Vettel not speeding in Singapore

[FB]

Red Bull have "unofficially protested" Vettel's speeding penalty in Singapore. Using their own telemetry Reb Bull have apparently proven that Vettel was not speeding, rather it is the system the FIA use which was at fault. The car's speed is calculated by the time it takes to cover set segments in the pit lane, rather than by laser or radar, which means the line the driver takes through the segment can effect the speed calculated. Vettel was 1.4 km/h over the speed limit.

I presume Red Bull's desire is to make sure it doesn't happen again in the future but this does present a bit of a dilema. If the FIA put radar guns or lasers to measure the pit lane speed what chance is there that a driver, knowing where these are positioned, will make sure they are at the right speed when passing the speed trap? The only option I can see, if the timed segment system is used, is for there to be a white line which the drivers must follow into and out of the pit lane to ensure the measurements are taken over exactly the same route.

Anyone any other ideas?

 

[Brogan]

How do you unofficially protest?

I can see their point.
It must be galling to think that as they took a tighter line through the curving pit entry, their average speed was very slightly higher and therefore they were deemed to be speeding.

From what I can gather though he was (legally) cutting the white line which denotes the edge of the lane or something and therefore making the route very slightly shorter.

So the solution is easy.
Do very precise measurements on the tightest line possible, ensuring the car stays within the white lines and use that as the benchmark time.
It may be that this is what the FIA did and by cutting the white line, Vettel only has himself to blame.

Or, all the teams set their limiters to 1kph below the limit.
Red Bull's are currently set to 99.5kph so set them to 99kph and that should stop it happening in the future.

 

[sobriety]

Or the FiA could just ensure that the entrance is on a straight, surely it's just a case of painting a white line in a different place?

 

[GeoffP]

Or the FiA could just ensure that the entrance is on a straight, surely it's just a case of painting a white line in a different place?

By George, I think he's got it!

Actually, nah, way too simple, where's the controversy in that?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Well they can't officially protest because as we all know you can't appeal a penalty applied during a race no matter how wrong it was.

 

[FB]

A more radical proposal - do away with in-race pitstops and make the drivers use one tank of fuel and one set of tyres for the entire race.

That way we might find out who is the best driver rather than who has the best strategy or pit crew. Or who is or isn't favoured by the team principal and keeps having his pit stops and/or strategy buggered up so his team mate finishes in front of him. Pha!

Sorry, going off at a tangent again...

 

[RickD]

Sorry, playing devils advocate here, but Vettwl was the ONLY person who was speeding in the pit lane. If this had hapened to more drivers, I could understand Red Bulls point, but as it didn't, the penalty is fair.

The FIA can not be seen to be lenient on this matter in any regard as the limit is there for a reason.

 

[O_Danny_Boy]

I can see both sides of the coin but the timing method is well accepted in multiple forms of racing. These types of things happen when you are on the edge of the rules. As Brogan said, its a simple as a tweak to the speed limiter in the car. There isn't much point to crying about it now...

 

[Speshal]

Don't F1 cars have transponders in them?

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules ... ions/8709/

surely the FIA can work out a simple distance/time=speed calculation?

 

[O_Danny_Boy]

Don't F1 cars have transponders in them?

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules ... ions/8709/

surely the FIA can work out a simple distance/time=speed calculation?

I think that's essentially the way it works, there is multiple timing loops along pit lane and they calculate speed based on distance between them and the time. Can someone confirm this?

 

[The Artist.....]

Of course, there's a possibility that everyone's ignoring, and that's that the Red Bull speed trace is wrong....

(I know, it shouldn't be, but consider if there was less tyre wear than expected, then the radius of the tyres would be larger when entering the pits, and so based on RPM of the wheels, the speed would be underestimated. This could be achieved similarly through over-inflation of the tyres. )