The fuel infringement on Sebastian's
car from qualifying disqualified him from the qualifying results
meaning he would start the race from the back of the grid. As
Sebastian's car was in qualifying trim it made sense for the team to
take the option of taking the car out of Parc Ferme. By doing this
it allows the team to make alterations to the car that wouldn't
ordinarily be allowed.
Under Parc Ferme rules, only parts that
are damaged can be changed and must be 'like for like' Front Wing
angle can be altered but no other characteristics relating to
bodywork or suspension are allowed to be altered between Qualifying
and the Race.
This means the teams are required to
run a half way house setup to allow them to run quick enough in
qualifying without sacrificing their ultimate race pace. Red Bull
are well known for sacrificing top speed to allow an advantage in
slow – medium speed corners part of which is done by their
selection of gear ratio's. In order to assist Sebastian in his quest
to overtake the field the team chose to change his Gearbox (Which
under normal circumstances would have resulted in a 5 place grid
penalty) allowing the team to alter the ratio's to a higher set. The
team also undoubtedly reduced the Rear Wing's AoA and removed the
Monkey Seat that had featured on the car during qualifying.
Before the GP started I questioned
whether Red Bull would adopt all out attack at the start and fit the
Option Tyre on Sebastian's car. It turns out though he started on the
Prime Tyres looking to clear as many cars as possible and staying out there longer than the runners in front.
His race didn't start too well when trying to overtake Senna on lap 2 he took off the Front Left Endplate and Cascade, unperturbed he re-passed the
Brazilian along with Charles Pic the following lap.
Newey meanwhile checked to see what he believed would likely be the effect of such damage (notice he is pinching the part of the Top Flap that is damaged in the image above)
Sebastian continued to ascend through the field upto Ricciardo (12th
position) until the Safety Car (Lap 9) was deployed for the incident
between Rosberg & Karthikeyan. At the start of the Safety Car
period Rocky tells Seb 'Stay Plus, Stay Plus' which means that they
wanted him to continue burning fuel. Under Safety Car periods some
teams may opt to save fuel rather than having to run a less
aggressive map during the race. (Having not applied enough fuel at
the start of the race to complete it)
Later on in the Safety Car period Rocky
reiterated the point saying 'Sebastian you can burn fuel, burn fuel,
low gears, high revs' He followed this with 'We are not worried about
the Front Wing damage, data looks good too' to which Seb replied
'Obviously keep and eye on it, maybe we can change it at the
pitstop?'
During the Safety Car period Daniel Ricciardo was slowing
and weaving on the straights in order to maintain
temperature/pressure in his tyres. Sebastian behind was caught out by
this and ran into the DRS board just off the track in avoidance (Lap 13). The damage that had been
sustained in the previous incident with Bruno Senna coupled with the
damage from the DRS board forced Vettel to pit for a New Front Wing
(Lap 14) whilst still under Safety Car also changing to Option Tyres.
Above: Damage to the Right hand side (Closest) is easy to see, over on the Left hand side you can see that the top flap has been damaged around half way along stripping the effects of the top two planes on that side)
This is perhaps a move that went
unnoticed by most but remains perhaps the strategy call of the race
as the Safety Car made it's way into the pitlane at the end of that
lap Sebastian could capitalize. His unscheduled pit stop put him down in last place but whilst the other driver's struggled
to maintain the right temperatures/pressures in the their scrubbed
tyres behind the Safety Car Sebastian could cruise up behind them
with fresh rubber freshly removed from their heating blankets. He also received radio from
Rocky telling him 'KERS toggle available for 3 laps, KERS toggle for
3 laps, upto you when you use it' This is a suggestion that Red Bull
were allowing further discharge of power than is always available. This
gave Sebastian a huge performance advantage as he quickly carved back
through the field with him lapping at the lead drivers pace on his
6th lap of the fresh tyres.
At this point his non qualifying trim
is really paying off, with maximum attack and the altered Gear
Ratio's giving him around 10KPH more top speed and with the other
driver's now around 2/3rd's of the way into their tyre life he begins
to ebb closer to the top 10.
Lap 16 he passes Grosjean off the track
and has to give the place back, Lap 17 and he goes past Romain again
this time keeping the place. The suprising element about this and
the ovvertake on Lap 15 of Di Resta is they were on fresher tyres
both having had incidents at the start of the race. This really
affirms the race pace of the RB8 in this trim.
Above: We can see that Sebastian is clearly out the track limits when he passes Romain
Lap 20 and Hamilton has a fuel pickup failure reminiscent of Jenson's from Monza, promoting Kimi to the lead of the race. Meanwhile in the following lap Maldonado was starting to suffer with tyre degradation and Fernando capitalized moving upto second.
Pastor continued to suffer with degradation and lost out to Button and was quickly falling backwards, on lap 23 Webber tries to draw alongside the Venezuelan but opts for the outside line. The problem with that was there wasn't the room for both of them and Webber ended up spinning losing a further 2 places in the process.
Lap 26 Webber hits Massa in a similar move and would have
needed to let him re-pass as he went off circuit but Felipe spins allowing Vettel past in
the process. Suprisingly to my mind the race stewards decided not to penalize Webber for his part in the collision with Massa that also
lead to the spin.
End of Lap 28 and Alonso makes his pit
stop meaning both Webber and Vettel jump ahead of the Spaniard. End
of Lap 29 and Button pits pushing the Red Bulls further up the field
End of Lap 30 Vettel comes up behind
Webber and the team pit Webber to clear the air for Seb who's lapping
much quicker even though Mark had already been instructed to let Vettel by if he appeared quicker.
At the end of lap 30 Vettel is now 2nd
with Raikonnen 22.993 seconds down the road.
End of Lap 31 Kimi makes his stop and
returns to the lead of the race with a gap of 1.3 seconds to Vettel.
Grosjean having pitted due to his front left puncture earlier on in the race is down in 5th
position but starting to lose pace to the cars in front. This is an
invitation to Red Bull to turn the screw and Vettel ups his pace so
that he can jump that group of cars during the pit stop phase.
Vettel pits at the end of lap 38 with
the team realising they can bring him out in front of the battle for
5th another great move by the team.
Lap 39 and whilst Perez attempts an
overtake on Grosjean around the outside of turn 14 leaving the
stricken Lotus of Grosjean on the circuit and Mark's Webbers RB8 that
was caught up in the carnage just off the circuit. This releases the
safety car once more allowing Seb on fresh tyres to be right in the
mix behind Jenson. (Before the Safety Car Vettel is 15 seconds behind
Jenson) Radio between Seb and Rocky: 'Safety Car, Safety Car, Stay
out, Stay Plus & Stay Out' Rocky simply iterating once again to
Sebastian that he needs to burn additional fuel.
Importantly for Seb on lap 47 Fernando
started to pull away from Jenson which allowed him to break the DRS
stopping Jenson having DRS available. This allowed Sebastian a much
greater straight line speed advantage in the DRS zones than was
previously available against Jenson. Sebastian still however
struggled to pass the McLaren taking til lap 52 to make the pass.
Sebastian braked much heavier than on previous laps into turn 8
allowing a bigger tow, along with DRS down the next straight. Sebastian now out from underneath the McLaren appeared to pick up the pace once more but couldn't catch the Ferrari in front. The drive from Vettel was reminiscent of the same feat achieved by Jenson Button in Montreal with most already classifying it the race of the season.
I've had several people say to me that
Vettel was lucky, he did require a large degree of luck to
achieve 3rd. My assessment prior to the race with
Sebastian on a race trim rather than his qualifying trim would be a
maximum of 7/8th purely due to being caught behind the
midfield runners. Although Vettel's race result hinged massively on
the Safety Car periods it could also be argued he drove on the limit
for around 45 of the 55 laps (with only the Safety Car periods giving
him respite).
That also doesn't go to say that Vettel
himself was flawless having destroyed the Front Left Endplate &
Cascade in the contact early on with Bruno Senna. Fortunately for
Sebastian due to the Front Wing designs being employed by teams
during this 2012 season he was still able to continue. The reason
for this is the Endplates aren't as essential as they used to be with
the Wings actually forming their own smaller Endplate as they curve
from the Footplate region over. The Endplate is now more important
in it's control of the airflow inbound and outbound of the Front
Wheel.
Since Singapore I've been
pondering the re-design of the RB8's Nose / Front Wing and we have seen
the fluttering that occurs when the RB8 rides the Kerbs. It's widely
believed that Red Bull simply emulated McLaren with their titlting
Wing that arches backwards under speed in order to relieve the Front
Wing of some drag.
The damage caused to Sebastian's Front
Wing however firmly put it under the spotlight as many paid attention
to the movement of the Wing under load. If we firstly pay attention
to the .GIF below of Mark Webber's car as it rides the kerb's we can
see that not only the Wing elements move but the whole frontal
section is oscilating (Pay attention to the pylon on the right of the picture). The design of the Nose, Pylons and Mainplane
allow for movement not only up and down but also side to side.
This image affirms my original thoughts
behind the design of the Nose/Front Wing with Red Bull possibly replicating a
Mass Damper type effect. The Mass Damper used in 05 season was
banned just as other teams started to chase development of the then
Renault teams design. The Mass Damper was installed in the nosecone
in order to reduce Tyre bounce and retrieve an area of Contact Patch
lost as the tyre bounces under load. Ferrari found that they were
unable to effectively replicate Renaults advantage in 05/06 due to
their differing uses of the Michelin & Bridgestone tyres
respectively. Red Bull were also Michelin shod during that time frame and are believed to have also looked into implementing their own Mass Damper. This would give Red Bull some experience in which to work from. In terms of the original Mass Damper it was believed that the resonance could be tested with the 7 post rig used back in the factory and so testing a flexible Nose could be relatively simple.
Moving back to current rules and Red
Bull it's more than plausible that Red Bull would look to re-invent a
form of mass damping to assist in the tyre process. Having a mass
damper on board a Pirelli Shod car may help the front tyres heat up
quicker, whilst staying in an operating window for longer with less
degradation. This will happen as the tyre moves around less due to
stability being increased. In terms of an aerodynamic platform
utilising the Nose/Front Wing in this way should allow for the rest
of the car to stay more stable making the aerodymanic platform more
consistent. With the loss of EBD this season having a more stable
platform would also enhance any effect the exhaust plume has, giving
a more consistent result and a net downforce gain.
What is for certain is this is all totally legal under the current regulations as the load tests apply in an area unaffected by the elasticity. I expect the other teams will be querying the RB8's design once again with the FIA but it may take much longer than the last two races of the season to decide how to re-design the flexibility tests in order to outlaw it's use.
All in all I think that it was a great drive by Sebastian to get on the podium having started from the back of the grid but could Red Bull have shown us their hand being too eager to grind a result at the end of a hard fought season?
EDIT: 08/11/12 - After reading comments in several forums/twitter etc I will once again iterate (as I said above) that I believe the flexing of the Nose camera's as pictured above during the ptstop is greatly exaggerated by the damage incurred when Seb hit the DRS board. This however does not explain the movement of both the nose and the oscillation of the pylons in the .GIF of Webber's car further up the page.
AMuS have moved to dispel the rumour of a flexible nose on the RB8 saying: The front 150mm of the nose-cone is always built slightly softer not to exceed max. deceleration 10G during FIA crash test. Noses are made of just 1-3 carbon layers at the tip to pass crash tests. However they also go onto say at least one opponent has asked the FIA for their opinion on Red Bull's flexible nose-cone.
Ecleston , where are you??
ReplyDeleteexplain what happens exactely with sebs stop in Quali....Just for the fuel I dont think they were so panic to stop the car. I think Rb tried to cover something with that move. In the paddock there were some rumours about that... u know more?
ReplyDeleteRed Bull could have gambled and gone back to the pits with literally no fuel in the car. Not every car is tested for a fuel sample after qualifying and so if the car was not tested they could have got away with it. On the flip side had they been caught knowingly running the car light the punishment would have resulted in an automatic drop to the back of the grid.
DeleteThe team believed there was still enough fuel in the car when they stopped it to extract the 1 litre required as a sample. However when the FIA tried to extract the fuel only 0.85L was available. Christian Horner did go on to say that more fuel was in the tank but couldn't be extracted by the FIA using their normal methods.
wich rumors?? i'm very interested...
ReplyDeleteWould this effect of the supposed mass damper not be seen through the front wing mounted rear facing camera on Webber's car through out the weekend?
ReplyDeleteI looked at that rearward shot, that was shown during the BBC footage (Alonso overtake) and it didn't really allow for much to be learnt from it as the Wing was a little out of shot and they cut away before corner entry. However I have just found this little gem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKcSb_f7wuo that shows how much the Wing is flexing under acceleration and bouncing when in the corners
DeleteUmmm, that Youtube video doesn't exist anymore... curious...
DeleteMaybe this explains the somewhat clumsy looking camera mount on the McLaren nose yesterday.. observing wing endplate but crudely mounted off-centre, and seemingly in undisguised lead-like housing... Can't beat them, join them perhaps ??
ReplyDeleteThe test rig mounted on the McLaren nose is something that has been used in previous tests and not just at Abu Dhabi....
DeleteHaving now looked at this through a browser (rather than phone), I'm shocked... What is the definition of/ruling on a moveable aerodynamic advice again ??
ReplyDeleteIt's covered in Article 3.15 of the Technical Regulations:
Delete3.15 Aerodynamic influence :
With the exception of the driver adjustable bodywork described in Article 3.18 (in addition to minimal parts solely associated with its actuation) and the ducts described in Article 11.4, any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance :
- Must comply with the rules relating to bodywork.
- Must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom).
- Must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car.
Any device or construction that is designed to bridge the gap between the sprung part of the car and the ground is prohibited under all circumstances.
No part having an aerodynamic influence and no part of the bodywork, with the exception of the skid block in 3.13 above, may under any circumstances be located below the reference plane.
With the exception of the parts necessary for the adjustment described in Article 3.18, any car system, device or procedure which uses driver movement as a means of altering the aerodynamic characteristics of the car is prohibited.
It will be argued by RBR that the Nosecone is rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car and is immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car.
As we can see by the deflection of the nose this isn't quite the case but would require both a new deflection test and re-wording of the article in order to outlaw it's design IMO.
Great post SomersF1!
DeleteIn my humble opinion it is clearly illegal as the nose cone does not need to be tested to see that it is not rigid, what is obvious doesn't need to be proved!
The moment Whiting decides this behavior is against the spirit of the rules (which is also obvious as it changes significantly the distance and attitude of the FW to the ground) it would be banned, and nobody could say anything. I remember Ferrari getting approval for using their new RW the Thursday before Barcelona 2011 and seeing it banned during Saturday morning just before the qualyfication, nothing new there
So, once again, it's just about the "bosses" deciding who will win this year
rumours that said that rb ha to cover something else with the stop...but i dont understand
ReplyDeleteI think this was in reference to Red Bull having more of a problem mechanically with the RB8 (Engine or Gearbox) After Anthony Davidson pointed out that the car switched from 3rd gear to Neutral just before Vettel stopped the car. This of course shouldn't be possible with gear selection only allowed up or down the gearbox. At the time I mentioned on Twitter however that two (Fuel and Mis Gearing) could be intrinsically linked with the car being starved of fuel it tricked the ECU into shutdown (Showing a Neutral on the dash display)
DeleteThe rumour also centered around Red Bull having some kind of trick fueling system that allowed fuel to be moved from one part of the car to another. I see no basis in fact to argue that point and teams wouldn't chase that type of development IMO with the precedent set in 2005 when BAR were banned for 2 races for a similar infringement.
Thanks for the info on Aero. Surely the mounting of the front wing to the 'rubbery' nose once placed under aero load allows the wing to run lower, potentially below the reference plane. This would appear to contravene the 'under any circumstances' clause of Art 3.15 posted above.. IMO that needs sorting out, prove it doesn't or remove it Charlie.. Great stuff Matt
ReplyDeleteThe test ride mounted on the McLaren nose is something that has been used in previous tests and not just at Abu Dhabi...
ReplyDeleteTriple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton led the way with the fastest lap in first practice for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Friday. Lot of fun and thrill is yet to come on 29 nov, 2015. Watch Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Online
ReplyDelete