To paraphrase the Count of Cavour: I have said and affirm once again that Ferrari, and Ferrari alone, can make life difficult this season. Of course, the opponents are not watching: we saw a weak Red Bull on Sunday in Austria, but let’s not forget that one of the two consecutive red victories, that of Silverstone, was propitiated by the collision at the start that broke Verstappen’s car. But, however, let’s not forget that thereat F1-75 he was also dominating a race that had always been as difficult as Spain. And that he hadn’t won at Spielberg since Schumacher’s time. And by the way, that was another race with fire, in the pits during refueling, but with far less serious consequences than Sainz’s.
L‘reliability it is the nail in the Ferrari’s mattress: and to put it bluntly, there isn’t much to do at the moment. Over the course of this season and the next, the project will be strengthened, given the FIA regulations that allow interventions to exonerate breakages. But at the moment, with a conceptually so extreme project, a couple of races starting from the bottom are taken into account. That’s right, you got it right: the most extreme ‘grid penalty’ changes everything and go. On a track that is not difficult to overtake, such as Spa or maybe Austin and Mexico, it is a relative problem. Even starting in the position of the dog’s balls (copyright GC Minardi), Leclerc and Sainz have the speed to get at least close to the podium. But, barring shots from the side B, those are races in which Red Bull, with a more favorable rotation of the components, will potentially earn more points.
Faults in the Power Unit, particularly in the thermal unit, must be taken and kept in the drawer of nightmares that sooner or later return. But if you can’t subdue the bear, you can always defend yourself from mosquitoes. That is to say from those little unexpected events which then, in the context of a race, can become serious problems. One of these occurred on Sunday when Leclerc’s accelerator was partially blocked. A failure that has been assumed to be of a ‘mechanical’ nature. Now, as you know, unlike some colleagues, I don’t have the truth in my pocket. However, I understand that a short time ago, I would say last year, such a problem has already occurred. F1, as you know, have two pedals. Between that of the gas and the relative throttle, or accelerator valve, there is not a physical connection, but an electronic one: a so-called ‘fly by wire’ system, a term borrowed from the aeronautics and also inappropriately, because when an F1 flies is not beautiful. But how does the system “read” the pressure variations on the pedal imparted by the rider? Via a sensor, it is clear. Instead of the more cumbersome ones of the past, Ferrari had recently switched to devices that exploit the Hall effect, that is the variation of potential in an electromagnetic field etc. etc. (if you want to learn more, there is Wikipedia made for it. I went too).
In practice, it is a motion sensor, fixed on the back of the pedal board. How? With a drop of two-component adhesive. Here: just make a slight mistake in the combination of these components and the sensor no longer reads the movement correctly, causing the same effect that it had when, in my Paleozoic era, the gas cable got stuck inside the sheath. A bad business, which has caused equally bad accidents in the past. I don’t know if it is the repetition of this inconvenience that has caused Spielberg’s problem. But I know that sensors can cause serious trouble. See, again for Charles, the Monaco race last year, when after the accident at the swimming pools the damage was analyzed on the basis of sensor data on two Cartesian axes, neglecting the third. Rebuilt the car, it was discovered that it would have been better to change something in the drive shaft on the side opposite the impact. But it was too late now.
Now, however, it is not late. There is half a season left to recover 38 points (I don’t count for the Constructors because I rely on Perez’s bad luck). We must be attached to reality and at the same time also attached to the dream. At the cost of using an extra drop of glue.
#sensor #glory #FormulaPassion.it