Braking in 2014 - erbcs and more?

[H2H]

The changes of 2013 according to James Key in the blogf1.it site and a comment by Peter Windsor got me thinking about the impact of ERS and the new rules, especially regarding fuel economy, on the impact on the braking system.

I will start with a quote:

A differenza dell’attuale KERS – che da ai piloti una potenza extra di 80 cavalli per sei secondi al giro-, l’ERS del 2014 consentirà di avere attorno ai 160 cavalli in più per 33 secondi al giro. Per compensare la potenza extra generata in frenata dall’ERS, ai team sarà concesso di usare un sistema di controllo elettronico posteriore della frenata (electronic rear brake control system).

My translation:

Compared to the current KERS - which gives the drivers an extra power of 80 hp for six seconds - the ERS of 2014 will allow for a power output around 160 hp for 33 seconds a lap. To compensate for the extra breaking power generated by ERS the teams will be allowed to use an electronic rear brake control system.

The second one comes from Peter Windsor discussing brake ducts in detail with Scarbs and the comments that maybe the rear brakes will be less powerful last year due to the ERS.

Keep in mind that with the new regs I highly doubt that we will see kinetic energy of the drive shaft getting dumped into resistors and that the teams will likely try to harvest as much as possible for further use. It is pretty likely that the ERS braking will get used to the fullest extent possible. circumstances permitting. Let us now assume that the braking effect combined with standard rear brakes is powerful enough to safely exceed the braking power at the front, breaking balance in mind. Could the possible aero gain really be big enough to risk less powerful rear brakes?

BTW: The electronic rear brake control system brought up by James Key really sounds business which in turn could mean that at least some teams had some troubles to control the breaking at the rear by KERS.

The Racer's Edge, from around 15 minutes in.

P.S: A highly interesting and brilliant sign of things to come is the way RBR does adjust their front brakes to various far-away circuits. According to info gained by Scarbs they brought 2 3d-printers with them at each recent race and printed specific stuff, among the them the front brake ducts, right at the track in the pit garage! Cuts the time-to-market or race track by a considerable amount of time, giving the guys back at Milton Keynes more of that precious resources to fine tune various parts which now get dispatched digitally from home.

This has clearly also to do with the increased complexity of the design, for example Gurney flaps inside the duct and it's influence on tyre management.

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Sorry, I meant to put that thread into the engine, transmission and controls forum. Maybe the dear mods could put it into the forum area in which it fits, according to them, best.

[H2H]

James Key and Scarbs got it pretty much right so far, and even I was not that off. DAMNINice translated Rosbergs words from AMuS live ticker, which fit well into the topic.

Some Informations directly from Rosberg about the Car and testing...

Q: How is it driving the "brake by wire system"? Do you feel confident braking?
A: "It´s complicated to describe. the front is a standard brake. Only the rear is nearly completely braked by the ERS. On high speeds you have plenty of downforce so you have a fully angaged rear brake. It´s like using the handbrake on a normal car.
When slowing down the car, the downforce is lower so you have to release the brake. To set this up is really complicated. The balance between the mechanical front and nearly completely electrical rear brake is key and complicated. At the moment it´s not perfectly adjusted. I don´t know what I´ve written but I hope you´ve understood "

As in some races the fuel limit will have a considerable impact on performance the teams will invest a considerable amount of time to get a well spread set of maps to get the most out of the car. Recharging the battery with the MGU-K will be for example problematic in Silverstone according to Scarbs and much different from let us say Canada or Monaco. So the teams will have to work hard to smoothly integrate the rear-braking ERS into the performance package.