Alonso's DRS malfunction

[quickneon]

Did anyone else wonder why there was no penalty for Alonso activating his DRS in a non DRS zone. The BBC commentators noted it but that was the last time I heard anything. comments?

[CyleB]

it has something to do with the electronic by which the FIA controls it. something about it being activated to late there fore it was still active after the turn. no penalty because it gave him a dis advantage

[raymondu999]

Ok, so the electronics were late, and his car thought it was in a DRS zone for 350 meters before and 300 meters after T14. But what I don't get it is the trigger. Surely someone must have pressed a button or a lever or something that would cause the wing to pop up? Why did they do it there?

[hollus]

One could also look for it in the race thread... but I guess that takes time

[beelsebob]

Ok, so the electronics were late, and his car thought it was in a DRS zone for 350 meters before and 300 meters after T14. But what I don't get it is the trigger. Surely someone must have pressed a button or a lever or something that would cause the wing to pop up? Why did they do it there?

My bet would be that the Ferrari is configured to always have the flap open in the race when it's allowed. There's probably a driver override too, but I doubt Alonso realised why he had less downforce until after the flap had already closed again.

[raymondu999]

Could be, but I doubt it. It would've been a pain in Australia. The engagement zone began well before the exit of the last corner

[beelsebob]

Could be, but I doubt it. It would've been a pain in Australia. The engagement zone began well before the exit of the last corner

Entirely plausible that the software has several different modes, and that it was in a different one at china than at aus.

[kalinka]

I think it's in the regulations that it must be driver-controllable, except the automatic deactivation when braking....at least that was my impression.

[andrew]

OH no, not this again!

I (along with others) had the very same discussion on another site yesterday. Sadly the person who raised the query was a complete dunderheaded fool who was desperate to find some sort of conspiracy.

Simply put, there was a fault with FIA provided equipment. Therefore, a team cannot be held responsible for a failure in the FIAs equipment.

The possibility of a driver pushing the button when they shouldn't is there, however considering they are wearing gloves, concentrating on not hitting the car in front, there is quite a bit of vibration in these cars it is understandable how they could press the wrong buttion but regardless of this, the DRS should not activate.

However, there is no way for a driver to cheat with the DRS and get away with it - it's kind of obvious.

[marcush.]

I think the idea of activation and deactivation by the FIA is ridiculous .It should be totally in control of the driver ,like a pit limiter ,end of story.
If the thing is activated out of the allowed zone race control gets notice of it and can decide if they file a penalty for the offence.
so alonso could activate his DRS early and it was helping him BUT FIA is responsible for it ..that´s a bad situation because you need to punish FIA who is there to rule the sport...typical wrong layout of rules and proceedures.
It´s like the change in 1st and second safetycar line ...judst not thought to the end what could be a generally good idea.

I´m a bit surprised that no one has catched up the possibility to track the green light

for DRS arming and automatically fires the DRS at the set point not waiting for the driver to wake up.

[andrew]

But, do we know for certain if Alonso was deliberately activating the DRS? It seems the glitch in the system was causing the wing to activate itself.

[Richard]

It is plausible that a driver might set the system to be switched on by default, it would be one less thing to think about.

With regard to the danger of fully automated controls, perhaps they can push the button before they enter the DRS zone to ensure that the DRS is activated asap.

[SpookTheHamster]

It's possible that Alonso pressed the button at the right time, but that the system didn't operate until later on the straight.

In the race, the driver doesn't have to hold the DRS button down, the closing of the wing is automatic when the driver decelerates. The way the code is written could allow the wing to reopen when the deceleration ends if it is not explicit enough.

[jav]

I thnk this matter needs further investigation. It's my understanding that teams do have the option of activating DRS even without FIA controls but that this is supposed to be a "fail-safe" if the FIA controls don't function correctly during the race. Granted, there is "supposed" to be communications to specifcally allow this BUT - how could the FIA "control" this fail-safe if the problem is their control malfunction? This suggests the teams have the ability to overide the FIA controls and there needs to be absolute transparency abouit this if fairness is to be maintained.

Also- I reject that teams can't be held accountable for FIA problems. Obviously- FIA conrols are designed to be able to address each car individually. This allows them to signal a trailing car that they can use DRS while NOT signalling the leading car of the same. What if the system allows or disallows a team's use of DRS inappropriatly? Should a team that had DRS allowed the whole race, and wins, be allowed to keep the win when the knew the DRS zone was limited to specific portion of the track? OR what if your team consistently was denied DRS and lost points obviously becasue of it?

These things need to be addressed or F1 will soon be percieved like the WWF- all for show.

[delacf]

Hi,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd7L1G-EOj8

At the right time

Regards,

delacf