How Verstappen was nearly caught out by F1's cool fuel rule
It seems that as well as the DRS issue we saw on TV as the RB spanners worked on Max's car on the grid, there were other dramas that almost saw the Red Bulls start from pitlane. Remember the drama at Miami which led to the AM's starting from pitlane due to fuel that was over cooled beyond the regs.... it seems the Bulls almost fell foul of the same rule. It seems Max;s car in particular was borderline when he left pitlane at the absolute latest time allowed to be able to join the grid. Alpha Tauri were also borderline.
Red Bull actually said that Max's lateness was due to the DRS issues. It seems that was not quite true.
Spanish Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen only just made it out of the Formula 1 pitlane and onto the grid after an intriguing drama in Red Bull’s garage.
Its understood that the cars of both Honda-powered teams were delayed in leaving the garage because they had concerns about complying with the FIA regulations on minimum fuel temperature, something that also caught out Aston Martin in Miami, where both AMR22s had to start from the pitlane.
Article 6 of the FIA technical regulations specifies that fuel cannot be more than 10 degrees centigrade below the officially declared ambient temperature.
The rules state: “No fuel intended for immediate use in a car may be more than ten degrees centigrade below ambient temperature.
“When assessing compliance, the ambient temperature will be that recorded by the FIA appointed weather service provider one hour before any practice session or two hours before the race. This information will also be displayed on the timing monitors.
“The temperature of fuel intended for use in a car must be measured via an FIA approved and sealed sensor.”
For the first five races of this season with the new cars it was agreed by the teams and the FIA to peg minimum fuel temperature at 18 degrees - in effect using a notional 28 degrees ambient for Bahrain, Jeddah, Melbourne, Imola and Miami.
However the figure reverted to the original rule for Barcelona. The official FIA pre-race ambient temperature was 35 degrees, so the fuel could be no cooler than 25 degrees.
Teams have to put the fuel into their cars two hours before the start, and declare to the FIA how much is onboard.
The fuel then gradually warms up while it is sitting in the car, and that process continues when the engine is running in the garage.
In the rules as written there appears to be a question mark about whether the fuel has to be at the legal level even before the cars take to the track, as the phrase “fuel intended for immediate use in a car” could be open to interpretation.
However a clarification recently issued to teams by the FIA seemingly confirmed that it is now regarded as being when the cars leave the garage.
In effect that potentially leaves teams free to put the fuel in the cars two hours before the race at lower than the legal temperature, and then rely on it getting warmer before the pitlane opens and the cars leave the garage 40 minutes before the start of the race.
When the cars take to the track the starting fuel temperature will thus be lower than if it had been above the legal minimum when it first went into the car, and had subsequently warmed up.
Teams generally want cooler fuel for both reliability and performance reasons, although the latter less significant than in the naturally-aspirated engine era.
It’s understood that in Barcelona Red Bull and AlphaTauri realised as the start approached that they might be marginal on reaching the required minimum when the pitlane opened at 2.20pm.
In order to take advantage of almost 10 extra minutes to allow the fuel to warm up – and with the engines of the cars running – both delayed their exits from the garage until the last possible opportunity before the pitlane closed at 2.30pm.
As a result the cars were not able to do the usual two or three pre-race laps with a run through the pitlane, or practice starts.
The two teams were in a better situation than Aston Martin in Miami, where the team made a mistake in its processes and was so far off the required numbers that the cars could not get to the grid in time while the fuel temperature adjusted.
There’s no question about the fuel in the Red Bulls and AlphaTauris being at a legal temperature when they left the garage, as the numbers are monitored by the FIA and any discrepancy would have been flagged.
However after the race Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto created a stir when he indicated that he believed that the fuel has to be above the minimum “at all times”, and suggested that a team cannot heat it up by running the car’s power unit.
In fact his statement suggested that perhaps he has a different interpretation of the rules than that suggested by the recent clarification – one that might just be prompted by Ferrari being less concerned than others about higher fuel temperatures.
Investigating the failure since Sunday’s race, Ferrari has since confirmed the issue stemmed from a failure of the turbocharger and MGU-H. You could certainly hear the turbo whoosh as the engine failed.
“Having examined the PU from Leclerc’s car, we found the turbo and MGU-H are damaged and cannot be repaired,” a Ferrari statement announced.
“However, having fully analysed the failure and its cause, we are satisfied it did not occur through a design fault or reliability issue with these two components or any other elements of the PU.”
I guess thise components can be replaced out of their component allowances.... as long as there was no other damage done tio the internals.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
I didn't really have time to comment about this race since Sunday so here goes:
- Damn that Ferrari failure hurt. As a mild Ferrari fan I was hoping Brundle wouldn't curse Leclerc having been so far in front and as soon as he said "he's cruising" then we saw him slowing down. What a shame.
- I think we saw a race that was more reminiscent of early 2010s Pirelli-style degradation action that some fans like to see - basically tyres overheating all the way, lots of tyre management and rewarding drivers with more stops as opposed to less. As a fan of flat out racing I am not particularly keen on this sort of thing but well at least we had a race.
- Slowly slowly we are starting to see cars struggle more and more to follow - snaps of oversteer everywhere and there was talk of little winglets on the Red Bulls and what not. FiA needs to act fast if they want to maintain their 2022 objective.
- Haas once again self destructed and never seem to learn the lesson that they should try to steer clear of trouble and take it easy. KMag's move on Lewis was dumb and really wasn't necessary.
- I still don't understand how Lewis managed to overtake Sainz. How on earth was that possible when Sainz was so far up the road? I need to see that again.
Picci wrote: ↑1 year ago
- I still don't understand how Lewis managed to overtake Sainz. How on earth was that possible when Sainz was so far up the road? I need to see that again.
Sainz was 2 stopping on Mediums and Lewis had already made his 3rd stop and was on the softs. Lewis had also just set the fastest lap around this time (it was eventually eclipsed by Perez after his stop for softs).
It would have been a better race had there been no contact between him and Kmag. 5 cars would have been in contention at one point or another for the race lead (Russell, Leclerc, Verstappen, Lewis, and Perez).
White six wrote: ↑1 year ago
There's definitely a chance Merc could be in contention at Monaco. Think they still may struggle at power tracks though
Was it correct they were still 0.4 down on what the sidepod car did in February? Unless that car was under weight maybe
They have struggled a bit there in the past two years though. Do we know if the car still has a longer wheelbase this year after new regs? If they do then I think they might fall back a bit.
White six wrote: ↑1 year ago
There's definitely a chance Merc could be in contention at Monaco. Think they still may struggle at power tracks though
Was it correct they were still 0.4 down on what the sidepod car did in February? Unless that car was under weight maybe
They have struggled a bit there in the past two years though. Do we know if the car still has a longer wheelbase this year after new regs? If they do then I think they might fall back a bit.
Exactly what I was thinking..... last year the Mercs were off the pace here.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
White six wrote: ↑1 year ago
There's definitely a chance Merc could be in contention at Monaco. Think they still may struggle at power tracks though
Was it correct they were still 0.4 down on what the sidepod car did in February? Unless that car was under weight maybe
They have struggled a bit there in the past two years though. Do we know if the car still has a longer wheelbase this year after new regs? If they do then I think they might fall back a bit.
Exactly what I was thinking..... last year the Mercs were off the pace here.
Also I now remember that Merc was much slower than the leading cars in the last sector in Spain all weekend and Sky did pick up that this means that they’ll likely struggle in Monaco.
Arthur-vL wrote: ↑1 year ago
Mercedes have a new engine this GP. Are their upgrades good or is it only the the new PU? I have heard that on Friday the car isn't as low as tomorrow or on a Sunday.
White six wrote: ↑1 year ago
There's definitely a chance Merc could be in contention at Monaco. Think they still may struggle at power tracks though
Was it correct they were still 0.4 down on what the sidepod car did in February? Unless that car was under weight maybe
They have struggled a bit there in the past two years though. Do we know if the car still has a longer wheelbase this year after new regs? If they do then I think they might fall back a bit.
Exactly what I was thinking..... last year the Mercs were off the pace here.
Also I now remember that Merc was much slower than the leading cars in the last sector in Spain all weekend and Sky did pick up that this means that they’ll likely struggle in Monaco.
Appearances are deceiving. The Merc was only off pace over a single lap at Monaco 2021 by a small margin, but had great race pace. Bottas lined up 2nd on the grid last year and was in contention until the worlds longest tire change. Hamilton just timed the traffic poorly and was caught behind Gasly and Vettel with no hope to pass for the majority of the race. Lewis holds the track record around Monaco from last year when he pitted for softs and got fastest lap.Monaco 2021 highlights
Plus while they were slow in a single sector in Spain, over the whole lap it showed a huge improvement to RB and Ferrari compared to previous races. I would expect similar form from them at Monaco. I predict 3rd and 5th on the grid and possible podium from one of them.
2019 GTP Accuracy Champion 
