Winter testing 2014

If it was just the Cans suffering, possibly. But neither Caterham or STR are doing much of anything either. From Autosport;

12:04 A quick look at how many laps the various engines have completed today, while we are quiet again:

Mercedes 115 (four cars running)
Ferrari 60 (two cars running)
Renault 33 (three cars running)

So Renault seem to be in a world of hurt.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

True but RB are in a mess and now lotus look brilliant for not making the trip.

 

I definitely wouldn't go that far!..... At least RB know they've got some issues and can start working on fixing them before Bahrain. Lotus are in the dark..... Will their (virtual? ) car also overheat the batteries? Will they have other issues?

Cheers,
Ian

 

I wouldn't go that far... Lotus will still look foolish if they show up at the next test and have to work through the same issues all the other Renault guys are experiencing now.

However, if they show up and immediately put down 40+ laps we might all change our tune very quickly

 

And that's before Dr. Marko has started the chainsaw

Why? Every bit of experience with the new cars is extremely valuable, and I'm sure every team has encountered and fixed countless minor problems over the last two days.

 

RB's battery is packed to tightly to the turbo.

Bit of a silly mistake that, Newey.

I wonder if they have these things heatwrapped? Lots of high performance turbo guys use turbo blankets; they wrap the hotside, run the car at full and can immediately touch the blanket (actually GRAB hold of it if they wish to do so). That's proper heatwrapping .

 

Do you have a source for that, Bas?

 

This is just hilarious, Red Bull can't go a mile without their car catching fire.

 

I thought the battery had to be packed under the fuel tank per regulation?

I think their MGU-H may be harvesting energy too aggressively and the battery just can't take it because their battery cooling and/or battery just aren't up to proper spec.

 

+1

I'm not sure about that at all. I'd need to check, but IIRC, it's mandated that the batteries must in the bottom of the gas tank...... Certainly wouldn't want all that weight up high by the turbo anyway.

Cheers,
Ian

 

1 Button (McLaren) 1m25.030s, 40 laps
2 Alonso (Ferrari) 1m25.495s, 32 laps
3 Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m25.973s, 45 laps
4 Massa (Williams) 1m26.435s, 36 laps
5 Sutil (Sauber) 1m30.161s, 32 laps
6 Hulkenberg (Force India) 1m30.205s, 7 laps
7 Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m45.525s, 22 laps
8 Frijns (Caterham) no time, 10 laps
9 Ricciardo (Red Bull) no time, 3 laps

 

Gary Anderson via Autosport wrote:
I doubt there is anyone at Jerez who is using all the potential of the car and wringing its neck just yet as mileage is still the priority.

So that includes not using the electrical power to its maximum or the full 15,000rpm. In fact, the paddock grapevine has it that Mercedes is running at a maximum of 13,000rpm and Ferrari just a little higher than that.

 

I know I continously beat the "don't overestimate ECU maps" drum, but this time it's really the case of fiddling with a few variables. If you energy harvesting strategy is too aggressive, change some parameters, done.

 

For their sake I hope that's the case, but they sure seem to be having a lot of unexpected issues at the circuit which I cannot imagine they accounted for in the dyno.

Your expertise with this is most appreciated! thank you

 

MB mounts a monkey seat for the first time this afternoon
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Your point with the dyno is a very good one. One thing that's difficult to simulate at the engine test bed is the thermal behaviour of the whole system in its package.

The Renault batteries being, uhm, thermally challenged - either by physical design or by a crappy BMS software - and Newey's design being a bit too tight for keeping them cool seems the most plausible theory so far. It explains why all the Renault teams have problems, but Red Bull has the worst.

 

Autosport:

This strongly indicates that a) the problem is Renault's, and only they can fix it and b) it will take a long time, otherwise at least Horner would have stayed to put pressure on Renault.

 

Horner and Newey have left the track....uh oh!

 

We dont have alot of laps but we are getting a ton of drama!!

 

Oh yes! Great for a day like this, where my identification algorithms take hours and hours and I have nothing to do but watch if they explode or not... and can post on Fchat while doing so

(Ironically, I'm just trying to get a good model of my exhaust gas temperatures )

 

Back to the drawing board for Red Bull:

#F1Jerez Red Bull problem is a packaging problem. Battery and ERS elements are too close to heat sources and suffer quick overheating


Big problem

 

14:31 And it clearly worked because Hamilton sets a new best time of 1m23.952s

 

Hate comments like these. I don't want F1 to merely "survive" I want it to THRIVE! Fuel saving is not racing, sorry.

 

It will be interesting to see if anyone breaks 1:20 here

 

Eh...I wouldn't put too much stock into anything this guy says.