Is that part of the Top Gear episode featuring the Renault R24 Formula 1 car? If it is then I won't bother downloading it. What I was referring to was during demonstration days, such as the Corse Clienti days Ferrari holds at various tracks around the world. Also if someone owned an F1 car privately and wanted to go for a quick practice, whether he could do it with the support of only 2 or 3 people.
It's a video of Tiff Needle explaining how the BAR Honda starts up. It's not that detailed in explaining how. Just says that radiators are cooled with fans, compressed air put in for the valves, and then the engine is turned on to warm up with a final run through the gears to see if the gearbox works. I always heard that the oil is first heated before starting the engine. The source said that if this isn't done, the internals of the engine will shatter because of the cold/thick oil.
There's a huge difference between a hot start and a cold start. A cold start is very complex and time consuming. Running one of the newer F1's isn't for the faint of wallet.
It's the episode where they have 3 Hondas (Car, Bike, and Boat) race in the 1/4 mile. I only uploaded where they start the F1, but there's obviously a lot more to starting it than they show.
Yes, I know that is the one you were referring to (because you said so in your post). I have also seen that video; something I mentioned earlier in this thread. I was asking about the other video which someone said features Tiff Needel.
I just sent an email to one of the engineers on the team asking how many people it takes to cold start a car. I'll post an answer when I get a reply.
In answer to the software question, the software used checks and measure every part of the car, like fuel, hydraulics, etc. Any movement on the car, i.e the steering wheel being turned can be monitored whilst the car is in situ. Restrictions can also be put in place, i.e the rev's can limited on the car, etc. They can alter the settings of the car. The only thing the that has to be done when the the car is on its axle stands, is the mechanic will manually go up and down the gears. The throttle is needed for sure to start it, but in the case of emergency (pit stop/grid laptop failure) the driver can start with the help of the starter motor, but they really don't like to do this for the sake of the clutch and damage to the gearbox. I will have to check the procedure for the driver "starting" it themselves. Let me get back to you.
The engine coolant and oil are preheated outside the car and circulated throughout the motor prior to starting. I watched firsthand as Schumacher's 97 season F1 car was prepped, started, and run at a Ferrari customer track day earlier this year. But it only took 1 person to prep everything and 1, excluding driver, to start.
..............but there is another Schumi F2004 with more victories left at the Factory...........Who will be her next owner? Someone who has already have all the Schumi cars........ ?
Hi everyone, I just came across this thread and would like to contribute a little first hand knowledge. First of all it is necessary to qualify what constitutes a modern F1 Fcar. In my opinion any car without pneumatic valves is not modern with respect to the amount of mechanics needed to properly start the car. As Admiral Thawn has witnessed, it is possible to employ two people, one in the cokpit and one operating the external starter motor. (Older cars with built in starter can even be operated alone if you like to work a lot and drive...) What you need is a conservative programming on the ECU of the engine so it will operate decent under most conditions. Heat up the internal fluids so the engine already has about 75 deg C, check the fuel pressure, connect an additional external battery, insert the starter and off you go. Later cars with more complex electronics are much more difficult to start and operate and can only be started by two people under ideal circumstances, valve pressure ok, engine pressure ok, engine temp ok, etc... if you start up a 1997 car on this basis and it doesn´t run, you once again need laptop, electronic specialist, etc... Cars of 1999 and later definetely require a minimum of 3 to 4 specialists to properly start and monitor the car SAFELY. Of course you can start it with 2 people by plugging in the starter motor and... but you can expect a huge repair bill shortly. There is a reason why F1 clienti attends the meetings with 10 mechanics to prepare and start the 1999 and later cars, for example this past weekend in Zolder. They do a fantastic job in monitoring every aspect of these complex machines. Additionally as a client you do not have acces to the electronics and the software, extremely complex anyway...
Since all the components are electronically intertwined, it would be impossible for one single person to posess all the knowledge or attend to all areas at the same moment to properly start up these cars. Clutch, gearbox, air pressure, radiator flow, valve pressure, engine temp, traction control, etc... Another factor is time. On the older cars one experienced mechanic can prepare the car beforehand and later warm up the engine, this needs around two hours on each car. The modern cars you have to prepare and setup various parapeters at the same time, so you need more people and it still takes quite some preparation time. When the F1 clienti cars get started for our demos, all this work has already been done...
The 97 Scumacher car (#178) I took care of while in Australia was reasonably straight forward. There is an umbilical cable, which basically powers up all the circuitry that is otherwise dead until the alternator is running. This just clips onto a slave battery and plugs into a port on the side of the car. The most important thing is the pneumatic priming. This is done through a special valve attached to a high pressure cylinder one end and the accumulator port the other. Once the engine is running, it's own pump provides pressure and it has it's own accumulator (noisy spring loaded contraption) that lasts for several minutes. Ideally, fuel pressure is primed also, through a special pump system, but they "forgot" to supply us that... so I just squirted fuel into the butterflies with the air box off.... This was after a a couple of email exchanges that suggested it!! They said we needed no special precautions to start if ambient was over 15 deg C. If less, just heat whole car with space heaters. The starter attached easily, and the car would fire up after two or three goes usually. There was an access hole to blip the throttle. There was no lap top/info provided. We ran the car for several months... until the oil pump sucked up an errant "K" nut from "inside the engine"... and it went back to the factory for repairs. I belive Frank Mountain bought it, but I'd be interested in where it is now for sure. It's the car Sheuy turned into Villeneuve at Jerz, and also won Suzuka that year.
Nigel and Phil, thanks for the input! It's great that we have people here with first-hand experience running Formula 1 cars. There are a few other things I've been wondering recently. I'll ask them one at a time so as not to convolute my posts. One is the issue of pumps within the car. I noticed that, for example, the fuel pump is mechanical and run off the engine. I assume it is not electronic because: 1. Electronic wouldn't be able to provide enough pressure 2. Something else to go wrong (i.e. electronic more tempremental than mechanical) 3. Weight advantage? 4. Space advantage? RE points 3 and 4, most electronic pumps I've seen are smaller and lighter than mechanical pumps. Also how does the mechanical fuel pump in an F1 car work? I take it it's not the diaphragm type, but rather uses some sort of piston?
Well, I can only say about the 97 car... Yes, the fuel pump is mechanical. It is mounted inside the tank area but driven by a very short splined shaft that sticks out the front of the engine. The pump is a rotary sliding vane type. the drive shaft is about 60mm long... and is easy to forget/mis align when mounting the engine to the tub.......
