Tag Archives: pit stops

Apr201006

Rob

0

Two weeks, two tyre choices and two very different results for Jenson Button

In Australia Jenson Button made a very brave tyre call that effectively won him the race, he made it work but it gave him the opportunity to win. A week later and he sat on the grid with the softer option tyres whilst everyone around him was on the harder compound – and finished the race in 8th place 2 behind Lewis Hamilton who’d started behind him on the harder tyres.
Jenson’s race didn’t get off to a flying start as he found himself behind the Ferrari’s, a stop on lap 8 put him on the harder tyres and on a clear part of the track which he used to his advantage to put in some fast times which were out of sync with his rivals and in the process he jumped most of them, but, he’s now two thirds of the way into the race on the hard tyres which [...]

Mar201029

Rob

2

Lewis Hamiton’s fun weekend in Australia

Lewis Hamilton didn’t have a good weekend at the Australian GP – not as bad as last year and he should be pleased to walk away with sixth place in the end but I doubt he’ll see it that way. It seems that all is not calm in the Hamilton camp at the moment.
He started the race weekend late by arriving later than most to fuel speculation that he’s going off the rails without his father and then followed that up by getting pulled over by the Australian police for basically being a bit of a twat. He’s a world champion, he has ample opportunity to drive fast cars and pull stunts like that – why he thought that doing in front of a police van was a good idea we’ll never know. The story itself has been blown out of all proportion really though – it’s not like [...]

Mar201016

Rob

2

Did the new refuelling rules for F1 work in Bahrain?

This years Bahrain GP saw the introduction of a new rule, that the teams can’t refuel the car once it has left the pit lane for the race. This means that the cars must carry enough fuel for the entire race from the start. This means extra weight in the car for the whole distance and the end of the short sprints between pit stops.
When the rule was announced it was unclear what it would achieve in terms of improving the action but it seems the goal was to get rid of the sometimes confusing middle section of the race where different drivers are on different strategies and aren’t really racing each other. The teams are still required to run both tyre compounds during the race so the cars have to stop at least once but that stop can happen at any point in the GP now as the window [...]

Feb201009

Rob

0

No more wheel spinners, another new 2010 F1 rule

Another of the new rules for 2010 is that the teams can’t use the spinners that became popular in the last couple of years. These used to smooth the airflow over the wheels and ensure they caused minimal turbulence and drag. It also used to improve rear downforce and cooling.
These little gadgets had many benefits to the teams so it’s hard to see that they would have abandoned them without a fight but then the whole Alonso debacle where the spinner wasn’t fitted correctly and eventually tore the wheel free may have softened them up on that one. With the teams fighting for every inch I’ll be interested to see what the teams can do to claw back the positive sides to these devices.
It does mean that pit stops will really all be about getting the tyres on and off this year, there’s no room for any mistakes. I seem to [...]

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