Williams replacing Sam Michaels..

m3_lover · Post 09 Oct 2006, 05:33

with there new technical director for next year..and he wants results.

DaveKillens · Post 09 Oct 2006, 06:31

Is that the new weapon for improved pit stop times? Instead of jack men front and rear, he just picks the car up?

f1.redbaron · Post 09 Oct 2006, 15:24

This topic made me remember a long forgotten person - Antonia Terzi. I went on Wikipidia, and found that she is now a professor at the university.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Terzi

Sorry for going off topic!

Tom · Post 11 Oct 2006, 20:17

That guy is pretty damn strong. Try doing that with a normal car tyre, its quite hard, I bet F1 boots are heavier.

Giancarlo · Post 12 Oct 2006, 00:31

Tom wrote:That guy is pretty damn strong. Try doing that with a normal car tyre, its quite hard, I bet F1 boots are heavier.

To give you some perspective: a typical car brake rotor can weigh 20-30lbs. The brake rotor from MS's car weighs less than my cell phone, I've held it.

The typical cast aluminum wheel (we'll say 17") for a consumer vehicle weighs in around 25-30lbs with the tire being around 20lbs or so. That's a combined weight of around 50lbs on each corner.

I've picked up a used Jaguar F1 wheel - it was easily under 10lbs. I can't say the same for tires, however the tires used for Porsche super cup cars pretty damn light - I'd say 15lbs. Given the amount of R&D that goes into F1 compounds, I'd guess that the tire/wheel combo weighs in less than 20lbs per corner. Less unsprung weight & rotational mass = quicker lap times.

Another thing to put things in perspective is that the spark plug is the most dense item on an F1 car...with exception to the Super Aguri drivers. For some reason, they have yet to make those much lighter.

DaveKillens · Post 12 Oct 2006, 01:05

Hello Giancarlo, welcome to THE form. I too have held true racing tires, and compared to their street counterprts, extremely light.
Of course, for any high perfromance car, the name of the game is unsprung weight.

Smith · Post 12 Oct 2006, 01:14

I think the 2 most dense things on the grid are the Torro Rosso drivers!

Tom · Post 12 Oct 2006, 10:09

Welcome Smith and Giancarlo,

I always assumed that the tyres, given their size and the amount of rubber on them, would be quite heavy, also based on the way they bounce down the track after a major crash. I didn't realise how light they were.

Thanks guys.

f1.redbaron · Post 12 Oct 2006, 14:36

Nah...

This year, at the Canadian GP, in front of the Ferrari garage, I had the chance to see a woman - a bridgestone rep., who weighed no more than 120lbs, pick one of them up with a relative ease.

Or, better yet, think of it like this...you see how fast F1 mechanics change tires. Regardless of how strong they are, if the tire was so heavy, they would've needed more than 4 sec to change them (btw, I've had the chance to talk with some of them...with the exception of the guy holding the fueling rig - who in case of Toyota looks like an animal - the rest of them don't look very strong)!

RacingManiac · Post 12 Oct 2006, 17:18

Ever done one of those pitstop challenge with the Shell Ferrari car? In Formula Student they always got one for people to play with. And although the chassis is probably a mockup the wheel/tire assembly seems authentic enough(display tire probably, but the wheels look real). The whole thing weighs less than the wheel tire assembly on our FSAE car. Our rim weighs ~7lb and the tire weighs 12lb. And in OD and width is a lot smaller than the F1 tire.

RH1300S · Post 12 Oct 2006, 17:23

Giancarlo wrote:Another thing to put things in perspective is that the spark plug is the most dense item on an F1 car...with exception to the Super Aguri drivers. For some reason, they have yet to make those much lighter.

Best I've heard for a long time

Giancarlo · Post 12 Oct 2006, 17:36

Smith wrote:I think the 2 most dense things on the grid are the Torro Rosso drivers!

What? Sato & Yamamoto cannot overtake a dog without damaging their car. On a lighter note; I miss Yuji Ide - he gave me hope.

Reca · Post 12 Oct 2006, 18:44

The Friday of the Gp while getting back home I passed near the GP2 paddock and there were two guys putting back the used tyres (slick but same dimension as F1 tyres) on the truck so I asked one of them :
“how much does it weigh ?”
“2 kilos” also showing me the two with the hand.
Quite surprised I then asked confirmation “tyre and rim in total ?” and he nodded to me.

He looked absolutely sincere so I tend to trust him although honestly I was expecting definitively more, something around twice that, 2 kg in total is astonishing low.

As for the brake disc, according to Brembo data it’s about 1.8-1.9 kg

pRo · Post 13 Oct 2006, 06:39

Reca wrote:I was expecting definitively more, something around twice that, 2 kg in total is astonishing low.

You're right, that does sound too low. Maybe the mechanic thought "lets make this guy uuh" and said it's lighter than it really is.

I have a wheel from Jaguar F1 and while it's crazy superlight for the size, I think that alone is still more than 2kg. It's supposed to be a genuine wheel used in testing and I have every reason to believe it is. Of course I wasn't there to see it actually being removed from the car and buying it on site.

f1.redbaron · Post 13 Oct 2006, 20:04

This is the picture of what I was talking about. That woman had no problem lifting that tire. Apparently, according to her (if I remember correctly), fully inflated F1 wheel weighs just under 20lbs:

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7391 ... 082tt6.jpg

Off-topic: What is the purpose of those holes on the tire?