It's always great to see that there are other F1 fans around, as we're a fairly rare breed in the states. MSNFlier has some good points, but allow me to gently correct a few of them...
MSNFlier said:
You know what's scary about that video clip? It's probably at least 4 or 5 years old because that's how long Arrows has been out of F1 (it was their car/engine). I can't imagine what it must be like to do the same thing now.
The video can't be any more than 5 years old, because that's the first year that Arrows had the "Orange" sponsorship... Thus the uniform of one of the team members seen on the right and on the car's airbox. There's no engine branding visible, or at least discernable, in the video, so the clip could actually be as recent as 2002, the last year Arrows competed. They dropped out halfway through the season when the money ran out.
As for what it would be like to do "the same thing now", the engine in the shot is essentially no different from the engines we see this season, except for the fact that it was a "single use" unit that didn't need to be constructed to last for two full race weekends. Otherwise, the engine formula hasn't changed.
MSNflier said:
The top speed of F1 cars is actually not higher than a typical IRL car, but they brake and corner like you would not believe.
The top speed of F1 cars is quite noticeably slower, in race trim, than IRL cars. The highest top speed I've seen for an F1 car, or at least remember seeing, is about 215-220mph as compared to an IRL car's 240+ on a straight. The reason for this is simple, F1 cars carry more wing and are not optimised for 250mph speeds because none of their tracks are all-oval, and even at a place like Indianapolis (with the longest uninterrupted straight in the F1 series), they need downforce at much lower speeds for the infield sections. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that an F1 car with minimal wings would be the near-equal of an IRL or CART racer in terms of top speed, but I don't know if they've ever even tried such a thing.
MSNFlier said:
Watching Michael Schumacher (probably the greatest driver in the history of all racing - 6 or 7 consecutive F1 championships with Ferrari)
The 6 straight championships are constructor titles for Ferrari itself. Schumacher has won 7 championships in total, and 5 in a row since 2000. His other two championships were won in the Benetton in 1994 and 1995.
And don't worry, Schumacher-haters, there's almost no way he'll win the championship THIS year. I think it's fair to say that either Alonso or Raikkonen will take it this year... And Ferrari will NOT win the constructor's title.
MSNFlier said:
I don't know how many Gs you pull in that kind of braking and hard turn, but I'm guessing something like 4 or 5? I've seen pictures of the ceramic brake rotors they use on the F1 cars glowing red hot in the midst of a race. How hot do those have to be to glow?
For starters, those brakes are carbon fiber, not ceramic. I don't know what temperature they need to be to glow, but they routinely experience brake temps of around 1000degC, and can handle up to 1200degC for very short periods before they start disintegrating. One of the great benefits of carbon brakes is how quickly they reject heat, with a little help from appropriate brake ducting. By the time the brakes have had a straightaway's worth of time to cool down, they're down under 400degC.
You're spot on in the 4-5G's in braking. Peak deceleration from high speed, where the aerodynamic drag alone accounts for a full G, is about 5.5G (averaging around 5 over a maximum-effort full-stop). I've read that an F1 car can stop from 60mph in about 50ft, which is half what the best of street cars can accomplish. The numbers from higher speeds are even more impressive.
MSNFlier said:
This year all the teams are using V10s
As it has been for a while. The 3.0 V-10 formula is written into the regs. I presume you brought this up because of the impending formula change for 2006, which for those that don't know is 2.4 liters of V8. If you think 19-20k rpm is crazy, just wait and see what these smaller engines can do... Rumor is some of the test engines are up around 21,000 rpm already.
And as for this comment from robertboinski:
robertboinski said:
that f1 clip is from the end of the season when the engine would no longer be useful for the next season. they do it as kind of a celebration from what ive heard.
The throttle-blippin' thing they were doing in this clip hardly looks unusual. I'm not sure I agree with your assessment that it was an end-of-season "let's destroy the engine" thing. The video makes it look like they're frying the thing, but that's probably just because (lack of) lighting makes it look more impressive, not to mention the fact that normally you'd have the engine cover in place and you wouldn't see what the engine normally looks like. Have you heard how long they run these engines in the garages? Sit across from the pits at an F1 practice session and they're constantly running these things. WAAAAH! WAAAAAHHH!! WAHHHHHHHHH!!!! Make sure to bring your earplugs!
Of course I could be wrong, maybe they were running the thing ultra-lean to make it glow real nice for the camera and planned to drop the lump in the dumpster after they were done.
Anyhoo... Looking forward to the European GP this weekend.
