Fuel corrected laptimes?

[raymondu999]

Hey all,

I was wondering, how are lap times actually corrected for fuel? I heard once on a BBC presentation by Ted Kravitz (not the best source, I know) that every kg of fuel slowed the cars down by 0.035 seconds. However I feel that this is overly simplistic. Wouldn't it depend on the engine's power, torque curves? It's consumption? And also the track's design in terms of straights and corners?

Thanks!!

[ISLAMATRON]

yep, they are basically worthless... especially since it is nonlinear and different for every car,driver & track

[rob]

You can find here some simulation that are running by team before race including fuel load effect on laptimes and aero configuration at Catalunya circuit back in 2001 by prost f1 team.
They calculated 0,32 sec per 10 kg of fuel at this circuit.

http://www.gurneyflap.com/prostap04araigne.html

[marcush.]

there are so many variables in this ....take into account fueltank shape for example
the max width of it is 800mm (at least above the mandatory plank section ,and you have a maximum distance the fueltank can go under the back of the driver. from there you could end up with a lot of shapes ,going for a long, narrow high or short wide high,or long wide low and everything in between...You could section the fuel tank internally giving scope for emptying the tank front or back half first...an endless
line of variables with the tank alone giving possibly different reaction from the car in terms of performance over the racedistance.Add to this the veriable of having found a wonderful or awful compromise in terms of setup for the race distance and the idea of a .035s/lap fuel penalty is what it is ...trying to put an average figure on something .

[WhiteBlue]

There are fairly accurate figures around for the known GP tracks. the teams have them and I'm sure they are also available for Jerez, Valencia and Barcelona.

[marcush.]

There are fairly accurate figures around for the known GP tracks. the teams have them and I'm sure they are also available for Jerez, Valencia and Barcelona.

sure they have figures for last year ,but the question will be can you extrapolate those figures to what we will see in 2010? for sure this is not something linear ,why should it? we have heard anything from 4 to 5 seconds reduced performance over
a lap with full tank ,and one second difference would account for a lot more over a 60 lap race ,namely 0,08s per lap or 0,06s per lap ...assuming that we have the correct dropoff for a tanl filled up to what we saw in recent years ,I´d say those additional litres the cars will carry in the first two thirds now will hurt will hurt lap time really bad nothing close to a linearity...so in effect the weight alone of the fuelload is not the bad point ,as of course effects to tyre loads ,changes in rideheight-aero and CG height will not follow linearity.