12 replies to this topic

[desmo]

DC commented in the post-race interview that adjustments were made to his car on one of his stops. What was or could be adjusted in an 8.5 second stop besides tires? I haven't seen any team besides Ferarri make wing adjustments mid-race this year. Anti-roll stiffness? Brake balance?

[PDA]

COuld be as little as tyre pressure change. The tyres provide up to 1/3 of the springing, so changing pressure could make a big difference in handling. Anti-roll bar change should also be very simple.

[Ray Bell]

Perhaps on-board changes to bars and/or brake balance in conjunction with tyre pressures?

[Darren]

I hope it's not out of place to suggest that tyre pressure adjustments wouldn't actually occur at the pit stop - the pit stop is just the occasion to implement them.

[PDA]

RB - brake adjustment (balance) can take place at any time from the cockpit. In just about all series other than F1, roll bar adjustm,ent from the cockpit is also used. However, for some reason, cockpit roll bar adjustment is not permitted in F1. As darren points out, the tyre pressure adjustments would be made in advance of the pit stop, while the tyres are in their blankets.

[JohanPretorius]

Actually the modern F1-steering wheel do make provision for
mid-race adjustments without going into the pits.

On the new steering wheels one can adjust the
1. brake balance
2. roll bar - front and back
3. also fuel settings - i.e. the mixture air/fuel

I remember reading the Feb or Jan 2000 issue of F1Racing and they had a picture of Ayrton Senna's MP4/4(?) of 1988 - the all dominating Mclaren- and even then he had a lever on the left side which he could control the roll-bar stiffness on the front with.

hope this helps this discussion.

[Ray Bell]

I've been looking at roll bar and brake balance adjusters in open-wheeler cockpits for longer than most people contributing to these fora have been on solid food. Hard to believe such simple things wouldn't still be in use.
What I didn't say was that perhaps the adjustments, although carried out by the driver, were done at the time of the supposed tyre pressure change, ie around the time the wheels were changed.

[MacFan]

Is there any good reason why F1 teams don't / can't adjust the wings during a pit stop? They do this all the time in CART, often turning a car with all the turn-in of a shopping trolley into something half-sensible by the end of a race.

[Ray Bell]

They'd have an advantage over CART if they are allowed to (I don't know if they are), because there is a strict limit to the number of people over the fence in the American series. F1 is much more extravagant in this department.
Perhaps they don't do anything without wind tunnel testing?

[John Oliver]

Agreed that in-cockpit mechanical roll-bar adjusters are simple devices, and that they've been in use for a long time (they were hardly an innovation in 1988). However, I believe that when all the "driver aids" were banned after 1993, in-car roll-bar adjustment was banned as well. I remember wondering why, and I've never seen any explanation, but I don't think they're legal in F1 now.

[JohanPretorius]

all,

there are several setup changes permitted even with the new rules, if you check the http://www.prostgp.com website -
official Prost website - goto the AP02 and select the cockpit section - ( FLASH Required ) a full presentation of all the swithces etc can be found.

Differential setup can be changed
Electronic Accelerator(FLY-BY-WIRE throttle) setup
Engine Brake - in concert with the throttle setup
Air-petrol(Mixture) can be changed.
Clutch control can be changed.
Brake balance front/back can be changed,

all from the cockpit.

Now, changing wing angles during a pitstop would require the surfaces to be mounted with 'releaseable' clips - something I have not seen.

[PAD]

I am fairly sure that at the Canadian GP I saw a mechanic alter Michael Schumachers front wing (towards the back on the lhs) at his first pit stop. I guessed that as they knew the rain was coming and they wanted to give him more front downforce

[John Oliver]

For front wing changes, at least, the flap element could be adjusted via a T-handled screw. That's how Indycars make their wing adjustments during pit stops, and when Jacques Villeneuve was at Williams, he ultimately prevailed upon them to make a similar adjuster part of the front wing.

I'm certain I saw such an adjuster on a very recent photo of an F1 car ('99 or '00), but I can't recall which car...