During the quali coverage, Peter Windsor commented about having been given the opportunity to pick up a McLaren KERS battery pack, "it's very heavy," and that "the whole system weighs 25 kilos." Heavy for a thing to add to an F1 car, but a package that delivers 80hp (albeit for under 7 seconds) and weighs 25 kilos? You could have some fun with that by itself in a little chassis.
While failing to get out of Q1 (what the heck has happened to McLaren?), Lewis Hamilton shifted all the way down to 1st gear braking into Turn 12 (the left at the end of the last long straight before S/F straight), then popped up to 2nd mid-corner before briefly accelerating toward Turn 13. I really don't think he intended to get all the way down to first. So much for our theory about having a 1st gear downshift lockout (which certainly might be reprogrammed for certain tracks). So much, too, for the previously unflappable Hamilton, who is clearly losing his powers of concentration.
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Consider that the whole engine delivers nine times that much power at something like four times the weight! Imagine a little chassis getting 180 hp from a powerplant package of the same weight.
But I think it's worth noting that the loss of 20% of their power when they dropped from 10 cylinders to 8 only slowed them by, what, a second or two a lap? They went from being able to use full-throttle power for barely 20% of the time to holding it flat for more than half of a lap. Less power, but easier to use the substantial amount that they still have, in no small part because of better weight balance and easier aero packaging with the smaller powerplant.
Adding KERS gives less of a power boost with maybe the same weight and aero drawbacks. The BBC commentators speculated at one point that it was worth maybe .2 sec on a track that favors it. And that's compared to being a second or more off the pace if they get their aero or suspension settings wrong.
> So much for our theory about having a 1st gear downshift lockout <
Yup but it doesn't contradict my other hypothesis: that the shifter brain protects the engine from overreving by deferring unsafe downshifts until the vehicle's speed drops to a point where they're OK, and that it also throws away deferred downshift clicks that are more than .5 seconds old.
Could he have accidentally slowed a bit more than intended, to the point where it accepted a downshift (to first gear) that he hadn't meant to make?
> So much, too, for the previously unflappable Hamilton, who is clearly losing his powers of concentration. <
He sure is driving hard, trying to get everything he can out of the car. Likewise his qualifying mistake at Mirabeau (Haut) at Monaco, just trying to get more out of it than was really there. But it's interesting to speculate that being a naturally aggressive and flambouyant racer gives a better public impression when stuck in a slow car.
During one of the BBC broadcasts, Anthony Davidson commented about coming up through the lower racing series along with Jenson Button, and having seen what an impressive front-runner he can be--something, he noted, that not many others had been able to observe before this season.
I wonder if a smooth, controlled driver in a slow car just looks slow and is liable to be accused of lacking fire or just not caring.
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