7 replies to this topic

[Alex]

Which teams use 6, and which 7 speed gearbox?

Do 7 speed gearbox gives any advantage?

If it does, then why doesn't everybody use it?

[Jonathan]

Alex

Its a trade-off. The Seven Speed is great for those cars with very narrow powerbands. The down-side is that you carry more weight with the seven speed than the sixth speed... and all that weight is at the very tail end of the car...

[desmo]

Two quick points: I believe everyone's using a 7 speed box this year, it allows the team to tune for maximum HP. A 7 speed can be as light as a 6 if you load the gears more by making them narrower albeit at some risk to reliability.

[JohanPretorius]

Hello everyone,
here is a quick run-down of who uses 6 and who uses 7 gears (Forward excl.reverse) in 2000.:

Ferrari F1-2000 7-gears - took 1-2 in Melbourne. Superior technical resources therefor have perfected the gearbox.

Mclaren MP4/15 7-gears - i have heard rumours they can switch 6 to 7 v.v. Retired in Melbourne due ENGINE and not gearbox so they also know alot about 7-gear operations.

Arrows A21 6-gears - quick in the Melbourne race ! Retired due suspension failure.

BAR 02 6-gears - 2 cars finished in Melbourne!

Benetton B200 6-gears - 2 cars finished in Melbourne!

Jaguar R1 6-gears - Retired both cars but they are a new concern so give them time.

Jordan EJ10 6-speed - Retired due electronics

Minardi M02 6-speed - 1 car finished in Melbourne!

Prost AP03 7-speed - works closely with the 'Mclaren'TAG Electronics so it could have the same gearbox programming running - why not a similar design?. Anyway , Nick brought a Prost home in Melbourne.

Sauber C19 7-speed - surely this is a re-worked and re-labelled Ferrari 1999 gearbox to go with the re-lablled Ferrari 1999 Engine. We saw in Melbourne that Salo had the pace in the latter part of the race and reliability - all too reminiscent of the F399

Williams FW22 6-speed - almost 2 cars in the points in Melbourne.

so clearly the top teams have perfected a light and reliable 7-speed gearbox with the 'lesser'teams sticking to the proven 6-speed.



------------------
Johan Pretorius
'keep the passion!'

[desmo]

Thank you Johan. I am surprised to find that teams are still using 6 speeds. I would think that the upside of a 7 speed would outweigh the downside.

[MN]

7 gears indicats that engine power band is narrow...... Interesting.

[Laphroaig]

Sauber doesn't use a reworked Ferrari gearbox. The Ferrari one is carbon/titanium which was a tad too expensive for Sauber. They developed their own 7-speed design (and they hope it will be more reliable than last year). They probably use a 7 speed too becase that's the most efficient for the Farrari engine.

[Nathan]

Hence why DC, MK, OP and NH all said the Merc engine is "peaky"