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Sebastian Vettel said his Ferrari Formula 1 car's handling became "violent" after rubber pick-up caused his rear wing to stall in the United States Grand Prix.
Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said there was rubber on the rear wing, which was causing it to stall.
"It was quite violent," said Vettel. "We had some issues, especially at the end of the race."It is quite surprising if you lose downforce very suddenly.
"It's not like someone is knocking one or two seconds before, and tells you you're about to lose the car so I was quite lucky in that instance to be able to save it.
Finally, the Austin weekend proved to be a big success, to a large extent thanks to Taylor Swift. I didn’t see her around the paddock but she held a concert on Saturday night inside the circuit and 83,000 people attended. Now, some of these were definitely race fans, taking advantage of the two-for-one event tickets that were on offer for $150 apiece. A lot of the others were Swift fans, who are largely young ladies and not a group who are overtly keen on F1 cars. Still, some brilliant thinking by the Circuit of the Americas figured out that if you get girls to see a concert, they will convince the menfolk in their lives to go along too, using the race as bait so that everyone will end up happy. The boys might not be too into Swift, and the girls might not be too into F1, but it’s a good compromise and a lot more tickets were sold as a result. The overall three-day crowd figure was up 43,000 on last year and even if some of them did not attend the race, it really does not matter that much because they paid and the fact they paid also means that the circuit can claim more money back from the state of Texas which is committed to funding the event on the basis that it drives economic activity. Clever. In any case, the F1 world will not complain if more young women attend races…
They need to put a clause in the performer's contracts that they need to attend the race on Sunday. Got really sick of the announcers talking about Gerard Butler, Venus Williams and Lindsey Vonn. Pretty sure NBC compared the celebrity attendance to Monaco.
Didn't expect JV to outperform HHF by that much. Everyone said out of the Mercedes trio (KW, MS, and HHF) HHF was the best out of the three but some speculated MS marrying HHF's ex may have done something to him.
The giant oil company BP is to return to Formula 1 in 2017, and I now hear that the deal is definitely going to be with McLaren. Logically, we will see BP branding on the car and perhaps also so Castrol as well, as BP owns Castrol and a deal would normally include both fuel and lubricants. While the deal may be about branding and money, it is also about technology because fuel can make a big difference with the current F1 engine regulations. The key is energy
density because the teams want as little volume of fuel as possible, but the maximum amount of energy to be used to power the cars. Petronas have enjoyed much success with Mercedes in recent seasons with its Primax fuel which has a very high energy density. The deal may have been helped along by Honda’s lengthy relationship with Castrol, which dates back to motorcycle racing in 1959. In recent years Castrol has been the title sponsor of the Honda World Touring Car Team.
BP has had a long and very successful in motor sport but has not been present in Formula 1 since 1994. It is believed that this is mainly because of a 10-year deal that BP had with BMW. However, this was not used during the BMW Sauber era because the team had a long-standing agreement at that point with Petronas. That deal ended at the start of last year and it is interesting to see that BMW has done a new unique global supplier deal with Shell, which explains why there was a Shell-sponsored BMW in the DTM. Shell has a special relationship with Ferrari in F1, but that deal is relatively small when one considers that production levels at Ferrari in comparison to other OEMs. Shell is linked to Ford in NASCAR and to Hyundai in the World Rally Championship. It is also the official supplier of fuel to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest for the World Endurance Championship.
BP is keen to drive more consumer sales, which have flagged in recent years in comparison to other companies. In part this is due to the reputational damage done to BP by the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. That has cost the company billions in settlements and now BP wants to boost its image of having advanced technology and proven expertise. It is still keen to push the idea of environmental responsibility but this can be achieved by getting involved in the sport and pushing more efficient engines, rather than staying away from motorsport, as was previously the case.
Anyway, I did hear whispers that Red Bull will soon wow us all by announcing a major sponsorship deal with the US oil company ExxonMobil. This is currently a McLaren sponsor.
The Verizon IndyCar Series will take a page from the days of CART and Champ Car when its 2018 universal bodywork arrives.
The plan put in motion by IndyCar president of competition Jay Frye and colleague Tino Belli, who oversees the series' aerodynamic development, will fit the Dallara DW12 chassis with all-new aerodynamics that leave behind the Indy Racing League-inspired shape that debuted in 1997.
That initiative will replace the overhead air intake with a low, sleek engine cover; twin-turbocharged engines from Chevy and Honda (and any new manufacturers that enter the series) will be fed from new intake scoops integrated into the sidepods.
The DW12's current appearance (above), with an overabundance of wings and rear-mounted pieces, will also be simplified with universal bodywork that relies on a new and more powerful underwing that shifts a greater percentage of downforce production below the car.
With the new, full-width underwing in place, it will be covered by more traditional sidepods that extend outward from the sides of the cockpit to fill most of the void behind the front tires. The "sponsor blocker" devices – the floor-mounted units designed to prohibit the interlocking of wheels – would no longer be required with full-width sidepods.
The rear wheel guards are expected to go from full-time use to only being retained for superspeedways, and even then, they will be smaller and less visually intrusive.
Altogether, the current aero kits, which will continue in 2017 under a development freeze, will be traded for something that takes the DW12 closer to a Panoz DP01 (pictured, top [Simon Pagenaud] and below [Sebastien Bourdais] in 2007) than anything we've seen since Champ Car folded.
"This process really started last April and we're vetting a lot of different looks and possibilities," Frye told RACER. "We've given a list of criteria of the cosmetic looks of the car we want and the performance criteria. We'll be modeling those versions and working on a timeline to start track testing the car before we go race it in 2018."We want to move most of the downforce to the bottom, get rid of a lot of the topside parts and pieces, and we're looking to maybe get rid of the rear wheel pods."
Frye says there are parallels between IndyCar's approach to the universal kit and the recent spate of retro-themed muscle cars.
"If you take today's Camaro, it looks kind of like the Camaro from the 1960s but it has the big motor, all the electronics, and everything that gives it the retro look but with modern technology," he said. "There's probably some balance in there for what we're looking for with the universal kit. We've taken photos of the Indy cars from the last couple of decades, done side-by-side comparisons on what we like and don't like, and then we've taken some of those ideas to our partners, our manufacturers, and gotten their feedback on what might work on that [retro-modern] theme."
From a technical standpoint, Belli says the move to a more muscular look with the DW12 in 2018 should improve engine performance while increasing the car's visual appeal.
"We want the low engine cover just because we want the car to look more like a traditional Indy car from the '90s," he told Racecar Engineering. "The whole [overhead] airbox thing is really left over from a normally aspirated engine, which we had had for so long. It's good at creating positive pressure so the turbos work less hard, but it isn't the only option available, so we will be moving the [turbo] inlets to the sidepods.
"That will also make the plumbing shorter. So right now you take the air and you've got the pipe down in there – and then it goes back up and there's a lot of pipework and complexity where they are going to put the turbo inlets in the side pods. [We're] making it shorter, lighter and lower. But the advantage of that, it makes the engine cover look a lot more sleek. We want a sleek, low, wide look."
Is that what the fans want, too? Readers' comments here could provide some evidence...
The spec Dallara DW12 chassis will be used through the 2020 Verizon IndyCar Series season, and could be replaced by an all-new chassis the following year.
According to IndyCar president of competition Jay Frye, the DW12 will bridge the series' move from custom aero kits produced by Chevy and Honda through the new-for-2018 universal aero kit that will be used by every engine manufacturer.
"If you look at it in years, in 2017 the kits are frozen, and then there will be another program in 2018, 2019, and 2020 with the universal kit, so in 2021, you could do something drastically different with the chassis," Frye told RACER.
The DW12 made its debut in 2012 (pictured) when IndyCar switched to a turbocharged engine formula. In its original guise, spec bodywork was used from 2012-2014 before the DW12 underwent a significant visual update when the series introduced aero kits in 2015. Once the universal bodywork appears for 2018, the DW12 will race while featuring its third distinctive styling makeover.
Providing a three-year period of stability for teams (and manufacturers) with the universal kit is another driving factor behind extending the life of the DW12.
"One of the main goals of this program is to get another [engine manufacturer] to come in, and with the new universal kits on the way – it helps that initiative," Fry said. "And at the same time, we want everyone in our paddock to have a decent period of time with the universal bodywork before we make another change, so 2021 would be the next window for something that's possible on the chassis side."
The DW12 tub has received numerous updates since it went into production. Additional Zylon side impact material was added in 2012 after a pair of crashes involving Sebastien Bourdais at Sonoma and Justin Wilson at Fontana resulted in the sides of the cockpit cracking or collapsing when struck at a high rate of speed. The top of each DW12 cockpit was also strengthened during the update process. And with the pending installation of windscreens in late 2017 or early 2018, the venerable Italian chassis is scheduled to undergo at least one more substantial update before a new design is commissioned.
Provided the DW12 is replaced at the end of 2020, it will retire after nine years in service.
Can we dive into this a little bit? I mean other than the cars looking stupid… Things are not really that much different from the early 2000's. The teams are the same, the tracks are the same, the caliber of drivers is roughly the same… Is it strictly down to the cars being ugly? Is it the TV coverage? I agree with you and that things seemed so much cooler 15 years ago and I can't quite put my finger on why. Also there seemed to be more of a revolving door between IndyCar/champ car and F1 at that time.
10-24-2016, 01:40 PM
Re: The Official Formula 1 2016 Season Thread
