http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83744 Sebastian Vettel is to be given a new chassis for the Turkish Grand Prix after his Red Bull Racing team discovered a fault on the car he had used in Monaco. The German has been beaten by team-mate Mark Webber in the last two races, and in Monaco he had no response for his team-mate's pace throughout the weekend. After the cars returned to the Red Bull Racing factory earlier this week, the team conducted a detailed investigation into the car Vettel has used all season (chassis number 3), and discovered a fault - although it has not specified exactly what it is. With the outfit determined to give both its drivers an equal chance of battling for the championship, however, it has decided to give Vettel a replacement chassis for the next race of the season in Istanbul. When asked by AUTOSPORT to clarify the chassis situation, team principal Christian Horner said: "Sebastian Vettel experienced some handling peculiarities with his current chassis during the Monaco GP. Upon further investigation a small defect was found on his chassis, which will be replaced for the next race in Turkey." Webber used chassis number 2 for the season opener in Bahrain, but switched to chassis 4 after that.
Chassis "issues" seem to be quite popular these days. First Schumacher, then Alonso and now Vettel!. Mmmm..., whats going on with these chassis'?, are they no longer up to the job?.
That's what I'm thinking. Interesting to how he does next race. Neweys cars aren't known for their durability.
My guess is if that was the case, it would have led to a very fast and catastrophic failure under extreme G forces, but that was my first thought also, until thinking about it.
it was the loose nut between the steering wheel and the seat seriously, this is under racing excuse #69 I've used it several times but all the other racers call it BS
BINGO! Give the man a cigar! On SpeedTV 2 races ago IIRC, Newey said that they were bringing out an f-duct chassis in time for Turkey... What a coincidence...imagine that Frank
I don't think there's anything special about a new chassis. History has shown that teams use several chassis during one season. But if a faulty chassis does have an influence on the handling, I guess it must be something to do with the connection points between the tub and the other parts, presumeably the suspension pick up points? If the tub itself would be at fault, I guess it would be flexing. Which I'm sure it shouldn't, which would make it a serious problem.
That's not true. Depends completely on how the part is made up. And it has inherent flex like any other material, in fact that is often used to advantage (suspension for instance). The fibers are very strong in tension, but they flex like string. Depends on how you lay up the cloth, direction of the fibers, the resin used, etc. Cannondale makes a trick rear mountain bike suspension that uses a flattened CF chainstay that acts as a pivot and flexes deliberately in one plane probably 15 degrees. And that's a commercial mountain bike, so it has to be sturdy to handle the ridiculous product liability in the US.
Very true, but I thought we were talking about Vettel's monocoque being damaged, or did I miss something? At least in my (limited) experience in manufacturing CF monocoques, they're designed not to flex.
Composite failures are not nearly as dramatic as their metallic counterparts when it is due to fatigue. There is no worry of crack propagation to critical levels as was seen in the early days of aviation. Instead, delamination results in a weakening of the structure. Indeed any additional flexing will introduce a compliance not accounted for during vehicle dynamics calculations. In top level racing series the suspension travel is so small that the compliances are accounted for very closely as much of the travel occurs due to sidewall compliance etc. That's just not true. The entire suspension travel in Formula 1 is due to A-Arm flexure. The wisbones are bolted to the hard points of the tub directly. No spherical bearings are used. I read you second post and understand what you're saying. Obviously the monocoque would ideally be rigid but it never is completely so. The amount of flex is estimated. The tub was likely inspected after the race and a defect was either found optically or through use of ultrasound.
the next time you see a car with a carbon fiber hood... hopefully like a civic or a renault or maybe even an evo... when no one is looking... go stand on the hood. tell me your findings... or watch this video... (there are better, but none are more entertaining... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_KFshx6664&feature=related
