Winter testing 2014

You are right of course, and I'm sure it'll be fixed by next year...

But the fans are all predicting this, which must mean there are some extraordinary stupid people sitting on the F1 board dreaming up the rules.

It's few things that really should never have been done for this season (double points, fuel limit and pathetic amount of engines in 1 season for completely new regs, hideous solution to the front end).

Some people need a severe case of public execution .

 

FA is on the track now. I look forward to his feedback today vs what Kimi is saying. Will be interesting.

 

The problem with the way F1 is run is a very simple one, the people in charge believe their own hype,(big surprise right?) and thus have started to think they know better what the customer wants than the customer. While the F1 customer base is not universal, there will be a resounding rejection from the customer if F1 descends into fuel saving economy sprints. Many people bemoaned the arrival of KERS, as they did the V8s, V10s, mandatory tire compound changes, DRS, paddle shift gearboxes etc, but by in large these things did not kill the 'excitement' or racing, however if you directly take the racing out of the racing, what are you left with? Ugly, slow cars governed by a collection of people whom believe they know better than the customer. And that formula, my friend, won't work.

 

Meh, F1 survived fuel starvation in the 80s, don´t worry.

Red Bull not on track, other Renault powered cars with problems... Does Lotus know something that the others don´t?

 

If they know it's better to simply stay at home, I see trouble ahead

 

Quote Autosport:

Which tells us that no Renault powered car has yet done a lap at speed. I'd be worried if I had one of their power units!

 

Renault is facing the wrath of Dr Marko possibly now!

 

"Wrath" in a "ripping their heads off and drinking their blood" fashion? Oh yes.

 

Red flag for a Red Bull which started smoking on its first lap.... uh uh.

 

Ermm

 

this turbocharged engines sounds like a crap, this sport need to die

 

Bye.

 

Indeed not looking good for any of the Renault teams.

Merc is indeed looking best (engines and the team). Ferrari looking second best with issues happening but seemingly to be able to fix it quickly.


Still early days of course but the more running you can do, the better.

 

Now the blood drinking begins lol!

 

Now the blood drinking begins lol!

 

That means Renault Sport have not managed to fix the battery packs overnight. This is seriously bad news for all Renault customers.

 

Yep. Slow ugly and quiet is NOT the F1 I grew up with. Massive fail if this turns out to be the case this year.

 

Despite the smoke the RB had been out again, for the awesome number of one lap.

 

Check out my posts in this thread from last night. Renault Sport have rebuilt all the battery packs cell by cell, because there's an issue with the Battery Management System shutting the battery down and cells dropping out. Apparently there's a problem with what they call "thermal runaway" too.

 

Thanks, did not see that!

"Thermal runaway" means the following: If certain kinds of lithium ion batteries heat up beyond a certain temperature, their materials react exothermally - i.e., they release thermal energy, heating up the cell further, which accellerates the exothermal reactions, and so on, until the cell is a nice ball of fire.

 

That can't be good.

I wonder if its more of them getting too hot or RB not being able to cool them enough.

 

Quoting from MisterMaranellos link to racecar engineering:
Renault battery failures stop teams testing | Racecar Engineering

It is a bit of a contradiction that he rules out overheating and thermal runaway is a problem. The way I read it is that the BMS software malfunctions and shuts down single cells to protect them from overheating (which can lead to the runaway) although it is not necessary.
Vibration caused cell drop out leading to a thermal runaway does not make sense to me, only if the vibrations caused single cells to short out.

 

See the post I wrote while you posted - maybe there isn't an overheating problem. But usually, there's no smoke without overheating, and we've seen smoke today

 

Gary Anderson:
Gary Anderson on Red Bull's troubles with its new Renault-powered F1 car - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

The control electronics shouldn't make too much trouble. The power electronics are critical in terms of overheating (of the electronics, not the batteries!). But they could well be integrated in one package.

 

Apparently Renault has issues with RB's electronics installation. Newey packaging too tight?