Vettel has a 10 kg weight advantage

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RB7ate9
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Joined: 13 Jul 2011, 03:03

Re: Vettel has a 10 kg weight advantage

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raymondu999 wrote:I suspect that KERS would actually hold more than 6s; this is so that the drivers are able to double-deploy it in qualifying. i.e. deploy it out of the last corner and onto the startline, which they always do. If that run up is 6s; and actually there is a massive area out of Turn 1 which requires you to boost for 4s; but the braking zone at T1 isn't enough for that much energy; they'd need to have stored it beforehand.
I suspect that as well, with KERS having much more capacity than just the 6s one can use during a race lap. However, I don't know if there is a benefit to having an extra 10kg of KERS batteries that may not be in the optimum ballast position and may require extra cooling work.

Richard
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Joined: 15 Apr 2009, 14:41
Location: UK

Re: Vettel has a 10 kg weight advantage

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If there were more batteries, each one would be working at lower amps for the same total power (ie the load is shared).

If the temperature per battery is linear in relation to amps, then the overall heat generated will be the same, but each battery will operate at a cooler temperature. I guess you could take advantage of that by providing less cooling in the car so the temperature of the batteries would rise to be the same as normal. However, I suspect you'd be chasing diminishing returns in redesigning the cooling system. You could simply add more batteries and use the lower temperatures to boost reliability.

Anyway, this is all bunkum, because more batteries take up more space. Have you seen how tight the batteries are packed it the RB?

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raymondu999
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Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 07:31

Re: Vettel has a 10 kg weight advantage

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I've been thinking about why the gap's widened between 2010 to 2011; and I was just looking at this video here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-u9tkFzo4[/youtube]

What struck me was that the lap (as Bruno Senna mentions) is just full of understeer. The rear is well stable, but the front keeps washing out. Mark in the past has gone on record to say that he doesn't like it if the rear has lateral instability.He wants a lot more stability in the rear; and that Seb doesn't mind rear instability.

One of the big things changing this year is the DRS wing; and we need to remember that when activated, the DRS will not only reduce your drag, but it will give you a lot less rear grip, and hence stability. What if Mark is actually very uncomfortable with the instability induced by opening the DRS; and to counter it is actually setting his car up for a lot of stability; in fact overly stable to the point of understeer, so that he is more comfortable with the DRS-open position?

I'd think that having too much understeer with DRS closed would be a big issue.
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The FOZ
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Joined: 07 Feb 2008, 23:04
Location: Winterpeg, Canada

Re: Vettel has a 10 kg weight advantage

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The 10kg of additional ballast required for Vettel IS advantageous. The weight distribution is set by rules, however, there are multiple positions for ballast that can give the same weight distribution. As I recall from somewhere, if diagonal lines were drawn from front-right to rear-left tire contact patches, and so forth, the point of intersection is the wheelbase centerpoint.

As weight is moved further from the centerpoint, the car becomes more resistant to rotational accelerations (turning), either initiating a turn, or ending one.

Although, it seems counter intuitive, as the driver is probably well placed to providing a fairly centered load...

The only other advantage, and this is pretty universal, is ballast plates would lower the CoG of the car.

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raymondu999
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Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 07:31

Re: Vettel has a 10 kg weight advantage

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Moving the weight away from the center point would be changing weight distribution. So no.
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