Untapped Ferrari performance - real, or BS? | FerrariChat

Untapped Ferrari performance - real, or BS?

Discussion in 'Other Racing' started by LopeAlong, Sep 21, 2004.

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  1. LopeAlong

    LopeAlong Formula Junior

    Mar 29, 2004
    461
    West of St. Louis
    Full Name:
    Jim
    This just in:

    Ferrari with plenty in the tank - report

    Ferrari strolled to a dominant championship sweep in 2004 with plenty left in the tank. That is the claim of UK newspaper 'The Telegraph' in quoting 'sources close to Ferrari' as saying Ferrari turned-up the engine for the very first time at Monza.

    The paper said Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello's V10 units were run 'conservatively' in the first fourteen Grand Prix' of the season.

    Sources said only Schumacher's chicane slide in Italy and Barrichello's wrong tyres permitted them to switch the engines to the most aggressive 'mapping programmes.' "The combination of more revs, more power and Ferrari's peerless race reliability," said the report, "yielded hitherto unseen reserves of performance."

    Source: F1racing.net

    Is it possible for the driver or the team (during a pit stop) to change the engine mapping? I know two way telemetry is banned. Is it as simple as an A/B switch? Not knowing enough about it to be dangerous, I can't imagine anything computer controlled being changed without shutdown and a reboot! Heck, maybe that's old school! Someone enlighten me, so I can yield hitherto!

    Jim
     
  2. f355b

    f355b Formula Junior

    Jan 23, 2004
    449
    Little Silver,NJ
    rubbish, monza was a new spec engine.
     
  3. Brian C. Stradale

    Brian C. Stradale F1 Rookie
    Lifetime Rossa

    Mar 17, 2002
    3,612
    Dallas, TX, USA
    It is certainly technically possible to have a switch or dial that adjusts the engine mapping and/or redline to gain more power at some sacrifice to reliability. I have no idea whether Ferrari has such a thing, but it wouldn't surprise me. Certainly, given the prospect of having the fastest drivers in the fastest cars, your primary worry will be reliability. Thus, dialing out some power to increase reliability would make a lot of sense. But then having a pit-stop or driver accessible dial to undo that in case you're way behind or needing to put down some really fast laps... fully logical.

    HOWEVER, even if that is true, I doubt seriously that Monza was the first time it was used. I'd bet it was used when they needed those 5-12 super-fast laps leading up to pit stops. And I can't imagine it wasn't dialed in during qualifying and the first few laps.

    Overall, I'm fairly skeptical of the article.
     
  4. beast

    beast F1 World Champ

    May 31, 2003
    11,479
    Lewisville, TX
    Full Name:
    Rob Guess
    I am sure that Ferrari and the other teams have a "BATMAN" Button on the car that will allow it to change engine maps on the fly. They have them in Champ Cars, Motocross bikes and on Jet Ski's.
     
  5. LopeAlong

    LopeAlong Formula Junior

    Mar 29, 2004
    461
    West of St. Louis
    Full Name:
    Jim
    It just seemed odd that RB had been in some difficult situations this year and could have used some "boost" to make a pass and it just did not happen. But then I guess hp alone does not cure all ills - but it sure helps!
    Jim
     
  6. Jameel

    Jameel Formula Junior

    Nov 4, 2003
    401
    Canada
    I don't know about a button that changes all the fuel/redline mappings. But I know the drivers have control of the redline limiter. I've heard Martin Brundle numerous times mention a driver will be turning down the "revs" to maintain reliability.
     
  7. ddn

    ddn Rookie

    Jun 1, 2004
    40
    The drivers absolutely have control of redline and engine mapping at the wheel. That is part of the reason that overly agressive drivers turn their engines into desk parts.

    Does anyone else agree that F1 news sucks in general and is never accurate?
     
  8. ferrarigr

    ferrarigr Formula 3

    Jan 13, 2004
    1,042
    Athens,Greece
    Full Name:
    Yiannis GR
    I agree...Donteleive everything that is writen...specialy for our Team...
     
  9. Admiral Thrawn

    Admiral Thrawn F1 Rookie

    Jul 2, 2003
    3,932
    The nominal race shift point is usually around 18,200rpm, although the revs can be decreased to conserve the engine, or increased anywhere up to around 19,000rpm.
     
  10. PSk

    PSk F1 World Champ

    Nov 20, 2002
    17,673
    Tauranga, NZ
    Full Name:
    Pete
    I think what they are getting at is that races are always won at the slowest speed possible, ie. just faster than the next guy to maximise reliability.

    So far we have seen Ferrari relatively easily win most races, and we are not really sure how much faster they could really be because nobody is really pushing them.

    At Monza, we saw Ferrari run a little harder because of RB's extra pitstop and MS's spin and they still won ... thus the obvious question is how much faster could they really go if they were not doing the right thing and only going just fast enough?

    - Could they finish 2+ laps ahead of the 3rd placed driver?
    - Could the cars handle MS lapping at qualifying pace (or nowadays at that special pre-pitstop pace) for every lap ... ?
    - How much are Ferrari really cruising?

    Pete
     
  11. ferrarifixer

    ferrarifixer F1 Veteran
    BANNED

    Jul 22, 2003
    8,520
    Melbourne
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    Phil Hughes
    Driver switchable maps have been around for years and years. Even a stock std production Porsche GT3 CUP car has a 3 position switch...1 for safety car/wet, 2 for race, and 3 for Qualify, although I think they only do fuel and ignition specs rather than rpm limit.
     
  12. Admiral Thrawn

    Admiral Thrawn F1 Rookie

    Jul 2, 2003
    3,932
    I was reading that, of all the things you can tweak with regards to the powerplant, along with the option to adjust the rev limit, you can also alter the air/fuel mix, active idle high, and active idle low.

    Now, I have to ask: what are the active idles high and low?

    Also, if you look at Rubens' steering wheel, there are buttons labeled Bf, Bo and SC. What on Earth are they? The steering wheel layout and labeling has completely changed since the F399/F1-2000/F2001 design. In fact there are minor differences between the steering wheels of the F2002, F2003 and F2004, although they are very similar overall.

    SC - Safety Cutoff? Scroll (through the LCD menus presumably)?

    So does anyone have a closeup picture of the latest steering wheel, with all text visible and an explanation of all the functions?
     
  13. TurboTodd

    TurboTodd Formula 3

    Jan 8, 2004
    1,084
    Brentwood, TN
    #13 TurboTodd, Sep 23, 2004
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  14. TurboTodd

    TurboTodd Formula 3

    Jan 8, 2004
    1,084
    Brentwood, TN
    [​IMG]

    Another, but translation is necessary..
     
  15. Admiral Thrawn

    Admiral Thrawn F1 Rookie

    Jul 2, 2003
    3,932
    Todd, the first you posted is actually the F2002's wheel. Notice the "LC" button; that's Launch Control, which is now banned of course. The OV button is in place of this on the F2003-GA and F2004's wheels. Also the current wheel no longer has the up and down arrows, which are replaced by the plus and minus buttons you can see on Rubens' wheel.

    Where did you find the picture? Was it already labeled as April 2004 or did you do that yourself?
     
  16. iceburns288

    iceburns288 Formula 3

    Jun 19, 2004
    2,116
    Bay Area, CA
    Full Name:
    Charles M.
    SC is stability control, I believe.
     
  17. TurboTodd

    TurboTodd Formula 3

    Jan 8, 2004
    1,084
    Brentwood, TN
    Labeled that way when I discovered it. Think the label was placed to relate to the Post It note from Bernie..
     
  18. ferrarifixer

    ferrarifixer F1 Veteran
    BANNED

    Jul 22, 2003
    8,520
    Melbourne
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    Phil Hughes
    I would say anything labelled SC would be a Safety car map. The SC board gets held out for these so anything with SC abbreviations that WASN'T for the Safety car, would be very misleading (and confusing for a puppet brain like Rubens! Oooh, a bit harsh, sorry).

    The SC map would be very lean and designed to save fuel.

    Bf and B0 could be brake bias....as fuel load comes down during a race stint, the bias would be shifted forward.....Bf, then to reset at a pit stop with a topped up tank back to a preset base setting....B0...?

    Just an educated guess....
     
  19. Admiral Thrawn

    Admiral Thrawn F1 Rookie

    Jul 2, 2003
    3,932
    Thanks. Sounds pretty probable. If only there was a way to know for sure...
     
  20. F SPIDER

    F SPIDER F1 Rookie
    Owner

    Jan 30, 2002
    2,873
    NYC, A'dam, W'stock
    Full Name:
    rijk rietveld
    So, he is going to need it again in China
     

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