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    • March 19, 2012 1:32 am

      Technical Rule Changes 2012

      Revised exhaust exits

      One of the biggest contentious issues that took place in 2011 was the introduction of blown diffusers. This was a method by which the exhaust gases continued to flow when the engine is on overrun, exiting ahead of the rear diffuser giving additional down force for the corner where there would normally be a minimal amount due to the reduced speed of the car.

      The FIA has in its rules for 2012 outlawed the use of blown diffusers and also has placed restrictions on the positioning of the exhaust with the last 100mm being straight and round in section and at an angle to the vertical between 10 and 30 degrees. This is to stop the spaghetti like exhausts of last year as well as some flattening the pipe to affect a wide discharge of the exhaust gases to create the down force over the diffuser. The rule also states that there should be only one exit on either side of the car and that it shall fall between certain points.

      It is interesting to see the designs that the different teams have made to minimise the loss of the down force and the results that will be seen in the first race. No matter how many hours of trials and tests in the simulator that the engineers and drivers have, as there is restricted testing on the track, there is nothing like the results from the physical battle of a race.

      The general consensus of the teams is to use the bodywork in such a way that the exhaust gases attaches to airflow and sticks to the body creating down force. This is known as the Coanda effect. As the surfaces curve away from the flow of air, low pressure builds, which in turn forces the air to stay attached and in contact with the surfaces, creating the desired down force. Some teams, Red Bull and McLaren have the airflow passing between the wheels and the diffuser whereas others, Ferrari, Lotus and Williams, direct the air towards the centre of the car and over the suspension to boost the rear down force.

      In addition to utilising the Coanda effect some teams have also modified their suspension components to be aerodynamically influenced by the airflow from the newly positioned exhausts. This system was utilised by Williams in the 1994 season but was subsequently banned. However, Red Bull has used the rules to best affect requiring no more than 3:5 section profiles of thickness to width. It will be interesting to see who has the best solution and who copies whom.

      Rule changes – lower nose

      The other major change to the cars in 2012 is the FIA requirement to reduce the height of the nose. This has been put in place primarily to lessen the chance of a car’s nose intruding into the cockpit of another in the event of a side-on collision.

      The height immediately ahead of the cockpit remains the same at 625mm above the plain but within 150mm it has to drop to 550mm. This means that several of the cars have used a step making them look a little like duck bills. McLaren seem to be the only manufacturer that has resorted to a smooth transition making their cars look more like the traditional racing car from other classes.

      Some of the cars have in their new design introduced ducts ostensibly to cool the driver, as per Red Bull and Sauber but others have chosen to question this as there could be an aerodynamic advantage. Perhaps there will be some challenges in the time to come, particularly if they seem to have a speed advantage. Mercedes has developed frontal intakes whereas Red Bull has it in the step perhaps to disguise the reason that directs air through channels to the front wing to speed up airflow beneath it, this creating an F duct-style down force generator. There have already been challenges made and complaints to the FIA with regards to Mercedes with no outcome at the moment.

      Other items

      The use of helium in wheel guns has been banned. This is for safety reasons as well as a cost cutting. The result is that the time taken with changing a wheel is slightly longer than previously.

      Tyre compounds have been changed by Pirelli to introduce a softer than soft compound in order to make it more difficult for the driver to keep the tyres operating efficiently and not losing grip. Pirelli believes that the result will be more pit stops. Pirelli has also increased the signage and density of the colours on the tyre to allow spectators to identify more easily which compound the driver is using. There had been some confusion with the colour white and colour silver on last year’s tyres.

      Drivers will now be only allowed to move once whilst defending their line into a corner and must also allow one car width on the inside of the corner. They also will be able to un-lap themselves whilst under a Safety Car. This allows the leaders to commence racing when the Safety Car goes in without any interference from back markers.

      We can look forwards to an interesting season and with the pre-season test results it may be closer than last year with Red Bull running away and everybody trying to catch up.

    • March 19, 2012 1:34 am

      Australian Qantas Melbourne F1 Grand Prix

      Australian-GP-Melbourne

      The beginning of a new season is always interesting and in particular for the past three years due to the ban on testing except for specific times, if the cars were not good, like McLaren last year, they are always in catch up mode.  The contenders had all redesigned cars due to the major changes in the height to the nose of the car and also the banning of the blown diffuser using exhaust gasses.

      With the first practice the new cars showed that there would be strong challenges to the Red Bull supremacy of last year, in particular the McLarens and Mercedes being strong. The first major casualty in Q1 was the 6th world champion in the event, Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus. He had been caught out on the harder tyres and did not provide a quick enough time to get into Q2 or Q3 and ended in 17th place on the grid. Both the HRT’s were not allowed to start as they were not within 107 per cent of the pole.

      The McLarens were supreme in their strategy and took the front row with Hamilton first and Button in second spot. Third place was a surprise with Romain Grosjean in his Lotus which made it even more disappointing for Raikkonen’s mistake with tyres. The other major disappointment was the Ferrari team whose cars did not perform particularly well. Alonso managed only 12th and Massa 16th.

      With the rush to the first bend Button in 2nd place managed to outsprint his team mate and pulled away into the lead with Schumacher in his Mercedes in 3rd and Alonso having one of his demon starts and up into 8th place on the first lap. The concertina effect at the first corner caused contact with several cars and Hulkenberg in the Force India retiring. On the next lap Maldonado, who doing well from his 8th place at the start, came into contact with Grosjean finishing his race with broken suspension, a disappointment after such a great qualifying position.

      On lap 10 Vettel pushing hard on Schumacher made a mistake on the first bend running wide with Alonso catching. However he managed catch up and the very same bend on the next lap Schumacher had a gearbox problem causing him to go straight on allowing Vettel to pass. Returning to the pits he retired with gearbox problems. One of the other big gains was Raikkonen who was up into 6th place showing all his skills that made him world champion and getting fastest lap up to that point. If only he had started in a better qualifying position we could have had all 6 champions battling with each other.

      Pit stops started at the 12 lap stage with the Ferraris but the other main contenders pitted on lap 17. Webber on new rubber produced fastest lap passing back markers. The Caterhams and Marussias were keeping out of the way most of the time but the Saubers, Force Indias and Toro Rossos were mixing it and making things difficult whilst racing each other. Maldonado in the Williams was doing particularly well.

       

      On lap 35 Petrov had a steering problem bringing out the safety car to allow the Caterham to be cleared from the start finish line. The McLarens had pitted for new rubber but Vettel had not but was able to push and then to pit before the safety car was in position and thereby able to gain a place ahead of Hamilton. Button remained in first but had lost his buffer of 10sec. On recommencement he was able to pull away and everybody was jousting for their finishing places.

      Unfortunately Massa’s terrible weekend did not improve and he had to retire with accident damage on lap 46 after hitting Bruno Senna. He went wide on a corner and the two cars appeared to be locked together as the Ferrari pushed the Williams off the track. Massa retired and Senna was able to continue for a further six laps before retiring.

      The first Grand Prix of the year ended with Button in 1st followed by Vettel and Hamilton. Webber was able to finish a good 4th and Alonso was excellent in 5th as was Raikkonen in 7th after Kobayashi did one of his banzai moves to take 6th. Unfortunately Rosberg had to slow at the end with a loss of tyre pressure and finished 12th after being as high as 6th. Perez and Ricciardo both had outstanding drives for 8th and 9th but di Resta was disappointing in the Force India for the last point place, 10th. The last four were fighting hard crossing the line abreast. Unfortunately Maldonado had an accident on the last lap whilst running in 6th place after a great race.

      The season just begun is looking good and we shall see how they fair with the fast circuit in Malaysia next weekend.

       

       

    • November 28, 2011 2:52 pm

      Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobas Do Brasil 2011 – Race Review

      The Interlagos Circuit at Sao Paulo, the largest city in the southern hemisphere, is the last race of an eventful season. Practice and qualifying was dry but the forecast for race day was wet, so the teams had a tricky time to get set up right for the race.

      Qualifying was quite special with Vettel maintaining his supremacy with his 15th pole of the season and beating the previous record held by Nigel Mansell. Webber was consistent with getting second followed by Button, outperforming his teammate Hamilton. Rosberg did well in 6th place just behind Alonso and outperforming his teammate, Michael Schumacher, yet again.

    F1 News — Page created on November 16, 2011 11:54 am

    Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2011 – Race Review

    Yas Mariner Circuit is an amazing complex built on a man- made island in the desert state of Abu Dhabi. It is run in the evening under flood lights for prime time TV coverage in Europe and also to avoid the high temperatures during the daytime. Vettel took pole position yet again even though Hamilton beat the time in Q2 – Q3 is the one that counts. The 2 McLarens were next followed by Webber in the other Red Bull and the 2 Ferraris.  Vettel equalled Nigel Mansell’s record of 14 pole positions and the 17th time he had been on the front row this season.

    The start was as usual with Vettel sprinting away to the first corner followed by Hamilton but as he braked for the second corner his right rear tyre either deflated quickly or with the extra weight with full fuel tanks and tyres not up to working pressure, the tyre rolled off the rim. The result was that Vettel lost control and spun, letting Hamilton into the lead followed by Alonso, who had stormed past Webber and also elbowed his way past Button. Vettel had to travel the full 3.5 miles back to the pits with a damaged tyre that shredded itself and also damaged his suspension and other components at the rear, resulting in his first retirement since Korea last year when he had a mechanical fault in his engine. Another record for Vettel is that he had led for over 700 laps this season and over 1000 since being in Formula 1.

    By lap 6 Hamilton was almost 3sec ahead with Alonso, Button and Webber following. Button was informed that he was quickest on the circuit and he was pulling away from Webber as he had broken his DRS opportunity. There were 2 zones to use the DRS this year on the two long straights to encourage overtaking, which appeared to be happening all throughout the field. Battle throughout were progressing with the middle runners fighting for position in the table. The Williams drivers had started from the rear with Barrichello having a mechanical problem, so not qualifying and Maldenaro having a 10 place penalty for using his eighth engine, whilst only seven are allowed for the season. They had managed to get up to 15th and 16th position by lap 10.

    On lap 13 Button radioed about a problem with his KERS not working, which throws the brake balance out as well as losing 80bhp. Webber picked up speed and began circulating faster than anyone else managing to pass Button using his DRS. Button, however was having none of this and they fought wheel to through several corners with Button managing to re-pass and keep Webber at bay.

    On lap 16 Hamilton pitted for a change of tyres and Alonso in the Ferrari followed suit as did Button releasing Webber into the lead. Hamilton and Alonso came out just ahead of Rosberg in 4th. It was not until lap 17 that Webber pitted and he lost time due to a problem with his right rear in the pits. The result was that Massa took 4th place. The next 10 laps were not very interesting except further down the field with cars in close proximity and even three abreast going into some corners. After lap 25 it got a bit more frenetic at the front as the leaders were threading their way through these lower level fights.

    Button was struggling without KERS and Massa was attempting catch him and pass using his DRS on the straight, with Webber doing the same.. On lap 30 Massa gave Webber a chance when he ran wide and the two ran side by side through 2 corners with Webber letting Massa off as his brakes were giving him some issues. By lap 32 Button managed to get his KERS working again and so managed to pull away from the other two.

    Battles were still continuing down the field and Di Resta, who was on a one stop strategy, had now changed to super soft option tyres and was now up to 11th place and on lap 36 Webber, made his second stop and put on super soft tyres. This was an interesting change of strategy as it was expected for him to change to the prime tyre. Button pitted on the next lap for prime tyres and Alonso put in fastest lap did as he attempted to pick up time on Hamilton. On lap 39 Webber managed fastest lap and was catching Button in 5th place with the 2 Mercedes in 3rd and 4th places.

    Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 40 as did Massa and Alonso kept going hard to pick up time with a chance to challenge Hamilton and undercut him when he stopped for prime tyres. On lap 44 he pulled into the pits but got caught behind a HRT and lost the time benefit he had built up. He came out behind Hamilton, who had a comfortable lead whilst Webber was putting in a burst with his softer tyres and managed fastest lap as he came up behind Rosberg in 3rd place. He passed him and pulled away on the next lap.

    On lap 49 Button pulled up behind Rosberg, who pitted for hard tyres and came out in 6th place ahead of his team mate, Schumacher. Button, in 4th position was in 4th place, some 6secs behind Webber, who still had to pit for his prime tyres but was pushing hard on the softer compound. He was able to force Massa into an error, spinning at the end of the pit straight, and continued to real off several fastest laps. With 5 laps to go he was still only 7 secs ahead of Button and needed around 20secs for his pit stop. He was safely ahead of Massa who, due to his spin, was 25secs behind Button.

    Hamilton ended up winning, after leading from the first lap and was the first since his win in Germany, eight races previously. Alonso didn’t give up and finished a credible 2nd with 8.4secs behind with Button 26secs behind. There was lots of action throughout the race with plenty of passing with use of the two DRS zones. One wonders what could have been had the damage to Vettel’s car not happened, but we look forward to an interesting race in Brazil in two weeks, the last of the season.

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