Engines?

[sportsman]

I think that most of the teams use an old past its sell by date for FP 1 and 2.
The race engine is fitted for FP 3 and the rest of the weekend.There are no penalties for swapping engines unless you fit a new unit.

 

[Brogan]

Yep, same goes for gearboxes.
Only P3, Q and the race are classed as an "event", so they can use an old gearbox in P1 and P2, as long as they fit the current gearbox before P3 starts.

 

[FB]

" Brogan said:
so they can use an old gearbox in P1 and P2

I bet they couldn't use one from a 1967 Ford Anglia!

Sorry, couldn't resist :doh:

 

[Grizzly]

I also thought that it may be that most of the engines are lasting their cycles because come the final part of the race a lot of them will be turned down (yellowG5'd) to conserve fuel, thus helping to protect the engine?

Not necessarily. Turning the revs down will increase longevity, but they lean the engines out as much as possible to save fuel, this is not a reliability/longevity move, its to make the fuel last and can increase wear/decrease longevity as combustion temps rocket up when you do this.

 

[Brogan]

Yep, I've seen more than a few engines go pop due to running lean (back in my youth when I was part of a car club working on cars).

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Grizzly said:

[quote:tifnpfsa]Speshal said:
I also thought that it may be that most of the engines are lasting their cycles because come the final part of the race a lot of them will be turned down (yellowG5'd) to conserve fuel, thus helping to protect the engine?

Not necessarily. Turning the revs down will increase longevity, but they lean the engines out as much as possible to save fuel, this is not a reliability/longevity move, its to make the fuel last and can increase wear/decrease longevity as combustion temps rocket up when you do this.[/quote:tifnpfsa]

So aren't the teams being a bit shortsighted, constantly under-filling their cars so that they have to eke the fuel out just to finish the race, all for a bit of extra pace at the beginning? Several times this season it seems that a driver has been in a position where he might have been able to attack an opponent, but couldn't be cause he had to 'save fuel'.

If the longevity of engines is affected too by this approach, leading to possible grid-place penalties towards the crunch part of the season, maybe the benefit of being lighter at the start of races is not so significant. Especially if (or when) someone cocks up and a driver runs out of fuel before the end of a race.

 

[Enja]

Yep, I've seen more than a few engines go pop due to running lean (back in my youth when I was part of a car club working on cars).

Youth? Brogan? Are you quite sure?

 

[Grizzly]

Yeah an interesting point, to which I'm not qualified to answer. It comes back to the teams strategists mulling over many many variables and deciding the best pace VS. least risk compromise.....

I know Martin Brundle often talks about 1kg fuel = 2/10s a lap

Fuel is not just fuel in an IC engine. It is also a coolant. The perfect combustion ratio is called stoichiometric, however, ideally you never run an engine like this because combustion temps rise way above the melting point of aluminium (your pistons)... and you invite pre-ignition, or detonation, an uncontrolled explosion in the loosest sense of the term.. so nearly all IC engine on the planet run a tiny bit rich, the extra fuel is called quench, and cools the internal surfaces before and most importantly, during each cycle because after combustion, there is a small amount of fuel unburned to 'soak up' that extra heat. If you can 'safely' remove some of this fuel, you just saved yourself some weight/time etc etc.