How much titanium will be consumed to make sparks?

[Manoah2u]

ok, i'll correct what i said as it was not clear enough;

the big titanium fireworks were cuased because the cars touched the ground. instead of wooden planks, there were skidblocks of titanium which caused these visual effects.

senna might have crashed as a result of bottoming out. the fireworks are proof the cars were running too low and thus bottom out, causing the fireworks.

personally, even though it looks great is some shots, i think these fireworks thus are a negative effect and not a positive addition.

skid blocks on the front wings are useless and totally artificial, again something the sport does not need. it makes me wonder which dangers this might impose; will we get minor effects? i remember fireworks when rosberg's fw failed and was dragged along. did that look spectacular? hmmm not much, it was just wing failure with normal results.

so what will happen when the fw bottoms out? touching the track? i assume the idea is that we will see lots of fireworks. i mean, why put titanium skid blocks on a fw if you don't intend to cuase them to give the effect you want to see.

is the intention thus lots of fireworks at the front during the race? if so, then i assume the skidblocks need to be mount in such manner that they can touch the track surface with quite an ease.

what makes me wonder is the result when they actually do. will we see tiny sparks which makes you say; gosh, that's boring. or can we expect them to intend to show a spark rain? if it is a spark rain; then how will this effect the immediate environment? will it hamper the actual driver himself? will it burn or wear the front tires more? will it be of such effect that it hampers visibility of following or drivers at the side?

and what will it physically do to the front wing [structure] when it touches the ground? is it a minor 'touch' or could it impose sufficient force that it might risk the structural integrity of the front wing - in extremes, cause them to snap?

[PlatinumZealot]

Titanium skid blocks have been on the front wings for some years now to protect them from the curbs (correct me if I am wrong)... maybe their presence on the front wing just coincides with the 2015 stipulations?

I remember renault in 2010 had a front wing endplate design where you could clearly see a 10mm* titanium rod formed around the lower edges of the end-plates - I'm not 100% certain but my gut tells me it serves as a guard rail.



* edit:

[n_anirudh]

Was that for the 5mm radius rule?

[langwadt]

to be honest, i could care less about the titanium skid marks. It looks cool incidentally, but if you look at that video below you see just how excessive it is. It looks unneccesary and quite frankly, dangerous. Even though there never has been conclusive evidence or proof on how Senna lost his life, the general consensus is that the car bottomed out and had it straight into the wall. Indeed, in a lot of those skidmark shots you see the cars behaving like they're half-snowboards all of a sudden. That means loss of grip and thus potentially dangerous on high speeds, especially corners.

Add to that the huge shower of burning titaniaum and you have sparks that blind the view of the driver; not the epitomy of driver safety.

imho, in a time where driver safety seems to get more dangerous lately, i'd say this is not a good thing.

above all, its just some unnecesary effect that bores after a season, because after a full season, we're used to it and it no longer entertains.

granted, it's the front wing and not the bottom wooden plate used for measuring; thankfully not, because it would make the sport even more expensive. i just don't see why this needs to be installed and why it would improve the sports' looks.

i'd only expect it to look weird as if it's badly designed / flawed on height.

I don't think you can pin the use of titanium skid blocks on Senna's death.

For me Senna's death was caused by a number of other more significant variables..

The introduction of the plank prevents total loss of airflow under the car now creating more stability in the event of bottoming out. I believe if the Fw16 had a plank early season, Senna's accident would never have happened.

I think that is kinda backwards. The plank will not prevent the loss off airflow, but because any significant wear will get you disqualified it prevents the teams from setting up the cars so low it it bottoms out

[langwadt]

ok, i'll correct what i said as it was not clear enough;

the big titanium fireworks were cuased because the cars touched the ground. instead of wooden planks, there were skidblocks of titanium which caused these visual effects.

senna might have crashed as a result of bottoming out. the fireworks are proof the cars were running too low and thus bottom out, causing the fireworks.

personally, even though it looks great is some shots, i think these fireworks thus are a negative effect and not a positive addition.

skid blocks on the front wings are useless and totally artificial, again something the sport does not need. it makes me wonder which dangers this might impose; will we get minor effects? i remember fireworks when rosberg's fw failed and was dragged along. did that look spectacular? hmmm not much, it was just wing failure with normal results.

so what will happen when the fw bottoms out? touching the track? i assume the idea is that we will see lots of fireworks. i mean, why put titanium skid blocks on a fw if you don't intend to cuase them to give the effect you want to see.

is the intention thus lots of fireworks at the front during the race? if so, then i assume the skidblocks need to be mount in such manner that they can touch the track surface with quite an ease.

what makes me wonder is the result when they actually do. will we see tiny sparks which makes you say; gosh, that's boring. or can we expect them to intend to show a spark rain? if it is a spark rain; then how will this effect the immediate environment? will it hamper the actual driver himself? will it burn or wear the front tires more? will it be of such effect that it hampers visibility of following or drivers at the side?

and what will it physically do to the front wing [structure] when it touches the ground? is it a minor 'touch' or could it impose sufficient force that it might risk the structural integrity of the front wing - in extremes, cause them to snap?

afaiu they just changed the blocks to titanium because wears more than the heavy metal they used before
so then can't let the car bottom out as much, the bright sparks are just side effect

[PlatinumZealot]

Was that for the 5mm radius rule?

All edges on the front wing end-plate must comply with the 5mm radius rule yes.

Just was speculating that titanium may been used in the front wings for durability purposes...

[PlatinumZealot]

Not enough sparks. couldn't see crap on my HD feed. We need more sparks!

[strad]

the return of titanium skid blocks was stated to be purely for the theatrics.