[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by Boss330

If it was that easy don't you think that's the only Pit stop practice they would do?

There is a big difference between a car being pushed at a slow speed to the pit area and one coming in at 80km/h... And the driver also needs to adapt to his pit crew and learn how the car stops and how much braking distance he needs etc. If you want to do a pit stop in less than 3s every little detail counts...

I get all that...but shaving a few tenths of your pit stop isn't going to do you any good is your car breaks down at the end of lap 1 because of unreliability.
Yesterdays comment form Williams was something like: well we have completed 49 pit stop practices now we are going to try to do some running in the last hour!

[Boss330]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

I get all that...but shaving a few tenths of your pit stop isn't going to do you any good is your car breaks down at the end of lap 1 because of unreliability.
Yesterdays comment form Williams was something like: well we have completed 49 pit stop practices now we are going to try to do some running in the last hour!

It seems that Williams probably has a better understanding of what it takes to conduct their testing programme

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/0...ars-and-miles/

Racking up the miles:

Williams has been racking up the miles again this week in testing at Bahrain; after a poor first day with an electronics issue, which knocked out the fuel system, the car has covered 176 laps of the 5.4km Bahrain circuit in the last two days – almost four race distances worth of mileage.

Check!



Need to improve pit stops:

They need to work on all aspects of their competitive approach; last year they were consistently among the slowest at pit stops, for example, giving away seconds to the top teams and even their midfield rivals. This will be a key indicator of a change of approach this year, if they can raise their game in areas such as this.

49 live pit stop practices performed during one of the days in Bahrain.

Check!


IMHO it seems Williams isn't run by the chuckle brothers after all...

[Boss330]

Rosberg did a 1:33.283s today in Bahrain.

Only 9/10ths of a second behind last years P1 in qualification!

[solstice]

In this Bottas onboard video from yesterday's free practice in Australia it looks like the guess that these new F1 cars are being torque driven with rather extreme short shifting might be true. He spends most time in the 8k rpm area and the rev counter never go to 12k or above.

[mike the snake]

Aren't they limited to 15,000 rpm this year?

These new engines must be torque monsters.

Even V-6's sound OK when revved up really high lol.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

Aren't they limited to 15,000 rpm this year?

These new engines must be torque monsters.

Even V-6's sound OK when revved up really high lol.

Yes, the limit is 15k rpm but 11k is really far from that. It's not surprising though. Yeah, you can see the massive torque when they paint the track black coming out of corners at low rpms. With that it makes sense to not push high rpms that not only stress a seemingly fragile engine and adds heat but also consume more precious fuel. Also there likely aren't much more power to have if any at high rpms.

It will be interesting to see if this changes as the reliability increases over the season.

[Jenya B]

Stupid security guy

[Boss330]

Originally Posted by solstice

In this Bottas onboard video from yesterday's free practice in Australia it looks like the guess that these new F1 cars are being torque driven with rather extreme short shifting might be true. He spends most time in the 8k rpm area and the rev counter never go to 12k or above.

Here is a "nice" compilation that shows the shifting tactics by several drivers. It's FAR worse than I had anticipated. I never once saw 13.000rpm's and it isn't strange that these new engines sound bad!!! It's not like we've gone from 18k to 15k, no we dropped to 10-11k!!!

The 100kg fuel limit seems to be the major culprit. To be able to preserve fuel and make the 100kg's last the whole race, they have to be around 10k rpm's...

My view is that they probably need to keep the revs at around 10k to maximize their fuel efficiency and perhaps also because of the max fuel flow limits. Going above 11-12k makes no sense as they both consume to much fuel at that part of the rev range and also perhaps because they can't flow enough fuel to make any more power above those rpm's.

I guess qualifying tomorrow will answer whether it's just fuel conservation that is the reason behind this or whether the fuel flow limit also is a factor. Because there is no need to save fuel during qualy they should be able to rev to 15k to extract maximum Power. If they don't rev to 15k, then there seems to not be enough fuel flow to support an increase in power above 11-12k...

[mike the snake]

While today's F1 is supposed to showcase the world's technology and be more efficient, now that the new engines make no noise, who is going to care?

V-10's and V-12's revving to 23,000 rpm are also showcasing high technology, you don't see anything like that anywhere else, and they sound glorious.

Quiet, turbo V-6's, revving to only 10,000? We're getting dangerously close to Indy Car racing. V-6's sound like crap almost always, unless buzzed up to 20,000 rpm, where anything sounds good.

The sounds of F1 are a big part of the whole F1 "experience" for me at least.

I sure hope they at least turn up the microphones so we get to hear the new engines. So far the two practice sessions I've seen, I could barely hear the cars.

A few years ago on TV there were some races with VW TDI Golfs. They made no noise at all, and while the racing was good, it was the worst bit of racing I've seen due to the lack of engine noise.

No earplugs=no fun

I hate that I find myself complaining about F1. I am THE biggest fan of F1, but F1 is going downhill fast over the last few years. No refueling, basically spec cars and engines, now the new V6 vacum cleaner engines and half electric power?

I guess how I feel is this: Even though the new cars are totally high tech, and more efficient, and maybe almost just as fast, none of that matters to me as much if they don't sound insanely crazy good.

I'll watch, and hope and pray someone high up decides to give the fans, drivers, and teams what they really want.

I seriously doubt if anyone were polled, that they would answer "get rid of those awesome sounding V8's or v10"s or V12's, knock the power down by 25%, lower the rev limits to 10K, and while you're at it, make them hybrids".

What we have is the equivalent of Stewart saying "look what I can do!"