F1- Interesting discussion about Sato's engines

[Neilk]

Found this on Planet-f1.com

We were discussing Takuma Sato's grenading lumps after the French GP, so when I read this, I thought some of you might like to read this. You can read the whole interview with F1's technical directors here.


Q: (Mike Doodson - Mike Doodson and Associates) Geoff, after the French Grand Prix David Richards said that even he didn’t believe that there was no difference between the driving style of his two drivers which could affect the reliability of their engines and I think Sato actually wracked up number six this year. Have you had any further thoughts on that? Is there something in his driving that affects the reliability of his engine compared to Jenson?
GW: The issue is that in testing, the amount of extensive testing and driving that Takuma has done, he has had very much the same level of engine-related problems that the other two drivers have had. So intrinsically, in his driving style there doesn’t seem to be any reason why you could assume there was any connection between Takuma’s driving and the engine problems. And generally on a race weekend we have had virtually no engine-related problems on Friday and Saturday so if there is a connection it is between Takuma and race day and certainly this hasn’t escaped us. We are looking at all the things we do on a race day to see if there is anything that is different between the cars that might not so much contribute to the engine problem but make it more likely for the first engine problem to happen with Takuma rather than Jenson. The faults are not all the same, some of them have been similar, but there have been a number of different faults and it is surprising that we have generally had really quite high reliability, particularly in testing, but we have got this run of problems with Takuma and it is very high priority for both BAR and Honda to try to find what is driving these problems and find a solution to them. The failure from France, the engines have had their tear-down in Japan, we are still not happy that we understand... we understand physically which part’s failed but we don’t have an understanding why it failed. We have made some very careful selections of batched components for this weekend and we have also made some changes in operating procedures between the two racecars to try and make sure we take out any other possible things that we are doing which are somehow making these problems occur earlier on in Takuma’s car.


I wonder who Sato would vote for in November if he could?

[Eric Coffey]

I believe one of the theories is that Sato short-shifts too much.

[nostatic]

the other one is it has something to do with the sitting in the pits, as the engine seems to grenade shortly after a stop.

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by Eric Coffey
I believe one of the theories is that Sato short-shifts too much.

Granny-shifting, not double-clutching as he should?

Cars have sequential transmissions, no clutch. They will automatically shift up if bumped into rev-limit.

[trj911]

The time in the pit theory makes sense. Those cars overheat too quickly if they are not up to speed. Funny how a couple seconds of sitting could make or break a motor.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally posted by beepbeep
Cars have sequential transmissions, no clutch. They will automatically shift up if bumped into rev-limit.

F1 cars have sequential transmissions? Really? I would have never guessed.

They do have hand clutches, albeit with anti-stall software, but are only used to launch the car. Also, they will not "automatically shift up if bumped into rev-limit". That would technically constitute an automatic gearbox, which is now banned by the FIA.

[Eric Coffey]

Oh, and the short-shift theory was an older one I guess. Seems he wouldn't take the thing up to the limit before each up-shift. So, he started shifting at close to 19k (as opposed to low 18k's). That didn't seem to make any difference at all. The pit lane theory seems valid, but why hasn't it effected other cars? One of the other suggestions is that Taku abuses the TC and dials more of it in than others. Hmmmmm.