A Question on Reliability

[HungryHebbo]

Forgive me if this is a bit of a daft question, but how is it that various teams at various times suffer problems, such as, hydraulic leaks, or water leaks? Does anybody know where these leaks tend to occur, i.e. at a connection, splitting pipe etc etc? I just can't seem to get my head around why, what is basically plumping, seems to leak? Of all the things on the cars, surely a screw-fit pipe is one of the most understood?!

Is it just that everything's made to such high specifications that it's a compromise with durability vs weight etc?

[Hangaku]

It's all the jubilee clips and zippy ties that they use...

...

Good question though, often wondered this myself. You would expect that with thousands of seconds counting for everything, something as simple as a leaking water pipe would be very rare indeed.

[HungryHebbo]

One of the only sensible things that I can come up with is that all the engine vibrations and so on must shake them loose...but that's what wire-locked-nuts (or whatever they're called) are for, to not come loose under vibrations.

In road cars leaks happen due to corrosion and so-on, I somehow doubt this would be the case here!

[bot6]

All these fixtures are dimensioned to the limit to save weight, just like the rest of the car. Engine vibrations, a curb hit a bit too hard or a contact with another car could result in them shaking off.

Also, the extreme heat these parts are exposed to can have a pretty drastic effect.

If an engine overheats, for example because the car is following another car for a long period of time, which hurts cooling, the pressure in the cooling water will build up until a pipe or fixture bursts, resulting in more overheating and ultimately engine failure. The "official" reason will be a burst pipe, but it will just be a symptom of the prior overheating.

They could make these parts bigger and wider and stronger to make them bulletproof, but the weight penalty would become a problem.

[spacer]

I think we should keep in mind that DNF-explanations are just another thing influenced by team PR.
If, for instance, a sponsored part failed in the hydraulic circuit (clutch actuator etc) it's more convenient for the team to blame the DNF on some plumbing done by the team...

[HungryHebbo]

I appreciate that, but surely making a pipe 0.5mm thicker and thus not losing a half day of testing would be worth it? Overall it may add to another couple of kgs, but that can be saved elsewhere with ballast for example (yes yes, I know that the more ballast you have to play around with is better, but with the fixed weight distribution, it shouldn't make much of a difference).

edit: That's a good point, spacer. Bahrain and spark plugs come to mind!

[Earnard Beccelstone]

To resort to cliche, F1 cars are rolling R&D prototypes and have all the problems associated with operating the 'Mk 1' of anything.

While some parts/systems are tried and tested and would be reasonably interchangeable between teams (springs, dampers, radiators ect), there are many elements/parts/systems that are bespoke, one-off, "lets see how this works in this configuration" made-for-the-purpose kind of thing.

As bot6 alluded to, many (most?) parts are worked to a reasonable approximation of their engineering limits. When everything goes as expected, and is operating within their narrow band of tolerances, its fine. Step out of that zone of tolerance and there isn't far to go until failure.

I'm actually surprised that there aren't more spectacular failures like the one Buemi suffered in China last year. Sympathetic failures are nasty!

Plus, most teams are running custom software packages. I never met a bespoke programme yet that ran bug free. Even one that manages a car at 300 kph.

Besides, most F1 cars are manufactured in the UK or Italy, and its not like either country has the best reputation when it comes to reliable vehicle electrics.