Bottoming in Turn 7 at Singapore

[panchito401]

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but I thought that many drivers, Massa in particular, were bottoming quite heavily on the approach to turn 7 while Hamilton was producing little plank dust and hardly any sparks. I'm deducing that Hamilton had a harder suspension setup (or higher ride height, but I doubt it)... Just wondering what you all thought about that? I would think that the bottoming would make the car more unstable in the breaking zone, but Massas performance (both ferraris looked much smoother to me) was much better.

[myurr]

I've been wondering about the same thing and concluded that McLaren were running with a higher ride height to make sure that there wasn't any possibility of disqualification by the FIA for wearing out the plank.

Considering that it was supposed to be marginal for some teams, and people like Piquet were complaining about the cars running lower than expected on full fuel, I'm surprised that we haven't heard any more about it or had any drivers disqualified for plank wear.

[n smikle]

I noticed the excessive "saw dust' coming from under Massa's car too.. I was wondering if it had something to do with his early pull way from the crowd at the beginning of the race.

[modbaraban]

Most cars were bottoming there (and elsewhere too). many corners were covered with 'saw dust'.



I recall the press confeernce and Rosberg mentioning that turn 7 is extremely bumpy that makes outbraking nearly impossible.

[panchito401]

myurr you're probably right about McLaren. I totally forgot about them being disqualified (It was them right?) a few years ago from the plank degredation. I was also expecting the FIA scrutineers to be looking into some of the cars after the race, but I guess there were no problems.

[Conceptual]

It would be interesting to see if the FIA actually DID measure the planks, or if everyone failed, so the overlooked it for this race.

It seems nearly impossible that there wasnt more than 1mm chewed off the plank, because there was a LOT of dust per lap, and after 62 laps, I cannot believe that any team passed this scrutineering.

[Rob W]

Most cars were bottoming there (and elsewhere too).

It the early part of the race it was very noticeable that Massa's car was throwing up a lot of sparks while Hamilton following close behind almost none. I thought about ride height at the time.

Would be interesting to see a floor plank from that race.

R

[Ian P.]

There was a similar comment by M. Brundell early in the race that the Ferraris looked more stable in the bumps than Lewis's McLaren.
On Speed-TV there was a comment from Steve Matchet, I believe, that there had been concerns with some of the teams that the dampers would not last the race. I have looked at Kimi's loss of control late in the race and wonder if this was a contributor to him getting crossed up on the curbs. Picquet also seemed to fall foul of the bumps, earlier, but the heavy fuel load obviously had a significant effect.
Possibly the McLaren's were set up to go the distance.
As for bottoming, the sparks are from titanium wear blocks hitting the pavement. If the car grounds out it will wear away at these blocks before the plank gets ground down. So the theory goes.

[Michiba]

a bit off topic, but does this bottoming out occur regularly in all races? Singapores probably the first time I've really noticed it, likely to be from being a night race where the sparks are much more apparent.

[zac510]

I was just reading on another forum about the plank affixing bolt regulations.

You'd be surprised by the amount of bolt 'area' and location freedom:

3.13.2 Fasteners used to attach the skid block to the car must :

a) have a total area no greater than 40000mm² when viewed from directly beneath the car ;
b) be no greater than 2000mm² in area individually when viewed from directly beneath the car ;
c) be fitted in order that their entire lower surfaces are visible from directly beneath the car.

When the skid block is new, ten of the fasteners may be flush with its lower surface but the remainder may be no more than 8mm below the reference plane.

[Conceptual]

Has anyone read that they did check all of the cars' planks?

I saw an aweful lot of sawdust, and if they DQ'd Schumacher at Spa in 1994 for his plank getting damaged while spinning over the kerb, I find it rediculous that the amount of material that was scraped off did not amount to the 1mm reduction that is enough to DQ.

I would REALLY like to see the scrutineering data on the planks for this race.

[freedom_honda]

yeahh thats what i was thinking when i saw watching that race.
the cars were bottoming out every lap which should damage the planks.
how come no one got DQ?1

[zac510]

Again you should read the rules and you'll see some flexibility with regard to the wear.

[Belatti]

It made me remember the lovely 80´s and early 90´s when cars sparked A LOT!!!

[Conceptual]

Again you should read the rules and you'll see some flexibility with regard to the wear.

Can you be more specific, because I recall reading the 1mm wear = DQ. I don't remember any extenuating circumstances attached to it.

Care to provide a copy/paste?