Japan - Race Engineer's Notes

Suzuka and its Challenges

Round 15 of the FIA Formula 1 Championship takes us to Suzuka Japan, ‘The Land of The Rising Sun’.

Incredibly popular with most of the World’s greatest drivers, Suzuka provides a monumental challenge for both drivers and engineers. The 5.8km circuit has many blind corners due to its spectacular escalation changes, where judging your entry and exit points can be very difficult in an F1 car.

The contrast in each of the three sectors provides a big challenge in setting the up the cars, as considerable compromises have to be made.

Aero Characteristics of Circuit 

Sector One consists of the infamous ‘S Curves’, a series of five magnificent quick left right corners. The S curves demand high downforce for a car to be stable through this turbulent sector, quite the opposite of the other two sectors.

Sector Two begins as the cars enter turn 8, the Degner curve. The cars approach at 280km/h before a quick dab on the brakes and into the tight consecutive right handers of T8 & T9. The circuit opens up from here, which demands little downforce and less drag as the sector ends at the 130R turn in.

Sector Three begins just before the terrifying 130R corner. I believe that the cars will have more than enough downforce at these speeds to get round flat out (Even with a low downforce package). As with Sector Two, Sector Three mainly requires low downforce as there is so much time to be made with a higher straight line velocity (Rather than higher velocity through the corners).

As you can see S1 demands a lot of downforce, yet the other two sectors are suited for top speed. A medium downforce package will be most suitable for Suzuka.

Tyres & Strategy

Prime – Hard (ORANGE)
Option – Mediums (WHITE)

Tyre wear rates at Suzuka are quite high, hence Pirelli nominating the two hardest compounds for the weekend.

In 2013, the majority of the grid ran a two stop race with the same compound selection. Starting on the Option before two Prime stops was the typical strategy.

In 2014 I would like to see a few drivers attempting to push the medium tyres a bit longer, so that they can run a one stop and take the hards all the way to the end. The 2014 Pirelli’s are quite lenient when you run a less aggressive car set up, and as we saw in Singapore, it could be possible to push for a one stop… Even if it does require a bit of “Grandma” driving…
The average strategy looks like it will be a two stop race again.

Mechanical Set Up

The continuous high speed direction changing in Sector One requires a very stable and predictable car. Being able to stay on the optimum racing line is critically important through this sector, because as soon as you go off line for one of the S curves, you will be punished all the way up until mid-way through sector 2.

A low roll centre, precisely set up anti-roll bar and cambered tyres are some of the things which will be required for a quick Sector One.

A low roll centre will ensure that the car is stiff and responsive for the harsh direction changes. It is important to mention that too low of a roll centre can cause the car to become too ‘stiff’ and could therefore cause major problems in getting tyres up to operating temperatures. A stiff chassis causes minimal roll and therefore makes the car slide around much more as the tyres can’t bite into the tarmac.

The anti-roll bar settings are crucial in making sure that there is maximum lateral stability. Too much roll will cause poor change in direction abilities and too stiff will cause sliding.

As the cars go through the S curves and 130R, they will be subjected to around 3-4G’s of lateral force. This induces a large amount of rolling torque, and it is very important that the tyres maintain maximum surface area in contact with the ground, which is why cambers will have to be carefully calculated.

Thanks for reading. Please keep an eye out for ‘Japan – Race Engineer’s Quali Notes’ on Friday night, UK time (BST).

 

Ruthless World Champions

Ruthless World Champions

Throughout the recent decades of F1 we have seen a handful of truly gifted world champions with something quite distinct in common. I am not talking about race craft skills or overtaking abilities, but I am talking about sheer ruthlessness.  Many of us (including myself) may not want to accept this, but it is a fact.
Each World Champion I’m about to discuss has 100% deliberately committed a gravely unethical action on the race track, that secured them a World title.

I’m going to show you a few infamous examples in chronological order, starting from the 1989 Formula 1 season. 

Will Nico Rosberg’s Spa incident seal his first WDC? History is on his side.

Prost – Suzuka 1989 - Wins title

On lap 47 of the Japanese GP 1989, Senna makes a very brave lunge into Suzuka’s end of lap chicane, to try and overtake Prost for the lead.
Senna gets his car side by side successfully, yet Prost turns in 5-10m early and into the side of Senna, deliberately causing an accident in which was probably an attempt on forcing Senna to retire.
Although Prost’s plan didn’t initially work (as Senna continued on to win the race), Senna was eventually, and unfairly disqualified from the race as he’d used the chicane cut through to restart his stalled McLaren.
This disqualification sealed the 1989 WDC for Prost.

Deliberate crash:

·         Prost turns in 5-10m early

·         Prost aware of Sennas presence for 6+ laps

·         A cheeky final check in Prost’s mirror confirms that he can successfully crash into Senna

Senna – Suzuka 1990 - Wins title

One whole year later at Suzuka, Senna qualifies on pole position with Prost by his side. For some strange reason, the FIA decided that the pole sitter will start on the unused and ‘dirty’ side of the circuit, giving Senna an immediate disadvantage off the line.
Running down to T1, Senna deliberately ploughs into Prost’s rear right tyre to, almost, ‘prove a point’. He won Pole, therefore he should have the advantage of being 1^st into T1, but he wasn’t and therefore decided to crash into Prost to force him to retire.
This action confirmed the 1990 WDC for Senna.

Deliberate crash:

·         Significantly behind going into T1 but Senna makes no effort to decelerate

·         Revenge for the previous year??

Schumacher – 1994 Adelaide - Wins title

Midway through the 1994 Austrailian GP, Damon Hill makes an attempt on Schumacher for P1. As with the previous scenarios, Schumi knows that if his opponent fails to score points, then he will be guaranteed the WDC.
As Hill catches Schumacher at a rapid pace, Schumacher’s inexperience causes him to lose focus and he begins to run wide at corners, losing even more time to Hill. Hill goes for the inside, successfully getting side-by-side (again – like the Senna Prost examples). Schumacher takes his normal line, sees Hill in his peripheral and then reacts to straighten the car to avoid contact. A split second later he turns into the corner again, causing contact between the two cars which subsequently causes Hill to retire with suspension damage.
Yet again, this confirmed the WDC for the driver causing the collision.

Deliberate crash:

·         Hill successfully gets side-by-side with Schumi, yet Schumi still turns in

·         Schumi straightens the wheel up when Hill gets into his peripheral vision, then decides to have a second hack, straight into Hill.

Vettel – Malaysia 2013 - Wins title

Thankfully, Vettel’s ruthlessness came from blatantly disobeying team orders – Multi 21. The majority of F1 watchers were disgusted with his actions, but Vettel did what he had to do for those extra few points.

Rosberg – Spa 2014 - Wins title?

Finally, we can look at the most detestable of examples as one of our British drivers was unfairly ejected from the Belgian GP’s final classification, and worst of all, pretty much destroying his chances of a second WDC.

From my own personal racing experiences, and from watching a good few years of F1, it is vivid to see how deliberate Rosberg’s actions are at Le Combe.

At every other occasion where a drivers front wing is at risk of being swiped off, they will instantly step on the brakes, even for a tenth of a second, no matter if he has to concede defeat for that opportunity. 

Rosberg can see that Hamilton is on a defensive line, and will therefore be pushed deep into the corner, tightening his left turn of Le Combe, yet Rosberg still keeps his nose in the area where Physics will push Hamilton’s car. There is 0% chance of an overtake occurring into the left hander when the driver ahead has around a car’s length advantage on track. Vettel experienced that the lap before and successfully aborted because he knew he’d be punished by the stewards.

Could this delicate, yet deliberate act seize the 2014 WDC for Rosberg?

The actions of these talented and highly praised drivers have all helped them become greats of World Sport. There is no doubt that some of the things they have done have been shameless, but it goes to show how ruthless this breed of people are. The lengths that they will go to, to be successful, is beyond belief. They were/are willing to risk other peoples’ lives, for their own success.  

I just want you to have a think about how 'legendary' these drivers are. How and why are they uncomprehendingly hellbent on success?