The ECU controls everything including the rate of the fuel pump. Its just racing and the way the teams wait until the last 1/1000's of a second is a chance they all take so sometimes you get it right and then sometimes you do not. Discussing it more now I do believe the error was the teams just so they could get Hammy on the pole for their ego when in all reality they would not have a chance at winning the race.
WOW, I had quali recorded. WHAT A THRILLER! Unbelievable by Pastor, what a session. I've said several times that Maldonado is a good driver, just because he brings $$$ doesn't mean he isn't fast. What can you say about FA? The guy is the MAN. As for the Massa defenders, there's literally nothing you can say now. He's a JOKE. Crazy to read that LH will start last, although if his car was fueled properly maybe Maldonado could have had him? I feel for Hamilton, he would have been on the front row for sure. McLaren is a comedy of ineptitude this year and it's hilarious. Fastest car but the team always manage to bungle things up. Will be fun to watch a mad LH carve up the field tomorrow, though. This season is nuts. It will also be interested to see what MS does starting on the hards if thats what he is indeed starting on?
No. The fuel rigs do have fuel pumps, unlike NASCAR which are gravity fed, because seconds lost in the pits are very crucial especially for F1.
It's hard to believe how a team with McLaren's reputation for attention to detail, meticulous preparation, organised procedures, knowledge of it's car and its fuel consumption, could possibly allow this "mistake" to occur! Based on Hamilton's sudden 0.578 second advantage, I seriously struggle to believe that they didn't just decide to roll the dice and risk under fuelling the car (as they did in Canada in 2010), probably thinking that at worst, Hamilton would just have his fastest time deleted. If that is the case then it has quite rightly bitten them in the arse big time! (Should have happened in Canada too!)
These days in F1 amounts of fuel are more important than speed of delivery. Only during Q could they be pressed for refueling time and it would be rare that seconds would matter even then.
There's no fueling during the race so the only instances where quick fueling would come into play is during qualifying sessions.
I didn't see the qualifying session (trying to get BBC iPlayer to work right now so I can) but I'm sure Hamilton was in the garage for plenty of time between his runs in Q3. They probably just inputted the wrong amount of fuel into the rig's controls.
Yeah I know what happened during qualifying but didn't see it. But I finally got iPlayer to start downloading. It wouldn't let me stream it so I installed the desktop version and then it kept pausing my download after like 2 seconds but hitting unpause over and over paid off and I'll have it done in 15 minutes.
And the conspiracy theories begin - predictably. The rules are clear. You have to make it back to the pits with 1 liter of fuel remaining (at least) in the car. The amount of fuel that Hamilton was short wasn't even close to more than 1/2 second per lap's worth. He would have easily taken pole with the correct amount of fuel. Therefore, trying to game the FIA when you *know* you are going to get caught and penalized has no value, and is not what happened here, obviously.
Why not?, it's not like they've never tried it before! (and got away with it!) Plus, if you're convinced you'd only lose that fastest time, it would still be worth the risk. If they knew they were in the wrong why did they try to argue "force majeure". Surely they would know that it is their responsibility to ensure that the car went out, guaranteed to have the correct amount of fuel to complete all the necessary laps?
He'll have a great race and show what a natural racer he is, that's guaranteed. It's just a shame that one way or another the team has managed to let him down today. (BTW, I wouldn't rule him out for the win!)