Formula 1 racing question
 

Sunday my son and I were watching the Canadian leg of the F1 cahmpionship series.

BTW, Mercedes-Benz won. Yeah!

I know as much about F1 racing as I know about hockey--ZERO, ZILCH, NADA!

While watching the race we noticed that every time that the yellow flag was waved, adn the "safety car" came out all the racers would hold their position in the lineup--which I guess is a standard rule (not to take advantage of a yellow flag).

All (or most) of the racing cars, while following the safety car, would weave from side to side (like you see highway patrol cars do when they are trying to hold back traffic).

If they cannot move ahead of another car during the yellow flag, wha tis the purpose of the weaving? Keep tires warm (and soft) perhaps?

The race was very exciting, lots of wipe outs. The Benz team is doing exceedingly well, far ahead of Ferrari and BMW in the overall standings.

Also, can someone explain to me some of the F1 rules, like when it is proper to make a pit stop? A Ferrari got the black flag for going into the pit (when it couldn't) and was forced out of the race.

the weaving from side to side if just the drivers keeping the tires nice and warm

Black flagging if it is the same as in nascar then The driver that gets the black flag has to surrender a lap and wait in the pits for the field to do one lap then he is allowed back out on the track


It is proper to pit during a caution(if allowed) or during open racing. If it is not allowed during a caution it is because their is either debris or fluid blocking the entrance or exit thus making it a hazard to enter

Thanks for the info. I had suspected that the weaving is to keep the tires nice and warm (and grippy!).

Apparently in F1 racing if you get th black flag you are out. It happened to the Ferrrari driver. What they said is that he ran a red light while coming out of the pit. :confused:

Good grief, you have to be a lawyer to figure out all the rules. :dizzy2: :D :freak:

BTW, thanks for the link. :)

It's cold up here, eh? ;)

Not warm for just mechanical grip, but also for aerodynamic grip. When the tires get cold they loose air pressure. When that happens the tire gets soft and the ride height drops. The ride height is crucial because you need to have airflow under the car in order to have downforce but if the car is set too high, then you get too much drag. The loss of ride height due to lost air pressure is often enough to have a huge impact on downforce.

This was considered to be one of the contributing factors to Ayrton Senna's death at Imola in 1993. You can actually see him coming up alongside the safety car urging the driver to pick up the pace because he wasn't going fast enough for the pack of F1 cars behind him. When the race started again he didn't have full air pressure, which means he didn't have full ride height. When he hit a bump the car bottomed out, causing a loss of downforce and he was unable to control the car. He hit the wall and died.

Jonathan, thanks for the info. While watching the race I told my son that Ihad no desire to ever fly a plane myself BUT that just once I would love to take an F1 racer one lap around the track.

After reading the above post I think I will pass up on that....

Did you know that an F1 car at full speed produces enough down force that it could in theory drive unpside down while overcoming the effects of gravity...

They snake around also to keep the tires free of dirt. F1 makes up the rules as they go along.

I enjoy F1. Been watching for about 8 years now....

BENZ-LGB, you must have been what Fox was hoping to catch as a new viewer of F1. Hence, the reason for moving the broadacast of 4 races to a net broader audience.

Looks like the fishnet worked! ;) Welcome to the F1 craziness. :D

What you witnessed with the Canadian GP this year was extremely unusual. TWO driver's black flagged is almost unheard of....spectacular crashes....at most one or twice a season.

It's actually unusual for the Safety Car to come out in a race. They are not automatically dispached with a yellow flag, but only if the race stewards need to clear up a wreck or if another unsafe condition exists on track that is temporary. Like I said, 4 times (or even ONCE in a race is not the norm).....but that Safety Car sounds badass, no? :)

Make sure you catch practice (Friday) and Qualifying (Saturday) for the USGP this Sunday. The race will air again on Fox, but the rest will be on Speed Channel.

Welcome to the jungle. :D

What will Fox think of next?:D:eek:

Girls AND F1 cars....:D

Yep, seems like it worked. It was actually pretty exciting to watch.

The number of times (4) that the Safety Car came out seems to be high. The #2 guy at Benz, Alonso, was complaining that the high number of SC may have cost him a higher finish.

After I saw the crash with the Polish driver, Kubica, I thought he was dead or serioulsy injured. He wasn't moving at all after the crash. Turns out he is OK. :)

He is only 23 years old. My God!

Kuan got the reason for weaving correct. The cars aren't going fast enough to heat the tires, but the tires are sticky enough to pickup rubber and dirt from the track. Weaving helps scrub off that dirt.
The black flag means the same for all races -except somtimes it's different in NASCAR. The black flag means report to the stewards or race directors station in the pits. That official then advises the team or driver of watsup. In the case of the two F1 cars, it was disqualification for ignoring the red light at the pit exit. The F1 officials have large toes that are easily stepped on.

I wish I were going to the usgp on sunday.....but I cannot.

I would love to see young Hamilton run....and it could easily be the last gp at the speedway.

Tom W

I went to a number of GPs when they were run at Watkins Glen. Back in those days the atitude was one of gentlemen having fun. The cars bore no sponsors names and the officials and competitors had none of the sniffing, pissy attitude we find today.
For $5 one could walk down a lane in the middle of the garage and actually converse with drivers and team members.

You're a lucky guy to have witness F1 at Watkins. As you know, they eventually outgrew it and couldn't afford Bernie and Max's price. The cost of upgrading the track was upwards of $100mil, which included 5 star motels and the purchase of an additional 1000 acres on both the east and west side. If you look at the track now, notice it doesn't really have a straight - it was "chickened" to give the route more distance.

Bob Varsha, a native of Atlanta, has been trying to get F1 to Road Atlanta. IMHO [and as I told him like he cared] I think RA is in the same boat as Watkins. Worse, it's in the middle of nowhere and has absolutely no facilities for this champagne sport. Bernie also wanted the little town of Brazleton [Ga] to toss in $5mil, which you may remember was purchased by Kim Basinger(sp?) in her failed moment of correctness to buy up 4000 rednecks and train them Hollywood style.

Just got back from YUL, headed to Ind on Wednesday to make the Speed interviews on Thursday AM. This aught to be great, McLaren gave me 4 tickets in the Penthouse/Pagoda thingie.

I'll make Spa in September - then I'm all F1'd out. Back to work all winter.

REALLY glad to see there's an F1 following here!

Road Atlanta is a very nice sports car track. I've been there many times as a crew member. I think a better F1 track would be Road America. Both of these tracks are way out of town, as is Spa in Belgium. Spa is a favorite amongst the drivers and fans. But I hear the latest mods to bring it up to standards have made it just another cookie cutter track. As long as big money drives F1, the spirit of competition is just along for the ride.

An excellent post with which I agree totally except for the spelling of ought.

Tom W

Here's a coupla photos from the good ol'days.
Photo is quite poor 'cause I had no flash.