Yep. They will have developed a strategy beforehand, how to threat the engines best so to maximize the chances of survival. Given their failures earlier in the season, they are clearly compromized as far as the allowed times of maximum performance per race of those currently used units go, but that's been known for some time. In all likelihood they had less time available using maximum revs etc., than other drivers that had more engines to play with for the last six or seven races, but so far it seems to have worked out fine.

Nothing else to do now then stick to that strategy and hope for the best.

Where's the sense in bringing up that artificial scenario of Ferrari detecting engine trouble explicitely on a saturday, then claim to know "100%" how the team would possibly react, and (as the icing on the cake) calling other posters silly for not agreeing with your made-out-of-thin-air fantasy scenario?

OK I agree with you, if they notice the signs of a potential blown engine then obviously they will not take any chances. But I think the discussion is about changing the engine because it has done Monza and Interlagos is suppossed to be difficult on engines. Imagine telling to Alonso that we should play it safe and change the engine with a new one without having any signs. I'm sure the answer is NO. If there are signs then obviously yes. But, as you said, that is down to the engine experts to decide. I am far from being an engine expert even if I had all the data in front of me, so I can only speculate.

What you quoted is correct if lower power output is accepted. Brazil, however is very hard on engines if you want to maximise power as is the case at every other circuit.

Put simply reduced air pressue at altitude mean less oxygen for combustion. The teams therefore need to feed more fuel into the mixture to maximise power. The higher fuel to air ratio means higher temperatures which reduces engine life exponentially. What this means in practical terms is that it is possible to 'gamble' at Interlagos much more than at other circuits. You can acheive a relative increase in power output by more than at other circuits but with an obvious trade off.

I would not be surprised if Vettel's engine failure in Korea was a result of this. After so many laps behind the saftey car the cars would be over fueled and running a rich setting to more quickly reduce weight would be beneficial.

It is the other way around. Rich mixture generates lower temperatures than a Lean mixture.

I agree with that in principle but I cannot see any formula 1 team running a rich fuel mixture at altitude for an entire race. I can see them running it in quali yes.

My reasoning is that running a rich fuel mixture in the absence of enough oxygen is suicide no matter how new the engine. Without enough oxygen the excess fuel from the mixture will get trapped in the combustion chamber and it will have a knock on effect as the race progresses.

The teams will always run with the ideal air/fuel mixture and hence the teams make reference to a loss of about 7% in engine power.

Thats correct. Although max power is reached with using a slightly higher mix than which is ideal.

This is only the case when there is excess fuel (which absorbs heat when evaporating).
F1 engines are normally run very lean of the stoichiometric because of the weight penalty and as such a "rich" mixture in F1 terms is in reality only a less lean mixture.

I would admit that my specific knowledge on this might be slightly out of date now that engines have to last multiple races but I don't believe it will have changed too much.

This is probably a bit OT now. I don't think that Alosno's engine situation is too bad and the unit that raced at Monza should be able to complete Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Webber and Hamilton may, however, be in a position to use slightly more aggressive settings for parts of the race.

New diffuser for the F10 in Brazil.

Source: Gazzetta dello Sport.

Link please or what does the article say exactly...

http://english.gazzetta.it/Motor_sports/
no mention

please dont bullshit

Really?



Do you understand the message?

Thanks. Does it say anything about this rumoured F-duct 2?

In this paper not.

They only say that Brazil will be the last important (¿?) development of the F10 and that development will comprise another new diffuser.

The gazzetta website doesn't publish all the content from the magazine, and it definitely does not translate everything from the italian site to enlish, don't be so rude.

A. Stella: "Dice ancora Stella: «Negli ultimi minuti Alonso dentro il casco rideva, non riusciva a trattenere la gioia. Cantava gridava, diceva che questo successo ce lo meritavamo per il gran lavoro fatto». "

Stella says: "In the last minutes, inside the helmet, Alonso laughed, could not hold back the joy. Singed, shouted, said that we deserve this success for the great job done. "



Source: Autosprint


----
PS: Shame, that we are not able to get the radio recordings.

Wow, I cannot believe they are bringing in more updates this year! Great news I guess! Hopefully this push will not compromise the next year's car.. though I suppose currently it's all about this year, and they're right.
Anybody know if RBR will be bringing any sort of updates to Brazil? I know that McLaren will.

After the race i heared Alonso laughing over team radio. He didn't talk, just laught.

And shouted Avanti

Next year's car is already the primary focus and very little resources is allocated to the F10 at present.

About the updates, I don't know about RBR but I believe Mclaren are leaving the kitchen sink at MTC and they've decided to bring the bathtub.

Me too. But not the last minutes of the race.

"Unlocked potential", I suppose.

Maybe it's short for 'unlocked chemical potential' i.e. KERS. The car was designed KERS capable and now they're so desperate they're going to run it in the last two races.

They've been dropping hints all season long but no one saw it.

They are right to push everything for this year's car. If you have any chance of the championship you have to go for it, cos you never know what will happen the year after, someone could 'do a Brawn' and leave the rest for dust. BMW are the famous example of the foolishness of not taking your chance when you have it. Ferrari are right to keep focusing on just these last two races.

Botin must be fuming right now

(Avanti (Adelante) is the motto of the main competitor of Banco de Santander, BBVA).

That wasn't Fernando, it was someone from the team. Its not his voice.

It was Stefano Domenicali.

Perhaps, but check this:



"The Bank always wins".

Both Red Bull and Mclaren are still developing their cars, too, so its not really a huge deal that we're not putting 100% on next year's car. The only teams that pose possible threats next year that aren't still developing their cars are Mercedes and Renault, and I dont think either team will actually come out with a title winning car, though anything is possible.

Oh so they didn't race the new diffuser?

I'm not so sure of that because they ran it in FP3. If they didn't run it then I suppose they changed the floor between FP3 and quali. Here is a quote from the Ferrari website.

probably they run a new diffuser version in Korea and only tested a new version of the blown wing and they will now use it in Brazil. On top of that they will have a newer version of diffuser than Korea.

this is the situation that i know from reading a lot of sources.

Really? Wow, i never heard him like that before- he always talks so calm, almost zen-like!

Wow, Santander still sponsoring McLaren??

They should be sponsoring HRT instead x_x

Sponsoring HRT makes no sense...With Mclaren and Lewis last year, they increased their brand awareness in the UK..

It makes sense, supporting local iniciatives makes the brand look better.

In the contrary, I find it lame to sponsor McLaren and Ferrari at the same time, but it's probably because they had still contract from 2007...

You're wrong. It was renewed last year.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/9/9931.html

McLaren and its drivers are giving better UK and worldwide exposure for Santander, than HRT could. Don't confuse sponsorship with charity, Santander is in F1 not only to spend, but to gain with it.

Local initiatives? Fernando Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa amongst others.

Santanter is doing himself a bad favor in Spain then, sponsoring McLaren after what they did to Alonso in 2007? Lame if you ask me. May be great for UK but not for the spanish market, but hey, I havent studied marketing, so I could be wrong.

Still waiting for the race edit at formula1.com. A week is past now....

+10000

They take long whenever it's a Ferrari victory.

Nowdays there's no marketing action taking place joining Santander and McLaren in Spain. You can only see big F10 pictures around some glamourous "credit card", Ferrari-kits, be part of the Team , etc....

People has weak memory, and "we" are all blinded by that bright red. In fact, Lewis is a brave chap who brings good racing We can never underestimate the power of (bad)journalists. Here and there, of course.

The last couple of races, it seems to be almost the Wednesday of the following race week before it appears. Frustrating.
This should be a good one, though, there was so much incident. Pity they always have to stick some bullsh*t teenage punk song over it...

You might just as well say they're doing themselves a bad favour in the UK after what alonso did to macca in 2007 and backing the biggest rivals of the biggest british team.

Santander are sponsoring the 2 biggest teams, the 2 best drivers, the guy with by far the most pull in their native land and the guy who is probably best for publicity worldwide after schumi...seems like a pretty good marketing strategy to me.

Of course. Like every company, they're after marketing exposure, only.

That Alonso gives them good value for money is obvious, as they've got a large market in spain. Just as obvious as it is that Hamilton & McLaren gives them the same in the UK and Ferrari worldwide. That's what they go for, solely, and the day that changes they will drop either of the two teams or drivers in an instant. Like every other sponsor would. Simples.

I see contradiction marked in bold. First one is true, second one is wrong.

I don't see Nike sponsoring both Barça and Madrid and they obviously have the money for it, do you know why? sponsoring both of the biggest confronted rivals is not a good idea, fans want everyone to take part in that "fight", or else it seems a joke. That's why I find the Santander's McLaren sponsorship a joke...

Sponsoring isn't done with nerds like us in mind. Not in the slightest. Instead the aim is to get the most exposure of your brand by being associated with the biggest name(s). If a company nails 4 big names at once , like Santander currently, that's quite a coup.

"Nerds" as you called us, have the same perception of the brand as everyone else. A 40 y/o guy in a bar would feel subconciously cheated by the brand when they find out that they are sponsoring their rivals too.