Investigation Into Massa's Belgian Grid Start

I heard Brundle call it before the lights even went out. BBC/ITV commentary team. Its rubbish, they (race officials) knew but didn't have the guts to do anything. Didn't make much of a difference in the end.

 

PlanetF1 is lightly suggesting Massa did it since he qualied higher than FA. Penalty would help FA move up. Crazy as it sounds Renault team leadership once asked a driver to crash on purpose

 

That is a bit of Oliver Stone for you. What will they do at Monza?

Did you see this quote from the German GP post race press conference?

http://www.forumula1.net/2010/f1/f1-news/german-grand-prix-2010-post-race-press-conference/

Singapore 2008 LOL

 

I don't think it's not allowed on the grid as I'm sure I've seen drivers who have realized that they have overshot their Grid spot (like Massa did), back up slightly into the correct position and not get any penalties.

In Massa's case, My monies on him being in autopilot mode ready for the start and not even realizing.

As for the sensor not picking up Massa's position, that could be down to a faulty sensor or it may be that he was simply too far forward for it to register anything.

Also, it should be remembered that the primary function of the sensor is to detect any movement by the car before the lights go out, not to check the cars position on the grid.
In Massa's case, although he was out of position, he wasn't moving so therefore there was no error detected. (Just a possible theory ).

 

I am guessing that the sensor is a beam at the front of the box. It trips if it is broken before the start lights go out. Massa's front wheels will have been past that sensor and the only way he could trip it is if his rear wheels broke it before the start lights went out.

 

I'm almost certain (!) your guess is incorrect......

They carry a transponder which can be mounted anywhere on the car. This will detect a jumped start if the receiver detects movement before the lights go out, but they don't have 24 "beams" firing across the track.

I *think* they now use the same system as MotoGP and Le Mans among others, made by AMB out of Holland - They started out doing tiny transponders for RC car racing and have done "very nicely" - It started as a post-grad research study by a guy who's brother (?) was the 1/8th gas WC at the time.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I know the AMB products well and I think they charge way too much for what it is.

I am not sure how that would work. I think the AMB system has a wire in the track at the start finish and also at the sectors I guess that receives the transponder serial number that ties back to the car number. They would have to put a receiver in every pit box. How accurate is that system? I don't know how it would sense movement.

After reading your post 24 beams across the track does seem a bit much but I would think that it would be easier than digging the track up.

Someone should look this up and see what the FIA use for F1

 

I believe back in 2006 at the Malaysian GP, Massa pulled off the same mistake, a fellow Fchatter spotted this and posted this here in fact.