tagged 
Bahrain, Barcelona, Brazil, Exhaust Diffusers, F1, FIA, Lux, MotoGP, Sutil, Track Safety
Bahrain, Barcelona, Brazil, Exhaust Diffusers, F1, FIA, Lux, MotoGP, Sutil, Track Safety Blown It?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 11:26AM
The story of today has to be the on and off restrictions by the FIA on feeding exhaust gasses to the diffuser. This "trick" has been the big idea to maintain downforce that the FIA keeps trying to reduce. As I mentioned a few weeks ago this involves keeping the engine on full song during braking to keep the gas flow constant and therefore keep the downforce. This increases fuel consumption at a time when the sport is trying to reduce it by 35%. The FIA came out yesterday and said that this basically constituted a movable aerodynamic device and the set a limit of 10% throttle opening during braking, effective Friday! Now I don't know if this is driven by green feelings, or reducing downforce, or just responding to complaints from teams that are not doing it, but like most good ideas in F1 it is eventually banned.
The FIA then had a change of heart and delayed the introduction of the measure, agreeing that changing the engine mapping might not be possible in the time. I can't see why? These engines have been around for a few years now, so just dig out the old map from before you started doing it. The problem probably is in how the FIA are going to police this. As always, it is easy to say don't have flexible front wings, it is something else entirely to write a rule and tests to police it, as we have seen. Still, with a common ECU, you would think they could control or monitor this.
No one answered my question on where the Sutil/Lux case would be heard. The story now is that Sutil had a drink spilled on him and went to throw a drink over Lux, the glass broke and he hit him in the neck. I presume he thought Lux spilled the drink on him. Still all seems a bit odd, but more believable than Sutil doing it on purpose. Of course Sutil has the teams complete support, at least for this weekend's race.
Bernie damned the new Silverstone with faint praise as they say in the classics, "very nice, pity they did not do it ten years ago." Still, he did say he could now bring would be tracks there to see how you spend 28m Pounds on a pit building!
Barcelona Circuit is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. In one breath it is saying if the current F1 cars still cannot overtake there then they will spend money to change the track. Then they add they are still in negotiations with F1 and MotoGP about future contracts, i.e. should we spend the money to keep them, as suggested a couple of months ago the State may not view this as a good investment . The changes that were made a few years ago to the last corner complex certainly improved things, not.
That brings me to Sao Paulo and the changes proposed to the last corner there. It has been decided to wait until after the GP at the end of the year as they cannot get the work done in time! They plan to take down part of a grandstand and move the wall back. How hard is this! Just keep your fingers crossed there is not another accident there.
Bahrain says it is "ready" to have the Grand Prix back. Define ready? The troops and tanks are in place? All the ringleaders are now in jail? The question is, is the world ready to have you back. The jury is definitely still out on that question for most of us.
The FIA then had a change of heart and delayed the introduction of the measure, agreeing that changing the engine mapping might not be possible in the time. I can't see why? These engines have been around for a few years now, so just dig out the old map from before you started doing it. The problem probably is in how the FIA are going to police this. As always, it is easy to say don't have flexible front wings, it is something else entirely to write a rule and tests to police it, as we have seen. Still, with a common ECU, you would think they could control or monitor this.
No one answered my question on where the Sutil/Lux case would be heard. The story now is that Sutil had a drink spilled on him and went to throw a drink over Lux, the glass broke and he hit him in the neck. I presume he thought Lux spilled the drink on him. Still all seems a bit odd, but more believable than Sutil doing it on purpose. Of course Sutil has the teams complete support, at least for this weekend's race.
Bernie damned the new Silverstone with faint praise as they say in the classics, "very nice, pity they did not do it ten years ago." Still, he did say he could now bring would be tracks there to see how you spend 28m Pounds on a pit building!
Barcelona Circuit is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. In one breath it is saying if the current F1 cars still cannot overtake there then they will spend money to change the track. Then they add they are still in negotiations with F1 and MotoGP about future contracts, i.e. should we spend the money to keep them, as suggested a couple of months ago the State may not view this as a good investment . The changes that were made a few years ago to the last corner complex certainly improved things, not.
That brings me to Sao Paulo and the changes proposed to the last corner there. It has been decided to wait until after the GP at the end of the year as they cannot get the work done in time! They plan to take down part of a grandstand and move the wall back. How hard is this! Just keep your fingers crossed there is not another accident there.
Bahrain says it is "ready" to have the Grand Prix back. Define ready? The troops and tanks are in place? All the ringleaders are now in jail? The question is, is the world ready to have you back. The jury is definitely still out on that question for most of us.
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