9 replies to this topic

[Tsarwash]

This might well be a stupid question, so please forgive me. When Schumacher had some kind of issue with the start of the race, and had to start from the pit lane, all the other cars went off for a extra formation lap. This made me think that he would have started the race with one more lap of fuel on board, and considering that most cars have to use some kind of fuel saving during the race, would that extra laps worth of fuel be some kind of advantage ? Obviously this would only work for one of the cars very near the back of the grid anyhow, and on a circuit where overtaking is possible. I know that carrying a laps worth of extra fuel makes your car slightly slower, but could you possibly turn the engine up that extra little bit at the start of the race to burn off the extra fuel and gain a bit of extra speed for the first few laps ?

[Massa]

Start in the pitlane means you leave 20 second to the first after the first lap, so you are already one pitstop behind the leaders.

Then, you have to pass all others drivers, and with these tyres, when you are just behind a car you destroy your tyres. Its much better to run in clean air.

[Pitlane]

If having a bit extra fuel to burn in the first laps would gain you an advantage, they would all have it, every race. Its really as simple as that.

[walkindude]

Lets say one car is fuelled less for a lap hence lighter and his teammate pulls this trick

[Jon83]

I think you are looking for something that doesn't exist to be honest.

[jcbc3]

I don'tthink that's an issue either. But there was another issue I was thnking of when Schumacher was pushed of.

Did he get the speeding penalty for speeding before the start or at the pitstop on the first lap?

because if he got it for a breach before the green lights it seems wrong to me. Then a monetary fine as they get under FP and Q would be more fair.

[dav115]

I don'tthink that's an issue either. But there was another issue I was thnking of when Schumacher was pushed of.

Did he get the speeding penalty for speeding before the start or at the pitstop on the first lap?

because if he got it for a breach before the green lights it seems wrong to me. Then a monetary fine as they get under FP and Q would be more fair.

I don't know for sure, but from his interview "Then we even had a drive-through because maybe the pitlane limiter or something didn't work properly during the puncture phase." I guess it happened when he pitted with a puncture. Maybe the indicated wheelspeed was wrong due to a deflated tyre or something, which seems a little odd because I don't remember this ever happening when a driver pits with a puncture. Although quite often they are just crawling around with a puncture anyway.

[euverus]

If start is aborted, the race distance will be shortened by one lap, hence why todays race was 69 laps instead of 70.

[anbeck]

If start is aborted, the race distance will be shortened by one lap, hence why todays race was 69 laps instead of 70.

Nevertheless Schumacher drove 1 lap less than the others.

But, as others have already said, first of all you don't gain 1 whole "fuel lap", because the others consume much less fuel than during a "hot" lap of racing, and second, even this little amount of fuel that you have and can possible give you a couple of laps of a more powerful engine map cannot make up for all the disadvantages that come with basically having to run behind the field.

[jcbc3]

I don't know for sure, but from his interview "Then we even had a drive-through because maybe the pitlane limiter or something didn't work properly during the puncture phase." I guess it happened when he pitted with a puncture. Maybe the indicated wheelspeed was wrong due to a deflated tyre or something, which seems a little odd because I don't remember this ever happening when a driver pits with a puncture. Although quite often they are just crawling around with a puncture anyway.

ok, no problem then.