Here is the last page of an article in Racecar Engineering:
Racecar Engineering | See Inside Page 74 | November 2010 | Zinio Digital Magazines & Books
Not sure if it will get big enough for non-subscribers.
Michael Schumacher in his Benetton became stuck in 5th out of 6 gears in the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix. He came to the pits to swap steering wheels but that did not help. He did the standing start out of the pits, and went on with the race. Lap times went from 1:26.8 with all gears to 1:31.8 on his first out lap. Rev limiter at 16,000 rpm on the straights, lugging in the turns at 4,000 rpm.
Schumacher pressed on. By lap 38, he turned a 1:26.3 lap. He completed 42 laps with 5th gear only and finished second. Truly a triumph of driving skill from Schumacher and engineering from the motor designers.
Variable valve timing and lift can make extra gear ratios and power interruption just a waste of energy in the form of friction and exces weight.
It seems from F1 informants that an F1 gearbox weighs about 90 pounds. About 30 pounds should be the gear sets, so if 5/6ths of them were gone, that would be 25 pounds less weight. 10 kilos at Monaco at that time was worth .7 seconds a lap. 10 kilos at Suzuka at that time was worth 3 seconds a lap. Schumacher lost an average of 2 seconds a lap with only 5th gear. Imagine if he had two gears? Short third and short 6th?