Comments on: Malaysian GP fuel weights and strategies

By: pSynrg

pSynrg — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:19:37 +0000

No they didn’t forget – see post above where I asked a similar question before the race.

The cars all carry ballast to get them UP to the required minimum of 605kg with driver. KERS represents approximately 30kg of this ballast.

The non KERS runners therefore have more flexibility with their ballast placement but the dry weights end up about the same for everyone.

I think…

By: Rossi

Rossi — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:24:01 +0000

daa, i guess both BBC and the columnist/analyst here forgot abaout the KERS weight.For instence, Nick Heidfeld has about 65Kgs of fuel instead of 87kgs( the KERS weight’s about 25-30 Kgs, and excluding the KERS a Formula 1 car has to weight atleast 605kgs( des includes the driver and the camera weight, that means with KERS NIck Heidfeld’s car should weight right about 630kg’s.)

Hence,

W F Laps
Nick Heidfeld 692 87 32
Nick Heidfeld 692 62 22-25

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:49:12 +0000

If Vettel had tried to qualify with More Fuel in his car, he’d be starting near the back of the grid.

By: matt

matt — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:38:17 +0000

“(thus we won’t have a he’s-faster-but-he’s heavy speculation like Hamilton vs Kovalainen)”

In this session they’re both on the same fuel load, which may be of marginal interest.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:27:12 +0000

They’ll be using Renault’s KERS, and Renault are already running it, so presumably it’s their choice.

But Newey tends to design cars that are more marginal on cooling than their rivals, so perhaps they’re concerned about running it reliably?

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:25:36 +0000

Full marks to Vettel for proving that being a cracking driver is not incompatible with having a personality.

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:24:17 +0000

Yep that’s what I meant, they also have pos 8-10 lighter

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:24:10 +0000

True but i we deduct one lap’s worth of fuel for the lap to the grid plus the warm-up lap, and say they leave another lap or two’s worth of fuel in the car to be on the safe side, then the difference between the two estimates start to make sense.

Still, I’ll be glad next year when this isn’t an issue any more!

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:21:55 +0000

Looks to me that they think the other four in the top five are a lap lighter.

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:29:27 +0000

Data from bbc:

MALAYSIA APPROX FIRST STOPS
1 Button – lap 20
2 Trulli – lap 18
3 Glock – lap 18
4 Rosberg – lap 18
5 Webber – lap 18
6 Kubica – lap 21
7 Raikkonen – lap 21
8 Barrichello – lap 21
9 Alonso – lap 27
10 Heidfeld – lap 31
Stops calculated on weight of fuel in cars at 2.75kg per lap

They think that Button is a lap heavier than Keith’s data.