Vettel's Gearbox

[RasputinLives]

I have to say I really don't know and Webber's had such a terrible year I wouldn't want to ruin it more by rubbing his nose in it.

What was funny though was when Brundle asked Coulthard about it on the commentary DC suddenly found other things to talk about and the topic never came back up again. Nicely avoided David.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

The lap chart speaks for itself.

Third fastest lap of the race too, on lap 68.

Sorry if I'm appearing a bit thick - but what have the Abu Dhabi GP lap times got to do with it!?

 

[Brogan]

Oh ignore the chart title, I just didn't update it from last time.

 

[Viscount]

Did Red Bull actually say what the supposed problem was with Vettel's gearbox? I know Hamilton had an oil leak with his.

 

[FB]

Word was it had an oil leak as well and Red Bull were surprised it went past 1/3rd distance.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I suspected shenanigans from the outset, but as G has posted earlier, I don't think the drivers were in on it.

Fairly clever on RBR's part, and I don't think anyone will know the full story for quite some time.

This doesn't tarnish Webber's victory in my eyes though, as there have been many GP wins over the years that were much less deserved.

 

[Viscount]

Well in that case I doubt it was genuine. With Hamilton's gearbox problem his engineer just said to him that there's nothing he can do in the car, whereas Vettel's engineer seemed to think he could manage the issue from the car and seemed to get progressively more dramatic telling him to short shift second gear, then second and third, then every corner.

Plus his comment about feeling like Senna in '91 and the RB pit wall laughing at the comment, didn't really make it seem a tense moment for them.

 

[Josh]

Plus his comment about feeling like Senna in '91 and the RB pit wall laughing at the comment, didn't really make it seem a tense moment for them.

I think it helps when you don't have anything to lose...

 

[sportsman]

This is Mark Webbers comment from the post race press conference.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96552 I thought something might have been going down and then Ciaron informed me that he had a gearbox problem and I think I could smell it a little bit when I got close, and there was also a little bit of fluid. Normally, that's a nice feeling

 

[Brogan]

I could smell something too, definitely wasn't oil though.

 

[Josh]

I could smell something too, definitely wasn't oil though.

Did it smell like fish?

 

[Brogan]

It was more bovine

 

[Jos the Boss]

I smelt someone trying to fool us!

 

[Mephistopheles]

If Vettel had a gear box problem I'll cut off all my buttons change my name to Abram Schwartz and start an Amish community in Somerset.

And I have no doubt that the drivers were in on it either, Vettel definitely was you can tell by the radio transmissions.

 

[FB]

Hmmm, Somerset Armish eh?

http://ajoyfulchaos.blogspot.com/2009/07/amish-in-somerset-county-pa.html

 

[Mephistopheles]

Right I'll start growing the beard without the

 

[racecub]

Ive not voted; because I dont know whether to go for option 2 or 3. I cant help but think if he raced as hard as he did he cant have had a gear box problem. But I'm told(by more technical people than myself) that I do not understand gear box problems and that an oil leak would not affect performance. Is that so? Is there a technical person that can explain this (in not too technical language)to me.

 

[Brogan]

The oil leak itself wouldn't affect performance, but it would cause the gearbox to overheat and eventually fail.

What would cause a reduction in performance is short shifting every gear.
Doesn't seem to have caused him to lose too much time though considering how many gear changes there are per lap...

Short shifting in itself also wouldn't stop the oil leak so luckily there was just enough oil to make it to the end of the race...

 

[racecub]

Yes that makes it clearer about the performance. Thank you. Do you think that happened, or it was just a scam? It sounds like Im coming to the 'we'll never know ' option

 

[Brogan]

Until Horner admits it, we'll never know