Comments on: David Coulthard: “This is another Senna situation”

By: dwp

dwp — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:56:28 +0000

F1 cars and Champ cars do not use the same tyres!

If they don’t allow tyre warmers then they HAVE to change the tyre s so they work well enough in the range of cold to hot to be predictable.

This tyre warmer issue has come up before and the cost of it is nominal so they aren’t really going to save a lot of money here. The good could be that on cool tyres the drivers will have an easier time of it.

Speaking of “cold tyres”, anyone remember the 1st corner of the Hungarian GP last year? Yes, you can pass on the track!

By: Andy Smith (Canada)

Andy Smith (Canada) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:49:41 +0000

Vertigo
When Dc talks be it safety or not,your listening to the oldest & wisest of F1 drivers.
Vertigo..isn,t that like disilusioned!
DC knows knows his asphalt like back of his hands especially driving them roads in Scotland.
Give er snot Davey!

By: JS

JS — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:08:48 +0000

If Senna’s accident was caused by a failed steering column, why was it reported that car’s telemetry recorded steering movements normally all the way until the collision with the wall?

By: alan

alan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:20:04 +0000

it was the same extract that I read Keith – but knowing he said that they may/not be banned slicks that is – would you like to spend any development budget for less downforce and find later you have to start over again when ribbed are brought back? – max has said he wants to cut down on the costs for F1 budgets – too help the smaller teams – how do they cope with a potential and is potential waste of a years development to run low down force cars – big teams and it’s been done before can afford to have 2 spec cars developed to cover both possibilities and switch over ?

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:03:24 +0000

In the quote I read he didn't rule them out, he said they won't be brought back if the changes to the aerodynamic rules fail to reduce cornering speeds sufficiently (the emphasis is mine):

The theory is: much less downforce and more mechanical grip should improve the racing and overtaking. If it turns out that the promised reduction in downforce hasn't happened and the cornering speeds go up, we'll just put the grooves back in. We don't want to do that, but sometimes we've been promised by the aerodynamicists a 50 percent reduction in downforce and it doesn't materialize. Then the speeds rocket up again. We've got the answer if we have to."

Autosport - Mosley says grooves could stay in F1 (external)

By: alan

alan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:58:55 +0000

Well it doesnt seem to matter about slicks as max today seems to have ruled them out – before any cars race with new aerodynamics – please get rid of the pillick

By: Number 38

Number 38 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:37:29 +0000

Clipped from the article: However tyre warmers are not legal in other top single-seater series such as Champ Car. So on the face of it, what’s the problem with banning them?

Other series tires are different construction and don’t benefit as much from pre-heating OR you could say F1 tyres are more susseptible to temperature and benefit from
pre-heating…….it’s in the tyres!

By: Number 38

Number 38 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:31:44 +0000

A few words clipped from the article: “F1 … must be sufficiently physically and mentally difficult to challenge the best racing drivers in the world.” Odd words to use discussing F1 racing….more appropriate in the world of rallying or dirt track Sprint Cars! F1 has ‘driver aids’ as is pretty much called by the team manager in the pits!

By: verasaki

verasaki — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:31:13 +0000

I can’t see that tire warmers are an excessive safety measure. One thing to remember is that Champ Car does-or did when I paid them attention- a rolling start. Maybe things have changed the last few years. I’ve always wondered what kind of difference that does make to the temperatures, though, maybe none. I do think that launching from a standing start on cold tires would be quite different than taking a rolling start on cold tires.

I don’t think Coulthard is being an alarmist at all. I do remember at the time of Senna’s crash there was a discussion that cold tires due to the restart may have caused deflation on one of his, but i never really bought into that. it did look more like a major steering malfunction. The fact is we’ve seen plenty of near incidents when drivers are on cold tires and yeah, ok they should be able to control that but, really, is it worth the cost of whatever these teams come up with to get those tires to heat up faster? actually, thinking about that, what they come up with actually worries me more than the FIA having so little faith that any of these drivers actually being able to drive.

By: Vertigo

Vertigo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:01:48 +0000

DC just likes seeing his name in the press, he knows he can’t do anything about it because he’s just a driver and a rubbish one at that.