Comments on: Monaco Grand Prix – The latest Tech stories

By: Dr Prozac

Dr Prozac — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:49:39 +0000

I’ve ment:
“You can’t blame Renault engine for the low top speed, especially that the difference in power between the most powerful and the least powerful engine isn’t huge.”
Sorry for the mistake.

As for the new teams and their top speed, you should take into consideration that they probably have low traction and problems on corner exit. If you exit from a corner badly, it will hurt your speed at the end of the straight.

By: Dr Prozac

Dr Prozac — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:31:33 +0000

Yes, it all about drag. And downforce comes with a penalty of extra drag. And the stopping force rises exponentially with speed.
You can’t blame the engine for the low top speed, especially that engines the difference in power between the most powerful and least powerful isn’t huge. I think that if RBR had Mercedes or Ferrari engines their top speed wouldn’t be much better. And they don’t need it, as long as they have a big advantage in cornering speed.

By: Jeff Cranmer

Jeff Cranmer — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:16:31 +0000

With the present tyre design, high sidewalls and low diameter centers, it would be difficult to switch.

If the tyres are changed to more conventional, low profile race tyres, however, where tyre construction had a lesser effect upon the suspension performance of the car, perhaps this would work?

It would certainly be an improvement over the situation in the 90′s where one team enjoyed almost a monopoly over the good tyre brand, and consequently romped away with a bunch of boring, processional championships.

By: Phil I

Phil I — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:13:21 +0000

I cant stand Health and Safety!! Point taken, but I’ve rarely seen the nose of a car go anywhere near the driver. Three times in recent memory the side of a car has run over the cockpit of another which is what sparked my question.

By: Ron Williams

Ron Williams — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:08:57 +0000

Because there will be a nice stream of cold air surrounding the hot gas from the exhaust due to the laminar airflow around the car.

By: Drez

Drez — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:49:25 +0000

Heath & Safety course lately? How about the big wide thing on the front of all the cars. A much more effective guillotine and nothing obstructing it’s path.

By: Aussie Fan

Aussie Fan — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:57:55 +0000

They were at times at Barcelona & China, maybe here they had too poor traction to get out of the corners fast & get a good top speed on the short straights of Monaco

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 18 May 2010 00:44:18 +0000

Maybe the Cosworth engines are down a bit on power?

By: Mikey

Mikey — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:18:15 +0000

Presumably the Cosworth engine that they (and Williams) are running, isn’t yet up to the job.

By: C

Mon, 17 May 2010 21:43:22 +0000

Simple: Because tires are so different from each other than just changing tires on Friday is just not possible. With sidewalls that are as wide as those in F1, the differences in construction cause huge changes in the suspension of the car: Changes that one can’t just do between practice sessions with a bit of tweaking.

Remember how, when F1 switched to Bridgestone only, many Michelin teams had a whole lot of trouble of half the season to just get used to their tires.