From: potamian@apollo.HP.COM (Spyros Potamianos)
Subject: Re: Temporary weight reduction on F1 cars
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 01:09:38 GMT
Reply-To: potamian@hpl.hp.com
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company

In article <1992Dec22.154736.16841@samba.oit.unc.edu>, Richard.Banks@launchpad.unc.edu (Richard Banks) writes:
|> I'm not sure what FISA's rules are, but why can't F1 teams just
|> add all extra weight they need using water, after weigh in dump the
|> water, then during the course of the race, such as the last half of the
|> race,->* turn on a condenser scoop of some kind to convert the air to
|> water and have the water run back into the tank where the dumped
|> water was!?!<-* This would bring the cars back up to regulation weight
|> and they would not be in any violation of the rules, right?
|> 
|> -Rich "always thinking of some non-technical way to make those F1
|> cars go faster" Banks
|> 
|> --
|>    The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
|>      North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
|>         Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
|>            internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80

All of the following is from (a not so strong) memory, so take it with a
pinch of salt.....

I think, that something similar has already been done, although in a much
simpler way. There was a time when the rules said that after the race
and before weighting the cars you were allowed to refill all the liquids
apart from gas (i.e. radiator coolant, brake fluids etc.) that your car might
have lost during the race. And of course... suddenly "brake cooling"
systems appeared, with tanks full of water for "cooling the brakes".
Of course the water disappeared after a few laps, and the cars were way
under the weight limit. Then, after the race was over and just before
weighting them, the mechanics were refilling the tanks, and voila! the car
was legal again.

These systems were banned, however the rule remained for a while, and if I
remember correctly Ken Tyrell decided to play another little trick...
Cars were still allowed to refill their radiators, so they put little
metal (heavy) balls in the containers of water used for refilling, and
they were starting the race with underweight cars. During refilling the
balls would go inside the radiators, and the car would appear heavier than
it was (and legal). When this plot was discovered, Tyrell was disqualified
for the remaining of the season (anyone remembers when this happened ???)

And as long as we are in this subject, I remember reading a story (rumor?)
about another trick, pulled out of the hat of Mr. Frank Williams himself!
At a certain GP (I think Rosberg was driving one of the Williams at that
time) they had obviously found a way to make their cars faster, although
nobody really knows exactly what they did, only that it was eh... not very much
in accordance with the rules. So, in order not to raise any suspicions
during qualifying they had to go slow. But in order to be able to
know how fast their cars really were they did something clever:
Instead of timing their cars at the start line, they sent somebody
somewhere in the middle of the track. The drivers where going slowly in
the first half of the track, then for the second half and the first half
of the next lap they were going fast, and finally slowed down for the
remaining second half. All other teams + officials were timing two laps,
consisting of a half fast lap and half slow lap each, while the Williams man
was timing one complete fast and one complete slow lap....
The cars retired early in the race, so they were never closely examined by
the officials, and nobody (except of course from the Williams
mechanics/drivers) knows the whole truth...

These formula 1 people are really ingenious!!!!

Spyros Potamianos
potamian@hp.hpl.com
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport