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.

By: hitchcockm00

hitchcockm00 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:14:28 +0000

haha he’s such a legend!

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:07:50 +0000

Thanks sumedh – I understand some people are having these problems, I’m struggling to replicate them myself though.

Any information you can supply me with would be useful, and that goes for anyone who’s having trouble seeing the site any time:

Contact F1 Fanatic

By: Michel S.

Michel S. — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:46:48 +0000

Try reading the site through NYU's Coral CDN. In any case, you're probably not getting the full 100 Mbps when accessing sites outside India (or even outside Chennai). Most ISPs are very optimistic when quoting their bandwith.

By: Michel S.

Michel S. — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:43:45 +0000

Especially now that the ridiculous pit-lane closure rule has been scrapped, there is no need to carry that much extra fuel.

By: Luigismen

Luigismen — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:01:37 +0000

lol

By: Michel S.

Michel S. — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:59:03 +0000

He’s probably banking on an early rain shower. Does anyone know if/when Red Bull’s KERS will be ready?

By: DC

DC — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:55:19 +0000

But isn’t fuel consumption much less on the out-lap and warming lap? They aren’t pushing. I know IndyCar commentators say that they use half the fuel on those laps as on a hot lap, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

By: Rogerek

Rogerek — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:56:44 +0000

the difference between Keith and James is that Keith forgot about two extra laps wich driver is making before race starts out-lap from pit and warming lap.

By: Tengil

Tengil — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:49:22 +0000

He should be in on lap 1 for a new front wing by my reckoning

By: sumedh

sumedh — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:47:16 +0000

Good qualifying session ! ! !Although; watching Brawn & Toyotas fight at the top is not half as fun; as seeing Ferraris and Mclarens fight.

BTW; Keith; I hope you read this.

Of late, Your website has been too too slow; especially on race weekends. I can see why more and more people flock to this website; It is by far the best site for quick and accurate F1 news. I have been regularly posting on this website since last 1.5-2 years; and I don’t remember ever seeing 250-300 comments on just the “predictions” post. But shouldn’t you upgrade your server too to accommodate the rush ?
I connect to f1fanatic from Chennai, India; from a 100 MBPS broadband connection. Still; It takes atleast 1 FULL MINUTE for the homepage to load on firefox.

I hope you will do something about this. Keep rocking

Sumedh