Alonso tire pressure at china, FIA investigate!

[checkered]

Might've as well

quoted everything Ron had to say about the issue. A quote from Friday's press conference, Brazilian GP - Autosport, link:

Q: (James Allen - ITV) Can you clear up the issue of the tyre temperatures in the final run in Q3 in China. Fernando said again yesterday that they were a bit high and he didn't know about that at the time. Can you clear up whether that is the case?

RD: You can't just do a yes/no answer to that, so I will try and give you an understanding and it will be interesting to see if Jean and Flavio have the same point of view. A racing tyre is a very challenging thing to understand.

The pressures on a racing car's tyre are influenced by several things. The first thing about China is that it was incredibly humid throughout the entire weekend, which means that keeping the humidity out of the fitting cycle, out of the cleansing cycle, purging cycle was very difficult, so maintaining consistency in tyre pressures through their heat range is very difficult.

Second thing is, no tyre is pre-set to the pressure at which it runs on the circuit. You are trying to determine how much more pressure a driver is going to put into the tyre on the out lap and you target that and virtually every tyre goes out with a different pressure to each other depending on where it is on the car and then you project, based on your experience in practice, where the tyre is going to finish in its given one lap and then coming in on a cooling lap.

So you are targeting something which is an inconsistent and I would say that the ability of our engineers to get our tyre pressures absolutely to within a tenth of a pound when the cars come in after qualifying they probably achieve it less than 10 per cent of the time because of the intense variables.

So all of the tyres that came in on both of our cars were out of the optimum pressure target that we had set for them. Is it true that they were a bit high on our tyres? The answer is yes. Were they abnormally out of target in relation to the challenge? No.

If, as we were able to analyse, the performance between the two cars, there was below five-tenths of a second difference between the drivers qualifying, two and a half tenths were fuel difference because Lewis was fuelled lower and most of the time that Lewis made up on Fernando was at two specific braking areas, one in which he picked up nearly two tenths of a second and the rest of the lap took care of the rest.

So the difference in lap times was fuel load and specific points on the circuit where Lewis did a very good job on braking. And they are the facts, the absolute facts. Maybe not what Fernando felt when he got out of the car, but I feel sure he understands now.

And in every other answer the man makes it as clear as humanly possible that the team is absolutely, definitely equitable in how it treats its drivers. Another thing altogether whether the drivers like or want this. Ron has even limited his access to both drivers as Alonso might not want to deal or converse directly with him. This in order to highlight Dennis' utmost impartiality.

It certainly is a surreal situation, and dealing with the FIA scrutiny in a typical McLaren fashion certainly highlights cartain aspects of the "special" oversight.

[kimi]

this is what ron said about the tyre pressure issue:

The pressures on a racing car's tyre are influenced by several things. The first thing about China is that it was incredibly humid throughout the entire weekend, which means that keeping the humidity out of the fitting cycle, out of the cleansing cycle, purging cycle was very difficult, so maintaining consistency in tyre pressures through their heat range is very difficult.

can anybody tell me what exactly are fitting cycle,cleansing cycle and purging cycle and how are they affected by humidity??

[HKS]

Ron the politician

[Fan Solo]

this is what ron said about the tyre pressure issue:

The pressures on a racing car's tyre are influenced by several things. The first thing about China is that it was incredibly humid throughout the entire weekend, which means that keeping the humidity out of the fitting cycle, out of the cleansing cycle, purging cycle was very difficult, so maintaining consistency in tyre pressures through their heat range is very difficult.

can anybody tell me what exactly are fitting cycle,cleansing cycle and purging cycle and how are they affected by humidity??

Humitity is water - water gets hot in tyre, changes to a gas - expands - increases pressure.

Im guessing but tyres are probably filled with air first / then purged with the gas they use instead (as its dry). seems like its difficult to get every last drop of moisture out of the tyre through one small valve. ergo variable pressures.



Seems logical to me - Ron speak is cool

[BitFarmer]

None of those explanations have reached spanish media. Despite everyone having its own point of view, media is being a bit partial on all this: German ones with Mercedes, English with Hamilton and McLaren, spanish with Fernando, and no one talks about the things that doesn't match their "customers" feelings... sad.

Believe Ron or not, their words should had been spreaded here, the same way Fernando ones should had reached all of you, may be things would have been clearer.

Anyway, let me be exceptic again: 100 laps on every GP calification (friday+saturday), two drivers, and it happend only on last G3 laps on Fernando car, 2 or 3 times (Hungry, Japan, China)? Statically speaking, it is a little hard to swallow, but may be -it was Fernando it self who said about 100 laps and only had problems in the last one, btw.

They commented -remember, De la Rosa were there- that all pressures had a little variation from average, almost no variation, except for that last set. It is not explained in Ron politic reasons, they were capable of keeping pressure in a very narrow numbers, and conditions didn't change for that last set... i am not convinced at all, Ron, who is not giving any numbers: if presures were 0.21, 0.20, 0.22 ... and so on until you reach last set, were it is 1.5, then what?

Well, let's just hope tomorrow the race will be fair, and more important, exciting to watch! The rest, is in a second place.

[checkered]

Anyway, let me be exceptic again: 100 laps on every GP calification (friday+saturday), two drivers, and it happend only on last G3 laps on Fernando car, 2 or 3 times (Hungry, Japan, China)? Statically speaking, it is a little hard to swallow, but may be -it was Fernando it self who said about 100 laps and only had problems in the last one, btw.

They commented -remember, De la Rosa were there- that all pressures had a little variation from average, almost no variation, except for that last set. It is not explained in Ron politic reasons, they were capable of keeping pressure in a very narrow numbers, and conditions didn't change for that last set... i am not convinced at all, Ron, who is not giving any numbers: if presures were 0.21, 0.20, 0.22 ... and so on until you reach last set, were it is 1.5, then what?

For competitive reasons

it wouldn't be prudent for Ron to go flaunting the exact numbers publicly (nor would it be possible in detail as tyre temps vary significantly due to the forces applied to them and even the heat distribution over the contact patch is important). Also, for psychological reasons alone, the drivers wouldn't be prone to complain about tyre pressures being slightly off in practice (when they're experimented on), nor in Q1 or Q2 (not in Ferrari or McLaren anyway, since they've been virtually assured a place in Q3).

Actually there's a great big variable that is changed for Q3 - the fuel load. Furthermore, the drivers get only two flying laps in at the end. That's the only time they push to the limit in those conditions and that's where even the slightest deficiences in setup can be perceived. When you're not doing 100%, pressures being 0.01 psi off are not so readily perceivable in terms of grip etc. I find it highly implausible that tyre pressures could be off by 1.3 psi. If nothing else will set your suspicions at ease, write Bridgestone's press office and ask for a comment.

That Hamilton hasn't complained about tyre pressures might just be his choice, as much as Alonso chose to go public with these sorts of things. It's not only Ron who has the option of being "political" - Fernando and his managers have never shied away from that approach. You're in no position to make comments about tyre pressure statistics since it's obvious we don't have such data at our disposal. Whatever subjective perception a driver can offer doesn't amount to statistical evidence of anything.

As a norm drivers do not tend to discuss these things in public and for good reason. Fairness goes both ways and should one part of the equation be less than that, others are forced to adjust how they project their own sense of fair play.

[Tom]

Why are we still arguing over this drivel? Alonso himself said it was probably just bad luck, if you choose to believe him over one statement you have to believe him over the other or you are just hearing what you want to hear and making his words fit around your perception rather than making a decision based on all the evidence.

[kimi]

well i dont have anything to do with what alonso or ron had to say on this matter.

but in a general sense i want ask,"is it really possible that the tyres pressures may go up around 1psi just before the qualifying session(assuming the case as alonso said)??"

i know it was very humid and he had a heavy fuel load,but under these circumstances is it really possible??

no offense to what alonso or ron said.just a question..

[BitFarmer]

Hi Tom, I know Alonso has said several times "nothing happened", but also Alonso is under the clauses of a contract that doesn't allow him to talk freely.

As an example, yesterday (Brazil calification), and after Hamilton was not penalized after clearly broke a written rule -again- Fernando said (briefed): It happened nothing, I just made bad times so I am fourth. He then was asked if it was the car fault he just said it didn't run as usual. Finally he was asked if it could take a miracle to win tomorrow, he said: "It is a miracle I am here with possibilities of winning after all the things that had happened this season to me, and that are still happening today".

As a side note, Hamilton -and Sato and Button- was again free of punishment after braking a clear rule, you know it had happened more times this year, and that Alonso have been, let say he run with other more strict rules. OK, Ralf had a similar problem as Hamilton in another cualification, the team left one of the tyres without change so he used 3 of a set and another of other set: He was punished with -0.5s even it was not a clear advantaje to him, more likley a disadvantaje.