.

stickyfiddle

From the way Alonso spoke in the press conference, I suspect Honda have a new engine working well on the dyno but they're not allowed to bring it this year cos of tokens or whatever. All their good results have come from slow tracks and wet weather, which implies the chassis is ok and the engine is poop. 

In other news, my dad went to a talk last week by Neil Trundle (ex Brabham/McLaren bod and Senna's old chief mechanic), and word is that the Petronas fuel used by Mercedes has a higher calorific density than the other fuels used by Williams, Lotus & Force India. Manor will be using the Petronas stuff with their shiny Merc engines next season, so should expect a hefty bit of competition from them in Australia. Fingers crossed

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

From the way Alonso spoke in the press conference, I suspect Honda have a new engine working well on the dyno but they're not allowed to bring it this year cos of tokens or whatever. All their good results have come from slow tracks and wet weather, which implies the chassis is ok and the engine is poop. 

In other news, my dad went to a talk last week by Neil Trundle (ex Brabham/McLaren bod and Senna's old chief mechanic), and word is that the Petronas fuel used by Mercedes has a higher calorific density than the other fuels used by Williams, Lotus & Force India. Manor will be using the Petronas stuff with their shiny Merc engines next season, so should expect a hefty bit of competition from them in Australia. Fingers crossed

Ferrari's Shell fuel is supposed to be the best. Another factor is engine oil - apparently the Mercs use some advanced stuff which can be analysed after the race to calculate engine wear and monitor reliability.

chillidoggy

Really? I thought they were supposed to use the same 'pump petrol'-type fuel, rather than any specialised stuff.

stickyfiddle

chillidoggy said:

Really? I thought they were supposed to use the same 'pump petrol'-type fuel, rather than any specialised stuff.

I'm sure there's a defined specification, but we all know how good the FIA are at writing watertight rules...

chillidoggy

Wasn't there a big hoo-hah about it some time ago?

FX_Munkee

stickyfiddle said:

From the way Alonso spoke in the press conference, I suspect Honda have a new engine working well on the dyno but they're not allowed to bring it this year cos of tokens or whatever. All their good results have come from slow tracks and wet weather, which implies the chassis is ok and the engine is poop. 

In other news, my dad went to a talk last week by Neil Trundle (ex Brabham/McLaren bod and Senna's old chief mechanic), and word is that the Petronas fuel used by Mercedes has a higher calorific density than the other fuels used by Williams, Lotus & Force India. Manor will be using the Petronas stuff with their shiny Merc engines next season, so should expect a hefty bit of competition from them in Australia. Fingers crossed

The engine itself is fine, it's just that they used a smaller turbo for the electrical power harvesting. They thought they could spin it faster than the other teams to create the same power. They were wrong.
If you watch on tracks with long straights, they simply run out of power before the braking zone because they haven't got enough "juice" in the batteries. Prior to that they are ok.

stickyfiddle

chillidoggy;837053" said:

Wasn't there a big hoo-hah about it some time ago?

Beginning of last season there was stuff on RB's fuel flow, but not the fuel itself iirc

stickyfiddle

Interesting piece here; http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a17124/gasoline-weight-vs-performance-in-todays-f1-world/

chillidoggy

stickyfiddle said:

chillidoggy;837053" said:

Wasn't there a big hoo-hah about it some time ago?

Beginning of last season there was stuff on RB's fuel flow, but not the fuel itself iirc

No, I mean quite a few years ago. I'll see if I can find it.

chillidoggy

Yup, Hakkinen disqualified from Begian GP in 1997 for using "incorrect formula" fuel.

Fretwired

FX_Munkee said:

stickyfiddle said:

From the way Alonso spoke in the press conference, I suspect Honda have a new engine working well on the dyno but they're not allowed to bring it this year cos of tokens or whatever. All their good results have come from slow tracks and wet weather, which implies the chassis is ok and the engine is poop. 

In other news, my dad went to a talk last week by Neil Trundle (ex Brabham/McLaren bod and Senna's old chief mechanic), and word is that the Petronas fuel used by Mercedes has a higher calorific density than the other fuels used by Williams, Lotus & Force India. Manor will be using the Petronas stuff with their shiny Merc engines next season, so should expect a hefty bit of competition from them in Australia. Fingers crossed

The engine itself is fine, it's just that they used a smaller turbo for the electrical power harvesting. They thought they could spin it faster than the other teams to create the same power. They were wrong.
If you watch on tracks with long straights, they simply run out of power before the braking zone because they haven't got enough "juice" in the batteries. Prior to that they are ok.

Alonso has been quoted that he expects Honda to find the 2.5 seconds McLaren are losing to the Mercs over the winter. Apparently they have a plan

FX_Munkee

Fretwired said:

FX_Munkee said:

stickyfiddle said:

From the way Alonso spoke in the press conference, I suspect Honda have a new engine working well on the dyno but they're not allowed to bring it this year cos of tokens or whatever. All their good results have come from slow tracks and wet weather, which implies the chassis is ok and the engine is poop. 

In other news, my dad went to a talk last week by Neil Trundle (ex Brabham/McLaren bod and Senna's old chief mechanic), and word is that the Petronas fuel used by Mercedes has a higher calorific density than the other fuels used by Williams, Lotus & Force India. Manor will be using the Petronas stuff with their shiny Merc engines next season, so should expect a hefty bit of competition from them in Australia. Fingers crossed

The engine itself is fine, it's just that they used a smaller turbo for the electrical power harvesting. They thought they could spin it faster than the other teams to create the same power. They were wrong.
If you watch on tracks with long straights, they simply run out of power before the braking zone because they haven't got enough "juice" in the batteries. Prior to that they are ok.

Alonso has been quoted that he expects Honda to find the 2.5 seconds McLaren are losing to the Mercs over the winter. Apparently they have a plan

Curious to see what they do, as they've engineered themselves into a corner. The reason the turbo is so small is because they put it in the "V" of the engine, so the rear of the car could be as small as possible. So they either make it bigger and change it's location (major) or change the rear of the car (major). Of course they could keep it the same size and get it to spin at 130,000 rpm instead of 110,000 rpm like they always said they were going to, but I suspect physics might have something to say about that.

stickyfiddle

Ah, shit. Graeme Lowdon and John Booth to leave Manor.

http://thejudge13.com/2015/10/30/manor-f1-future-existance-now-in-serious-doubt/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/11965108/Manor-Marussia-sporting-director-and-principal-to-quit.html (use private browsing to get round the paywall)

chillidoggy

Business as usual, but let's hope Rosberg doesn't stuff it up in the race.

As for the Mac's, they might as well just go down the pub, and have done with it.

Ianpdq

chillidoggy said:

As for the Mac's, they might as well just go down the pub, and have done with it.

They still need all the Data they can get from a new track

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

Ah, shit. Graeme Lowdon and John Booth to leave Manor.

http://thejudge13.com/2015/10/30/manor-f1-future-existance-now-in-serious-doubt/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/11965108/Manor-Marussia-sporting-director-and-principal-to-quit.html (use private browsing to get round the paywall)

But isn't the rumour Manor will become a driver feeder for Mercedes like Torro Rosso is for Red Bull. Aston Martin are rumoured to want to enter F1 and since they use Merc engines in their cars and Mercedes owns a chunk of the company that could be a good move. I lnow Aston have been linked with Force India as well.

Fretwired

chillidoggy said:

Business as usual, but let's hope Rosberg doesn't stuff it up in the race.

As for the Mac's, they might as well just go down the pub, and have done with it.

Rosberg will stuff it as he always does as he just lacks confidence .. he's lost it and can can see him being binned by Mercedes or joining another team.