Red Bull: Fuel system vacuum triggered Bahrain F1 GP exits Red Bull has established that a vacuum within its fuel system triggered its double retirement for Max in last weekend's Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Ah - F1 peace achieved lol Hulkenberg and Magnussen move on from "suck my balls" moment Formula 1 drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have buried their differences five years after their infamous "suck my balls" confrontation at the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hulkenberg to replace Vettel again in Saudi Arabian F1 GP Nico Hulkenberg will remain at Aston Martin for this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with Sebastian Vettel sidelined for the second Formula 1 race in succession after contracting COVID-19.
Yup, that’s the porpoise—literally. I think the teams, as a first attempt at eliminating the porpoising phenomenon, are trying to reduce (a bit counterintuitively) the sealing effect of the floor edges so the DF doesn’t spike up as the floor in this area comes close to the ground. The real fix will be revising the underfloor tunnel design.
Anthony Davidson on air now saying fuel can get to over 100c celsius...had no idea the fuel got THAT hot behind the driver!
Expected it was pretty high and this explains how they got caught out. At higher temps, ethanol evaporates faster than gasoline.
Looks to me like they've also changed the camera angles through the sweepers to make them look less dangerous...
Very interesting, thanks! -- RBR looking very good here to far. Car dialed in, looks a lot better to drive than the rest. Dialed in or low fuel? Guess we'll find out saturday but if all on same-ish fuel load RBR look to own this weekend.
F1 fuel vacuum explained, and why Red Bull may have missed it 5 hours ago By Gary Anderson 29 Comments https://the-race.com/formula-1/f1-fuel-vacuum-explained-and-why-red-bull-may-have-missed-it/ Red Bull’s disastrous double retirement in the closing stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which cost Max Verstappen second place and Sergio Perez fourth, has been blamed by Red Bull on a loss of fuel pressure despite there being sufficient fuel still in the tank. So the question is, what exactly is the mechanism that caused this and why did Red Bull not realise the potential problem before the race? To understand how cars can be in a position not to have the fuel to continue despite there being enough left in the tank, we have to take a look in more detail at how the fuel system in an F1 car works. Red Bull’s statement said: “Both cars suffered from a lack of fuel pressure last weekend. The correct amount of fuel was in both cars but a vacuum prevented the pumps from drawing fuel and delivering it to the engine.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Fuel systems are fairly simple and actually very similar to those in today’s road cars. There is a big tank in the middle of the car that you put fuel in to suit the distance you are hoping to travel, and there is an outlet at the bottom that feeds the high-pressure pump. This supplies the fuel under pressure to the engine’s injectors, so it couldn’t be much simpler. Within a typical F1 car’s fuel system, there will be some small-ish surge collectors, possibly one in each corner of the tank. As the car brakes or accelerates, turns left or right, these small, perhaps one-litre, reservoirs will fill up. Then, small low-pressure pumps will pump that fuel into a collector tank. This will be a tall collector, probably around two litres’ capacity. Image Unavailable, Please Login The 10 worst starts to F1 title defences Read more At the top of that collector tank there will either be a small hole to vent the air out as the pumps fill that collector with fuel, or a small pressure-relief valve that blows off when the collector is under pressure from the low-pressure pumps filling the collector. A small pressure-relief valve is my preferred route as it puts a small amount of pressure on the feed line to the high pressure pump increasing the boiling point of the fuel and in turn reducing the risk of cavitation when the high-pressure pump is requiring full flow. To get the fuel out of the tank, you need to let air into the tank. At the very minimum, there should be a small valve on the fuel hatch that allows air into the tank to stop the high-pressure pump from creating a vacuum in the volume of the tank. One way is to actually have the tank volume under a very small pressure. A simple feed from the airbox intake or a high-pressure area somewhere on the car will be enough to pressure the tank to remove any risk of a vacuum. It would need a one-way valve on this line to stop any fuel from spilling out if the car was inverted, but that’s not a big problem. Image Unavailable, Please Login Gary Anderson: Why Ferrari’s puzzling sidepods really do work Read more The hotter the fuel gets, the more risk of cavitation. This is the process whereby the fuel overheats and vapourises and prevents the high-pressure pump achieving the pressures required to operate the injectors. So near the end of the race when the fuel is getting a bit low and there is very little volume left to dissipate that temperature, you need the collector pressure system to be working at its best. This wasn’t the case for Red Bull, which was likely not helped by the late safety-car period – which slowed the cars and reduced the overall cooling and therefore potentially increased the temperature of the fuel. There’s no guarantee this is exactly the system Red Bull has and there are various problems that could cause this. But given it has said it was a vacuum that prevented the pumps drawing fuel, the problem does appear to be fuel cavitation. So this creates what’s also known as vapour lock, caused by the high temperature of a small amount of remaining fuel. Most likely, this was caused by the fact that the new E10 fuel does get a little hotter than the previous generation of fuel. Image Unavailable, Please Login The big question is, why Red Bull didn’t anticipate this problem? This is exactly the scenario that pre-season testing is for. It’s likely that arriving on the last day with a completely new bodywork package probably disrupted its test programme, the consequence of which was it not completing a full race simulation that might have raised the problem. Red Bull says it has now solved the problem. One way that could be done is carrying a little extra fuel, which comes with a weight penalty. Every 10kg of fuel is a time penalty of roughly 0.3s around a typical lap, so if you start with 10kg extra and use all of it, that’s an average of 5kg extra over the race distance at a cost of 0.15s per lap. So over a 57-lap race like Bahrain that will cost you 8.5s compared to the ideal fuel level. So it wasn’t that Red Bull made a fuelling error, but it did fail to anticipate a potential problem in the fuelling system. As they say, to finish first, first you have to finish. So Red Bull will probably put that little bit extra in the tank in Saudi Arabia. I know I would. But the last few laps in Saudi will definitely be toe-tappers for Christian Horner!
Through a friend who worked at Hewland, I met Gary Anderson when he was at Technical Director at Jordan; he already had a huge experience in F1. I found that he was not big-headed but easy to get on and quite knowledgable. I doubt if he has lost these qualities since.
Frankly I don’t dislike any of these guys however I will still make jokes about them. Gary did get it quite wrong about the Ferrari’s and can eat some crow.
He is very easy going and would accept he was wrong I am sure. The guy is quite layback and don't mind to discuss without looking down on a layman.
