chris walrod

Once you lose just one corner [of your car] your abilities to decelerate diminish greatly. Even telemetry wont always be the tell-tale as with just about any hit with the wall, pads knock back into the calipers (or worse, fly out) leaving one with a pedal flat on the pedal bulkhead. In other words, no F or R brake pressure, which is most likely what the data will read. So, in the end, I would bet MW's foot was on the pedal to the floor.

Drivers who spend enough time on high speed ovals are schooled to actually pull their feet and knees up and away from the pedals upon impact. However, that natural instinct to brake and brake hard must be something very difficult to overrule in the mere microseconds a race driver has to decide what to do.

SundayDriver

If you read the thread, you will see that I never contended his car was that damaged. The other person stated that you could stop a race car with only one wheel intact.

M758

Not true. Webber hit the wall and the left rear suspension broke. It is hard to see initially, but when you see the reverse camera view (the "rosberg angle") you clearly see the right front tire way off the ground as webber is moving across the track. That also confirm that the left rear suspension was broken. So that left only two tires in contact with the road and suspect braking capabilites based on the hit. It was completly possible for the the car to move back across the track like that. Sure it might have sayed on the wall to, but with only two wheels on the ground (and cross corners especially) cars don't roll in predictable ways.

I cannot determine how fragile the braking system is on the Red Bull. In sports car the damage would have been less dramatic for the wall contact. However in F1 the car tend to be strong only in very specific directions. Many times we have seen off angle hits seeming like light taps cause significant damage to carbon suspension components. That is the price to pay for such lighte weight performance. Where F1 cars are strong is not suspensions, but the tubs designed to save the drivers. Both the Red Bull and Mercedes chassis worked well in doing that.

RajDatta

C'mon. Don't you know, Ferrari is by far the fastest car. Anyone could drive it the way Alonso has. I mean, look at his teammate, who is right up there too
He keeps losing more credibility very day

Veloce Raptor

Someone kill this thread, please. It has run into the crapper.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

9.5 Degrees

+1. It's pretty clear the car has improved and it's timing when the former McLaren employee came to Ferrari cannot be overlooked, but someone has to drive that car and in looking at both Ferrari drivers, it becomes more and more evident with each race that Fernando is light years ahead of Massa.

9.5 Degrees

to your point, open wheelers are told to take their hands off the steering wheel before impact too if I'm not mistaken.

The brake reservoirs are located at the front of the car as well and if those were compromised, then there would have been no pressure.

ltc

It depends on what your definition of "it" is ...

It is obvious that the car has improved, initially the engine (courtesy of the FIA), then the aero (courtesy of Pat Frye). It is somewhat ironic the continued linkage between Ferrari and McLaren in the post Stepney years.

That having been said, giving Alonso a better car should produce better results, even if his driving ability remains the same. Simple, nothing more than that, he has been given a much better car than he had prior to Frye's arrival.
Couple that with the misfortune/mistakes by his fellow competitors and teams, and it is easy to see how the results were obtained.

Put another way, if Newey had been given the Mercedes engine (blocked by Haug) or a Ferrari engine (blocked by the team), the RBR chassis would be much more dominant across all track types (i.e. not having such a disadvantage on the long straights due to be down on power), giving that hypotethetical car to either Webber or Vettel would produce a similar increase in performance as has been seen in the Alonso/Ferrari combination.

TwentySix

So here is where the engine count stood going into this last race at Korea:

From : The FIA Formula One Technical Delegate
To : The Stewards of the Meeting Date : 21 October 2010
Technical Delegate’s Report

The drivers entered in the 2010 Formula One Championship have used the below listed

number of new engines during this season up to now:

Number Car Driver New engines used so far

01 McLaren Mercedes Jenson Button 8
02 McLaren Mercedes Lewis Hamilton 8
03 Mercedes Benz Michael Schumacher 8
04 Mercedes Benz Nico Rosberg 8
05 RBR Renault Sebastian Vettel 8
06 RBR Renault Mark Webber 7
07 Ferrari Felipe Massa 9
08 Ferrari Fernando Alonso 8
09 Williams Cosworth Rubens Barrichello 7
10 Williams Cosworth Nico Hülkenberg 8
11 Renault Robert Kubica 7
12 Renault Vitaly Pertrov 7
14 Force India Mercedes Adrian Sutil 8
15 Force India Mercedes Vitantonio Liuzzi 8
16 STR Ferrari Sébastien Buemi 8
17 STR Ferrari Jaime Alguersuari 8
18 Lotus Cosworth Jarno Trulli 8
19 Lotus Cosworth Heikki Kovalainen 8
20 HRT Cosworth Sakon Yamamoto 7
21 HRT Cosworth Bruno Senna 7
22 BMW Sauber Ferrari Nick Heidfeld 9
23 BMW Sauber Ferrari Kamui Kobayashi 8
24 Virgin Cosworth Timo Glock 8
25 Virgin Cosworth Lucas Di Grassi 8

RajDatta

I guess you can never talk sense into someone who apparently has gone senile. Get back on meds Mod.
To be honest, I can't wait for the day you leave. No more ridiculous bs from you. I was actually feeling sorry that you might leave and then I read your last post, jeez.

A.Wayne

OK lewis ... Only Alonso had team orders this year .... LOL....

In actuality regardless of what you race if you are going in it is best to pull back all extremities before impact...

Vettel 9 poles = 3 victories

Alonso 2 poles = 5 victories

Give Alonso a Newey chassis and it would be a waste of time to even have the races ....

TwentySix

Raj--Perhaps too much time in Off Topic has gone to his head? Who cares what he says, it's drowned out by all his bitterness and spite.

500

I did read the thread, however in the flow of reading from one post to the next I did misinterpret your position. I apologize.

wanna911

I said the same thing he did, only you had a problem with the way I said it and chose not to argue with him. Pretty selective if you ask me.

One things is for sure, we've seen cars stop themselves with as much or more damage and rarely does a crash car ROLL (not skid, not slide due to impact) back across the racing surface. Given the circumstances of the WDC you are being quite close minded.

A.Wayne

Not everyone thinks like Schumacher ....... I will give Webbo the benefit of the doubt that it was not deliberate seeing he could have lost his life or risk serious injury with such stupidity...